Do you want to have a goldfish at home, like in a fairy tale? Imagine this is quite possible, but it is unlikely that she will be able to fulfill your three wishes. But such a pet will delight you with its bright appearance, in addition, it is absolutely quiet and does not create noise. Today we will tell you what care and maintenance of goldfish should be, and also find out how to feed and breed them. After all, only with good care will these creatures be able to feel comfortable in the artificial underwater world that we created for them.
Zoological portrait
Goldfish, the contents of which we will examine in detail today, have a scientific Latin name - Carassius auratus auratus. These representatives of the underwater kingdom come from a family of cyprinids. In our lakes and rivers, the closest relatives of golden beauties are mirror carps, bream, crucian carp, bleak and rudd. However, it is not very clear which family the famous goldfish of A.S. Pushkin belongs to, because these creatures live mainly in fresh water.
Aquarium inhabitants
Care and maintenance of aquarium goldfish requires a lot of attention. The size of such underwater inhabitants, as a rule, is about 15 cm, however, some individuals can reach 30 centimeters in length. The aquarium goldfish are distinguished by an elongated elliptical body that is elongated and flattened laterally and has a sharp snout. The long dorsal fin originates in the middle of the body, while the lower fin is closer to the tail.
The classic goldfish has a red-golden color of the back, a yellowish abdomen and yellow-golden sides. Fins are most often painted in bright red, although sometimes they are yellow. However, you can find more exotic specimens that are painted white and even black and blue. So goldfish are not always gold, sometimes they are red, pink, brown and even spotted.
How to distinguish a male from a female
The gender of these aquarium inhabitants is not so easy to determine. This can only be done right before spawning. At this time, males have a distinctive feature - notches, which are located on the gills and the anterior ray of the pectoral fins. A female ready to spawn can be recognized by a swollen, compacted abdomen. If you look at it from above, you can see the curved body, which after laying eggs can remain so.
Aquarium preparation
The content of goldfish at home should be such that your pets are comfortable living in an aquarium. Experts recommend getting a special species aquarium, up to a meter in size. Please note that goldfish are very fond of digging the soil, so the bottom of the tank should be covered with large granules, from which water will not be very polluted. In addition, certain aquatic plants must be selected. They should not have small leaves, so that the inhabitants of the aquarium could not eat them. Species such as wallisneria or eggplant are best suited. Floating plants such as ricchia and duckweed, which goldfish love to feast on, also get along well in the aquarium.
Keeping these underwater inhabitants at home requires a lot of patience. Everyone knows that goldfish are big gluttons, they really like to dig plants out of the ground and eat their tender leaves. You need to strengthen your plantings as carefully as possible so that the pets cannot move them, otherwise there will be a mess in the aquarium. The best option would be to plant adult hard-leaved plants in small pots, which should be pressed down with large stones. However, you can not bother and simply decorate the aquarium with artificial plants, but in this case, the water balance will deteriorate, since there will be no natural source of oxygen.
Regarding water
For comfortable conditions of keeping goldfish, water with a temperature of 16-24 degrees is needed. Please note that in winter this indicator should not be more than 20 degrees, while in summer the thermometer should be at around 21. Raise and lower the water temperature from season to season should be gradual.
Care and maintenance of goldfish also requires maintaining a balance of acidity and water hardness. The first parameter should be maintained within 7 units, but rigidity can vary from 8 to 18 units. Naturally, in the aquarium, the water should be as pure and enriched with oxygen as possible. Its level should be from 25 centimeters.
The conditions for keeping goldfish in the aquarium require regular water updates. It is recommended to pour 1/10 of its total volume every day. The water to be filled must have the same temperature and the same composition. When changing the season, it should be lowered or increased by one degree. It is advisable to equip the aquarium with an aerator and filter.
Not everyone knows how many goldfish should be in one aquarium to make them comfortable. The maximum allowable number is determined by the following formula: for 10 cm of the body length of one individual, 200 cm 2 of the surface of the water is necessary. If the aquarium is not equipped with an aerator, then this rate should be increased by 2 times. In this case, it is necessary to carry out daily water changes in the amount of 1/3 of the total volume. Please note that the smaller the number of fish in the aquarium, the easier it will be to take care of them.
Neighborhood with other representatives
What is the compatibility of goldfish? Care and maintenance do not matter. These creatures do not get along well with other species of fish, although they are not aggressive predators. Often they can enjoy a small fish, a young snail and fry. It is worth noting that goldfish are very slow, so aggressive species like cichlids can easily gnaw their fins. It is best to combine our pets with calm and peaceful relatives. Often, goldfish live with catfish, which are natural cleaners, live mainly at the bottom and rarely intersect with high-floating neighbors.
Feeding
We continue to consider the content of goldfish. The main care for them is reduced to timely and proper feeding. Recall that these inhabitants of the aquarium are very voracious and prone to obesity, because they do not know the measures. The big plus is that they are almost omnivorous and unpretentious. The diet of goldfish consists of plant and live food. The latter include daphnia, bloodworms, earthworms and earthworms, coronet and tubule. From plant foods it is worth noting salad, ricchia and duckweed.
Also, do not forget about the extra carbohydrates that are found in breadcrumbs and cereals from wheat, oatmeal and buckwheat. Such dishes are prepared without salt, then they are rolled into small balls. In addition, scraped meat will be an excellent additional protein in the diet of your pets, it can also be mixed with bread and rolled into balls. Goldfish need more carbohydrates than proteins, which cannot be said about their tropical relatives. If you decide to give your wards dry food in the form of flakes or granules, then you must first carefully study the instructions.
As a rule, dry food is soaked briefly in a small amount of aquarium water until it swells. This is useful for the digestive system of fish, in addition, they will eat less because they quickly become saturated. Frozen food should be thawed at room temperature and in no case in the microwave.
If you feed young animals with artemia, which can be salty, then you can lower the salt concentration by soaking the feed in water. For plant dressing, you can take nettles or lettuce, but natural aquatic plants: hornwort, richchia and duckweed are best suited. The daily portion of food for goldfish should be no more than 3% of its weight. These underwater inhabitants are fed twice a day. Without food, they can last a maximum of a week.
Breeding
Goldfish live on average 10-12 years, and mature by the year. At the same time, in females you can see a rounded abdomen. A small white rash appears on the gills of the males, and small nicks can be seen on the anterior rays of the pectoral fins. Spring is the best season for breeding. For 1-1.5 weeks, the males are separated from the females and heavily fed with daphnia and bloodworm.
It is important to properly prepare the spawning grounds. Its bottom is lined with clean river sand, and it is imperative that it stands on one side. It is here that you need to plant a large bush of pinnacle, Elodea or a bunch of bast. The water purified from bleach should be kept in the sun for several hours, then drained into a spawning ground. Next, two males and one female should be nested for spawning. This process, which lasts 2-3 hours, is stimulated by strong aeration, low water level (15-20 cm), a gradual increase in temperature to 25-26 degrees and sunlight. During this time, the female can sweep up to 2000 eggs.
When spawning is complete, the substrate with adhering eggs should be transferred to a previously prepared container with clean water, which should be left in the sun. It is very important to monitor the temperature, which should not drop, because for the offspring it is fatal. Whitened eggs must be removed and water replaced regularly.
Baby Care
Already on the fifth day, the fry begin to swim and swallow the smallest live food on their own. They grow rapidly, so after three weeks you need to conduct the first selection, since it is pointless to feed weak individuals. There should be three or four such selections in total. Thus, you will not have fry with deviations from accepted norms and deformities.
How to choose the best representatives? The fry should have an ovoid body without flaws and deformations, the tail should be bifurcated without torn places and bends, the directivity and size of the eyes, growths and fins should be the same. Further conditions of keeping goldfish are completely identical to the care of sexually mature, adult individuals. First, babies should be fed with rotifers and infusoria, and by the second year it is recommended to transfer to a normal feed.
Pitfalls of a round aquarium
Is it possible to keep a goldfish in a round aquarium? Inveterate aquarists categorically do not recommend keeping a pet in such a capacity, since it is impossible to create full-fledged living conditions in it. It is best to use round aquariums as a part of the interior, planting them with beautiful plants and algae.
The shape and small size of the vessel impose many restrictions under which keeping the fish in such conditions will be impossible. For example, special equipment cannot be placed in such an aquarium, so your fish will suffer from a lack of oxygen, contaminated water and jumping temperature.
Cons of a round aquarium
- Standard diameter - 25 cm, volume - 15 liters. Such dimensions do not allow to install a full-fledged filter, as a result of which the water will be quickly polluted. To avoid this, the water will have to be changed daily, and this is not only troublesome, but can also cause severe stress in the fish.
- The capacity narrows up, which makes the surface area of the water very small. This reduces the amount of oxygen dissolved in water, which provokes oxygen starvation in fish.
- It is problematic to put a heater in such an aquarium, so you will encounter significant temperature fluctuations, which will also cause stress for underwater residents.
- It is difficult to place shelters and plants for fish in a small container, so in a "bare" aquarium they will not feel protected.
- Small volumes do not allow placing more than three individuals in the aquarium.
- The curved walls of the vessel interfere with the free movement of fish, and the refraction of light creates the illusion of constant movement outside the aquarium, which scares its inhabitants.
The consequences of living in a round aquarium
What will happen to the pet in the round aquarium? Goldfish, the care and maintenance of which we examined, can get a lot of stress. As a result, she may lose immunity and develop a serious illness that will lead to death. A vessel in which less than 15 liters of water is placed cannot be used for keeping fish. It is worth noting that many countries have banned the use of round aquariums as living quarters for living things.
The modern market for aquarium products offers a wide range of special indoor ponds. They, of course, are small in size, but they are equipped with everything necessary. There is a device for aeration and water purification, as well as a streaming waterfall and LED lighting.
Finally
If you follow all the rules in caring for goldfish, then this will turn into a favorite hobby that will be fun. These creatures are cheerful and unpretentious. Be sure to settle these fabulous creatures in your aquarium, and who knows, maybe your desires will soon come true.