Goldfish Tank Maintance

[Littleman]

Hi I brought my son a tank with 2 goldfish it has an air pump and a filter. Do I need to do a % water change when clean them out??

 

[Davo86]

Hi I brought my son a tank with 2 goldfish it has an air pump and a filter. Do I need to do a % water change when clean them out??

Hi there?
were the tank and fish an existing setup i.e. second hand or have one purchased a new tank and fish ?
What is the tank size?

You will be needing to do weekly water changes that are in the region of 20-50% IMO depending on the tank size you have and what filtration you are using,
Gravel cleaning will also need to be done, this can easily be done using a gravel cleaner/syphon when you go to do a water change.

 

[jennybugs]

The type of goldfish also has to be taken into consideration with tank sizes. 'Standard' type goldfish (comets for example) need alot of swimming space and fancy goldfish like orandas need huge filtration to keep the water clean.

To give you an idea, I have a 180L tank with just 3 fancy goldfish in. These fish will reach up to 8 inches long or larger when fully grown and are very messy fish. I have 2 filters - one large internal one and an external one - to cope with their waste and need to clean the filters weekly (especially the internal one) as well as do 50% water changes. When I bought the fish in January, they were about an inch or so long. Now they are all 3-4 inches and are growing very fast

Feed sparingly every other day to keep the waste down if the tank is small, but ideally look for the largest tank you possibly can as the standard sizing is allow 20 gallons for the first fish and a further minimum of 10 gallons for each additional fish