Do You Want a Goldfish for A Pet?
Maybe you’ve always wanted a goldfish.
Or you just won a goldfish at a fair.
Or your parents say that if you really want a pet, you should get a goldfish first. They say that goldfish are the easiest pet to have. All you need is a bowl, some water, and a fish.
This isn’t true.
A lot of people think that a goldfish is a very easy pet to have, needing almost no care. They are wrong. After you read this page you will know why.
Goldfish can’t live in fish bowls!
Let’s begin with a very strange fact about goldfish. They have no stomach. They are constantly eating. Their food goes in one end and soon comes out the other end. This means the water gets dirty fast.
Most people feed their goldfish way too much food. They give their fish food too often. They don’t bother to scoop the uneaten food out of the water. This extra food also makes the water dirty.
If you have a goldfish in a bowl, you must change their water every day. Always going in and out of their bowl while you do this causes a lot of stress for your goldfish. Goldfish can die from too much stress!
If you don’t change their water often enough, they die from having to live in dirty water. Dirty water doesn’t have enough oxygen in it. The poor fish suffocates from lack of oxygen!
They can also die from the chlorine and other chemicals in tap water. Let water sit for 24 hours so most of the chlorine can evaporate out. Or you can use water straight from the tap when you add Seachem Prime to the water. Just follow the directions on the bottle.
How to have a healthy goldfish
The answer to the goldfish bowl problem, both for you and for your fish, is to get a fish tank with a filter. You’ll still have to clean the tank, but not nearly as often as you need to clean a fish bowl.
You will need a 20-gallon (75 liter) tank for one goldfish or a 30-gallon [100 liter) tank for two goldfish. You can buy a tank here. If you want to pay less money, sometimes you can find a good used tank at a garage sale or sold in online ads.
You will also need a filter for your tank. The filter keeps the water clean.
You will also need an air-pump. The air-pump puts more oxygen into the water. All living creatures (including people) must have oxygen to survive.
This book tells you all about how to set up your tank. It gives you a goldfish pet care routine to keep your pet healthy.
Setting up your fish tank can be a bit tricky. You will probably need an older brother or sister or a parent to help you get the tank working properly.
Here’s another good book with information and tips about caring for your goldfish. The fun thing about this book is it tells you exactly what it would be like to BE a goldfish!
It includes how to buy a healthy goldfish, what to do when your goldfish is sick and how to be sure your goldfish gets good care when you go on vacation.
Fun Goldfish facts to amaze your friends
Did you know that goldfish are the most popular pet in the world? More than 400 million pet goldfish are sold every year!
That’s one goldfish for every five kids on earth. (There’s about 1.9 billion children in the world. “Children” means all the people younger than 15 years old.)
Most goldfish don’t live very long, especially the ones in a fish bowl. But with good pet care and responsible owners, goldfish can live a long time. Some goldfish have lived until they are 40 years old!
That’s far longer than other pets! Most dogs only live about eight to 15 years. Cats live about 13 to 20 years.
Goldfish don’t have very good eyesight, but they can see in colour! They can also recognize the face of their owner!
Wild goldfish live in lakes and rivers. They can get up to 20 inches (50 cm) long.
What about tropical fish pets?
Tropical fish aren’t a good pet for kids because they are trickier to keep healthy. There is also more equipment that you need. Tropical fish can cost a lot of money.
If you think you might want tropical fish, a good place to start is with a smaller tank and some goldfish. This will tell you how much you like having pet fish and how much care they need. Then (maybe a few years from now) you will be ready to graduate to getting other kinds of fish, like angelfish, clownfish and betta fish.
When you are ready to have some ‘harder’ fish pets, this book tells you how to get started, how to choose your fish and set up your tank. It also tells you the mistakes not to make.
This book isn’t written for kids, so you will need an older brother or sister or an adult to help you understand the information.