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Keeping and breeding fancy goldfish has been a passion of mine for a long time
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I think these stunning fish are seriously underrated in the hobby and I wish they
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received more coverage here on YouTube. I've decided to share my love of these
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little water pigs by creating a new series covering the key basics of
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keeping feeding of breeding fancy goldfish. In this first episode I want to
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share with you my experiences and opinions when it comes to the right sized tank for fancy goldfish. Hello friends welcome back to the channel if you're
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new here my name is Richard and I'm a fish and shrimp breeder based in the UK
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now I think tank size is one of the most important factors when it comes to
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getting fancy goldfish. Far too often I see people keeping these fish in
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aquariums that are essentially far too small. Fancy goldfish grow to be large
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fish they're big appetites and they make a lot of mess. The greater the water
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volume they live in the healthier they will be. A well-fed and well-cared-for fantail can easily
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reach 8 to 10 inches in size. As such they either need an aquarium which matches their needs or we
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as the goldfish owners must be prepared to upgrade their tank as they get larger
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Now let me add a quick caveat to this video. Needless to say bigger is always better. Whilst
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you can keep one fancy goldfish in a 40 gallon breeder there no doubt that being in a 400 would be even better But we have to be realistic And when we give sizes or when I give sizes in a video like this it kind of the minimum sizes If you can go better if you can go bigger so much the better
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So what is the ideal tank size for a fancy goldfish? In my experience, one fancy goldfish
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needs at least 20 gallons of water. Then for each additional goldfish we add, we want to have at
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10 to 15 gallons available. So a 30 or 40 gallon tank will work well for two fish
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whereas for three you might want to look at a 40 or a 50 gallon tank. Essentially
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the greater the water volume the better. Now in the tank behind me you can see
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I've got four of these little beasts in a tank which measures 180 litres which
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is around 47 gallons, but I do so knowing full well to keep them happy and to keep
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them healthy, I'm going to have to carry out large water changes. On this tank here
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I change 50 to 75% of the water every single week. In reality you can keep as
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many fish as you want to in any given tank, providing you're prepared to keep
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up with the work. The more fish you have in a tank, the more frequently you'll need to carry out water changes. Once all four of these guys are fully grown, I
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should be moving them into a 155 gallon tank I've got in the next room. Now one
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One thing to bear in mind is it not just about water volume it also about the shape of the aquarium A 40 gallon cylinder tank holds 40 gallons but it has a relatively small surface area
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compared to a 3 foot long tank which also holds 40 gallons of water
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Surface area is crucial when it comes to oxygen exchange. When it comes to carbon dioxide that the fish have breathed out
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leaving the tank and fresh oxygen coming back in, it's all about surface movement, it's all about surface area and surface agitation
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The greater the surface area, the greater opportunity we have for gas exchange between the water and the air above
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So with that said, what are the consequences of not providing a tank that is large enough
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Well, there is an old saying that says a goldfish will only grow as big as a tank it's kept in
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But unfortunately that's not true. What typically happens is when goldfish are kept in tanks that are too small
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they become stunted, their growth becomes stunted and they don't reach their full potential
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Their growth isn't really stunted by the physical size of the aquarium, but rather by the quality of the water that they're living in
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So the job of the filters that we have in our aquariums is to convert the goldfish waste, which is high in ammonia, to the far safer nitrate
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Now nitrates are still toxic to fish, but only in higher levels
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What typically happens is the more fish we have in a body of water the higher the levels of nitrates tend to be traits tend to be And that is what often causes the stunted growth in the goldfish So when fancy goldfish are kept in tanks that are too small they typically end up living in water which has a high concentration of nitrates
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And those nitrates will quickly affect the goldfish's health and can easily prevent the goldfish from growing to their full size
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Now the black fantail behind me here, she's pushing 8 inches long
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and she's about 18 months, two years old and she's managed to get to that size, I believe
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because I feed her a good diet but also because I carry out huge water changes
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and I keep the nitrate levels in this tank as low as possible. So in my opinion, the minimum size tank
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for a single Fantel goldfish is about 20 gallons which is around 75 litres
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For a pair of fancy goldfish, the tank wants to be at least 30 gallons
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which is around 113 litres and for a trio of fancy goldfish
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you really want a 40 or a 50 gallon aquarium as a minimum in my experience
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To be fair, you may well find your fancy goldfish outgrow these sizes if you feed them well
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and keep up with the water changes. Now if you're not sure how much water you should be changing your goldfish tank and how frequently
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you should be changing it, check out the video I've linked just up here on screen
