Most likely, you are a goldfish keeper or lover. So, I am sure you may have some knowledge about this beautiful fish species. However, as hobbyists, we all love to have more beautiful fish than others. So, you can add brilliant value and beauty by grooming your goldfish. You will learn how to do goldfish grooming in this article. Keep reading!
What Is Goldfish Grooming?
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Goldfish grooming can be defined as an art. It is helping your goldfish to reach their full potential. What does it mean by full potential? Simply hobbyists provide ultimate living conditions with a proper feeding schedule for your goldfish. Consequently, you can have the best-looking, healthy and muscular fish. Not only that, they will live a long life. Simply this is goldfish grooming.
How Do You Groom A Goldfish?
When you groom your goldfish, you should highly consider their living conditions and feeds. For example, hobbyists tend to provide extra space for their goldfish. Rather than that, proper water depth, a bucket of quality foods, and perform extra water changes and warm water is the most considered factors in grooming. However, the most critical factors related to goldfish grooming are;
- Water quality
- Water volume
- Feeding, filtration
- Tank size
Because these things directly connect to give ultimate living conditions for your goldfish. So, let’s see how we should set these conditions properly when grooming your goldfish.
Things You Should Consider
Water quality
Goldfish also love to live in good and clean water like every other fish species.
Therefore, you should provide the ideal water quality for your goldfish to reach its best version. Here I recommend performing 80% to 100% water changes weekly. Because it will support keeping the water quality at the ideal level. While performing water changes, you should ensure that the below water parameters are at optimum level.
- Ammonia level should be below 0.1ppm
- The ideal level of nitrite is below 0.2ppm
- It is best to keep the nitrate level below 50ppm
- pH level must be between 6.5 to 7.5
- You should maintain KH between 70 to 140ppm while keeping GH level at 150ppm
- It is a must to keep your eye on the temperature – 20 to 24 Celsius
Water volume
Water volume is another important factor when you groom your goldfish. Generally, 20 gallons of water need per goldfish. But sometimes, hobbyists tend to break this rule. For example, when they have large tank-like 60 gallons, they add 4 goldfish instead of 3 fish. When you groom your goldfish, it is not recommended to do things like that. You should provide enough water volume for your goldfish to grow appropriately. In addition to that, many hobbyists have a common doubt regarding water volume or tank size.
Can goldfish grow to the size of their tank? YES, It means if you give proper space to your goldfish, they will grow well. But if someone says that goldfish are destined to outgrow smaller aquariums, it is a myth. However, you can check it by keeping the goldfish in a tiny bowl. But keep in your mind, I am not recommended this.
Because all creatures have the right to live happily within a comfortable environment, I am sure you can guess what would happen if they did not have suitable habitat. Generally, goldfish produce a growth-inhabiting hormone, and fish build up this hormone in the water. So, when water is changed all the time, this growth-inhibiting hormone will be removed. So, your fish tend to produce that hormone often. Consequently, your goldfish continue to grow.
So, if you keep your fish in a bigger tank, what will happen is that the bigger tank helps to dilute this hormone. This is why the goldfish in large tanks get really big. On the other hand, this growth-inhibiting hormone is very concentrated in a bowl or small tanks unless you perform water changes all the time. As a result, it limits the growth of your goldfish. That’s why I highly mention that you should provide enough space or water volume to your goldfish when grooming them. If not, you cannot get the expected results.
Feed
Food is most vital. Here you should give high-quality, nutrient-rich foods to your goldfish. However, I do not recommend providing flakes. There are flakes under different brands. But most of them do not contain proper nutritional value. Also, it will make a mess once add it into the water. Further flakes can be caused to make fancies floaty and constipated. However, I recommend feeding your goldfish with gel foods such as Repashy Supper Gold or Solient Green. Similar to searching online, I am sure you can find numerous homemade gel recipes.
Another important thing is goldfish love to have a variety of foods. Therefore, if you want to grow your goldfish, you can use this as a trick. So, you can add supper quality pellets such as Jappies Fish Food or New Like Spectrum into the mix. In addition to that, you can diversify their diet by providing fresh veggies like spinach, lettuce, and broccoli.
Other vital things are feeding frequency and amount when doing goldfish grooming. Not like usual, you should feed your goldfish 2 to 4 times per day. You can provide food to the goldfish as much as they can eat within 2 to 3 minutes. Further, you should eye on the uneaten foods because you should remove them immediately. Unless it causes ammonia spikes and it can be fatal for your goldfish.
Filtration
Generally, a filter helps to remove uneaten foods and waste from your tank. So, if you have the best functioning filter, you can have a super clean goldfish tank with a peaceful mind. On the other hand, filters give support to growing beneficial bacteria. Why did I say bacteria is a beneficial one? Can it happen? Yes. When we heard the name bacteria, a scary feeling came to our minds. But some beneficial bacteria help your fish to live.
These bacteria help to break down ammino into nitrate and then nitrite. However, you should have a filter that circulates the water volume 8 to 10 times per hour. For instance, if you have a pretty large tank-like 60 gallons, it should have a turnover rate of 480 to 600 gallons per hour. When it turns to my recommendations, it is better to set up an Aqua Clear 70’s as an excellent hang-on back filter. Anyhow, the most important thing is, that you should set up a high-quality filter for your goldfish tank.
Why should you groom your goldfish?
Grooming the goldfish is a very nice thing, and the outcome can surprise you because you can have the best-looking and healthy goldfish. Also, this art will help your fish to live a long time happily. So, as hobbyists, what else do you need?
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