No experience - advice please

[fudgiebutt]

Hi, so I would like to get a couple of goldfish for indoor, and although I had some as a child I have no idea how to look after them really.
Could someone advise me on a suitable tank? Also set up? And how often and how do you go about cleaning a tank?
Many thanks

[mishfish]

Hey! Goldfish are quite difficult pets to keep.

You need a minimum of 45 litres PER fish (it might be more) and the tank needs to be quite long so they can swim around.

You need to cycle the tank before you can add the fish. Cycling can take 6 weeks.

You need to clean the tank quite regularly- I’m not sure about goldfish but they’re very messy and their poo creates ammonia which is dangerous for fish.

Hopefully someone more knowledgable will be along with better advise

Stay away from Pets at home as they have no idea what so ever about happy fish keeping.

[bunnygeek]

I agree with mishfish, Goldfish are actually pretty rubbish first fish. They grow huge and can live a very long time, over 20 years!

For a first tank you're best going for something between 60-100 litres (if you can go larger, do it!) and go tropical. A simple tropical set up would be far less work than Goldfish.

Do lots of reading on fishkeeping, there's lots of good websites out there. Check out Practical Fishkeeping magazine too.