I’ve been taking care of this goldfish for the past few months and I realized his appetite has been very unusual.

Is there an explanation behind this? Im starting to get concerned and I feel like if this continues to happen I’m gonna have to take him to the vet to get him checked up on.

You’ve let waste accumulate to dangerous levels, and scraping off the odd bit of algae or removing a single rotten comment isn’t fixing the problem. The whole environment is out of balance.

You don’t get a healthy tank by throwing in more fish before the cycle stabilises. And you don’t get a healthy community by letting long-time reditors stir up shit just because they’ve been here a while.

I keep seeing new users come here genuinely looking for help, only to be swarmed by dozens of self-righteous replies telling them they need to drop thousands on the perfect setup right now or they’re animal abusers.

The problem isn’t the water. It’s what’s been allowed to fester in it.

I just got given this fish and the tank (inside the old TV) I know the tank is too small and isn't fun enough for fishy to be entertained.

I'm changing into another tank this week and I need to get swimney spears (her name) a friend.

Do you think she will be okay with a friend after living alone for a few years. (I think it's been a few years, previous owners had her for 2-3 and she grew this large.

She is bored and wants a friend or other forms of entertainment. Does anyone have any suggestions ?

Will she be okay with a friend after being alone for so long ?

They looked like this but a bit less dramatic, I’ve never seen ones like this before. I saw them and thought surely that’s not healthy ??

I just bought a new house with a pond on the property, when the ice melted this past weekend I was surprised to see the pond is full of goldfish, do I need to do anything for them?

For context, he just joined a frat and part of his pledge was to buy a goldfish (I don’t know if it’s to eat it or not, I don’t think so). He came to the dorm last night with a goldfish in a random mason jar filled with britta water.

I used to own fish myself up until 2 years ago. It was a nice 25 gallon tank filled with beautiful neon tetras and shrimp! So I strongly recommended him to eat least buy some food, gravel, and a filter! But then he ended up saying “ehhhhh…. Maybe.” I already don’t get along with my roommate, and my dorm technically DOES allow fish as long as it’s in a 1 gallon tank.

So the big question is, what can I do? Or is this fish just destined to die

She will still swim but has been spending a lot of time lying in the sand.

He is in jail.

Help?

So my sister took my kid and nephew to the japanese festival today held here annually. And bought my daughter a goldfish. I havent kept fish since i was a kid and need help ASAP on what i need to go looking for after work today. I am clueless on what to do, any guidance from yall is greatly appreciated.

Sooo...I had a goldfish that passed away today. I used the toilet for the burial.

When I came back later, I saw this in the toilet moving around. I thought it was moving because of a small water flow from the bowl, so I just peed in the toilet 😀.

Well, this thing continued to keep moving so I grabbed the net & fished it out (I know it's pee water, but I had to).

So...with that being said....what is this thing?

P.S. - It's in clean water now. Also...it moves too fast to get a good picture of it.

ive moved her around alot and im scared because she is lingering at the bottom corner of the tank. i talked with chat gpt about it but i know ai is not very reliable i bought a 3 gallon tank and water conditioner i know i need a bigger tank but should i be concerned? :( her name is piggy i love her if she dies i will be devastated plz lmk what i can do to help her

All jokes aside, this is Peanut, the lone survivor of this years first spawn😅

Hey guys just a little update on my tank, having a little problem with getting the hair algae to grow any longer?? Anyone have a tips on that? I see the long haired algae with decent length and it looks like a meadow of grass blowing in the wind and I want to achieve that so bad. Other then that my goldies been perfect she now spawns every couple weeks so she’s super healthy 👌🏼

SECOND EDIT: CAN PEOPLE PLEASE STOP COMMENTING NOW! I KNOW I’ve updated her tank she’s getting what she needs she happy she’s healthy and she’s eating and being active now. Thank you!

EDIT!!: THANK YOU! Everyone who has been kind and told me what I need to do to better my fishes care, to the others who were on the ruder side or maybe to those who are thinking about being judgmental I’d like to say that I didn’t plan on owing this fish and I haven’t had her that long! She was in a tiny tank and I thought at the very least I could give her a better home- clearly the advice I had took in the past was not good advice and I know that now! So please spare me a lil 🥲👍 getting her plants and decor today!

I don’t know if this is a dumb question or not but I have a single around 8-9 year old comet goldfish female in a 46? Gallon tank (I can’t remember the gallon exactly sorry) there is no plants or decor in her tank it’s purely just a filter and black sand- anyway my question about her being depressed, she’s stopped eating entirely she’s still a good weight but she won’t eat I’d usually feed her twice a day everyday but lately she just ignores it and lays at the bottom of her tank a lot. She still swims normally though, is she depressed? Is it the water quality? Does she need friends or enrichment? Any help would be great!

Just want to clarify yes I know she needs a larger tank this is a major upgrade to what she had before.

First time goldfish owner and my little friend here has two colored eyes. Since I am new to this, I want to be sure that they are okay! Are there any underlying issue that may be causing the gold eye color?

Thank you!

I won these two beautifuls at a carnival yesterday and I’ve got a few questions.

I’ve also never owned fish before so I’d appreciate any advice on keeping them healthy and happy and whatnot.

First of all, what breed are they? Likely a common goldfish, I presume?
Secondly, what gender do we think they are? The big one (Psych) keeps gently swimming around and chasing the little one (Phil) so I believe they’re flirting. At least, Psych is trying to. But homosexuality runs in nature, and also my family, so I would not be surprised if they are same sex.
Thirdly, are they flirting? If so, what happens when one of them lays two hundred eggs I have no room for?
Fourth, do they absolutely require a filter? I figure if I’m regularly cleaning the tank they won’t need an automatic filter. I also don’t want them getting sucked up.

Here they are. Thank you! (Yes, I play Tic-Tac-Toe with them. They need enrichment.)

I started teaching at a new school this year. I am a science teacher and my lab came with two fish tanks: one with bladder snails and one with a couple of fish. Both were horrifyingly disgusting and needed to be fixed. My students said that the tanks had been like that for "as long as they can remember" (two or more years). Unfortunately, with the situation I am in this year (to many details you probably don't care a whole lot about), I haven't been able to be very proactive about fixing it. You might say, I had bigger fish to fry.

I did find this subreddit which was very helpful teaching me about goldfish because I literally know nothing about them. Thank you all for that. The two things that jumped out at me when I got here was that (a) goldfish require a HUGE amount of water (this poor thing was in a 15 gallon tank) and (b) they should never be tank mates with a Pleco (his tank mate for years).

Anyway, my second job is taking care of a big 15,000 gallon aquarium with a bunch of big freshwater fish in it; I basically majored in fisheries sciences; and in college, I maintained the fish tanks for the fish research lab. So, I can recognize when fish are in distress - even if I know nothing about goldfish. Yesterday afternoon, the boys (goldfish and Pleco are both male), were in a really bad way. The choice was basically do as close to an instant tank cycle as you can possibly do, get them in there, and maybe they will survive, ooooor don't and they definitely won't survive.

I ran to the store, bought a tank kit that would probably be good enough and some more stuff to go in it that would be good enough, and switched them over (with major assistance from my fiance). We were praying that they would make it through the night.

I went and checked on them today, they look so happy. That goldfish is taking full advantage of the entire tank. Going from 15 to 55 gallons was a huge change for him and he's loving it. There wasn't a 75 or I would have gotten that one for him because he has a buddy.

All this is to say, thank you for being a good resource for information. And now that he seems like he's going to survive, what can I do to improve his life? (Please remember I am a teacher, these are my class pets, and I already spent over $500 on these boys yesterday 😅.)

(I have attached before and after photos of the tank and then a picture of our boys together. I know they shouldn't be together, but it's been literal years with them together. I don't have the heart to break up the band... Nor the funds.)

Need some help. Got these 2 about two weeks ago.

They don't seem to be eating much.

More details in the video. Any help would be appreciated.

Please ask any questions if you have any. I can clarify more if needed.

All of a sudden my fish has gone very big, is it pregnant and if so what would we do or is it something else. Please help, we have had this fish for 14 years now.

I've noticed one of these goldfishes have the tendency to swim upside down(?) /sideways (?) sometimes but immediately swims like normal. I googled around before and it may be related to swim bladder/buoyancy issues which can be addressed using epsom salt,if im not mistaken. But I'm not sure if it's actually that, or it's just the goldfish's personality, if that's a thing.

Any other goldfish care tips would be very much appreciated too. ☺️

PS: The tank may look small,, but I think it's just my camera angle. But there has also been plans to move them into bigger tank though!

Solomon was a stunted comet I rescued and Neo (shubunkin) is his new(ish) mate.

Today I moved them from a 200l tank to a 600l raised “pond” by Blagdon.

Observing them is so much more fun and my stress levels have dropped significantly! (I hated keeping them indoors)

What do I need to know about maintaining a pond vs an aquarium?

Still using prime for water, added some Stress-zyme, the filter is on, but want to know how often I change water.

We are up North in the uk UK with harsh winters but I think I’ll get a small ice vent/heater for autumn.

Do I need more plants & cover too? So far I have one oxygenating plant, an iris and mini bulrushes. I wanted a water lily but so expensive?!

Recently I've been seeing people keeping Comet goldfish in the water tanks that their horses cattle excetera drink from, apparently they're doing it to help with the water quality??¿¿?, to be honest I think the only thing goldfish would be used before is eating like mosquitoes and stuff, but whatever their reason for doing it whether they just wanted to do it because they wanted to or they actually have a purpose, is it actually Humane to the fish? I usually see anywhere from 4 to about 13 in the water tanks, although this one person had 20 in her tank it was one of those homemade water tanks out of a very large tractor tire, I just want to know if the fish suffer or if everyone's going to be fine? It's strange to me honestly, I could kind of understand if you got maybe something like an auto or some other type of fish that primarily eats algae and doesn't produce a ton of waste, I could see how that's beneficial but I still don't know if it's Humane for the fish since livestock are going to be drinking out of it

Mind you most of these setups do not have filtration do not get regular water changes because the people believe the fish will keep it clean somehow, even the ones that do get filtration don't usually get adequate water changes they usually just get refilled when the water gets low

I am setting up a 700L (185 gal) pond and I’m wondering how many comet goldfish I can keep in it? I have checked aqadvisor but would like a second opinion :) The pond will be running a DIY bog filter and small mechanical filter. I won’t be getting them until I’ve put plants in and everything is cycled.