Housing Your Goldfish
Usually the first attempt at keeping goldfish is a disappointing to the new fish keeper. One of the first mistakes made is not allowing enough space for goldfish. Keeping goldfish in bowls is not recommended. Goldfish are messy and produce a lot of ammonia. Even a bowl with a small filter is just not suitable for goldfish. If you're limited to a bowl to keep fish in then check out Bettas (Betta splendins) or sometimes called Siamese Fighting Fish. These fish are well suited to living in bowls. Be sure to keep only one male Betta per bowl or they will fight. Female Bettas can be kept together with other females.
That leaves two other options for housing your goldfish. A pond or an aquarium. The focus of this information is on keeping goldfish in aquariums.
The generally accepted rule of thumb is to allow 10 gallons of tank space for each goldfish. This may seem like a lot if you're thinking of starting out with small one inch goldfish. But those small goldfish have the potential to grow to a length of 12 inches or more. The one fish per 10 gallon rule is in the best interest of long term health for your goldfish.
When deciding on the filter set up of your tank you need to consider if you're going to have gravel or not in your goldfish tanks. For ease of maintenance many goldfish keepers prefer to have no gravel in there tanks. In my display tanks I prefer to have gravel. For spawning, rearing, and quarantine tanks I prefer no gravel. For more info on filtration please see article “Filtration Options for Goldfish Aquariums”. And for more information on tanks and setting them up see article “Putting it All Together”.
Copyright 2002 Rick G. Copeland