How To Stop Your Goldfish From Getting Ill
The old saying Prevention is better than cure is always excellent advice and this advice also applies to stopping aquarium goldfish getting sick in the first place, rather than try to cure the illness when it has established itself. There are some practices that an aquarium keeper should adopt in order to reduce the chances of a pet goldfish becoming ill.
When goldfish are added to the aquarium they should get special care to get over any stress from transportation and being introduced into a new environment. New goldfish are more likely to suffer from goldfish diseases because of this stress. To limit inital stress, float the bag they arrive in the tank for approximately 20 to 30 minutes so they become acclimatized to the water temperature and their new home. Watch out for for goldfish ich disease also known as goldfish whitespot disease after adding new fish.
Like all creatures, Goldfish require to be fed using a reasonable quality feed that supplies them with their dietary needs. A decent goldfish food will be easily digested, reducing the quantity of waste the goldfish release into the water. Low quality goldfish foods might provide a diet that might be short of essential nutrition, but they may also cause excessive waste being released into the aquarium, silting up the gravel bed and polluting the water.
Every tank requires a suitably sized filter which acts to extract solid and liquid wastes. The basic function of a filtration system is to remove waste and pollutants to help keep the water quality high. Every aquarium requires an oxygen supply to supplement the oxygen dissolved naturally at the water surface. This is done utilizing an air-pump in conjunction with tubing and an air stone or similar device to split the pumped air into lots of small air bubbles. A quality air pump achieves this quietly and efficiently. Gravel at the bottom of the aquarium should be kept reasonably clean with a gravel siphon as accumulated waste can pollute the water. Water needs to be changed at 3 to 4 weeks. Mains water should be treated using a well known water conditioner which can be obtained from local or online pet stores and aquatic centers.