Comet Goldfish Stats
Minimum Tank Size: 55 Gallons (75 Gallons recommended)
Care Level: Easy
Water Conditions: 6.5-7.5 (Soft to Hard)
Temperature: Optimal Range 10-24 °C (50-75 °F) Upper Range 24-30 °C (75-86 °F)
Maximum Size: 13 inches (33 cm)
The comet goldfish is one of the oldest and best known variants of the common goldfish. It was first bred in the late 1800’s in the United States, and has since become one of the best known and most widespread fish in the aquarium hobby.
Because of its extremely prolific nature, comet goldfish are usually sold for mere pennies and can often be found in crowded feeder tanks or in tiny prize bags at fairs and carnivals. These terrible conditions lead to shortened life-spans, and often result in the fish suffering from any number of parasites and diseases.
But if you can find a healthy comet goldfish, they can grow up to 13 inches in length, with some being reported much larger. They will also live up to 15 years if provided with a proper housing and food – a far cry from the month or two that most will survive when kept in cramped fish bowl.
Housing
For anyone who hasn’t seen a well cared for goldfish, it may come as a surprise that they can grow to enormous sizes. Anyone who has ever has the chance to see my goldfish tank always assumes they are some type of koi, and are shocked when I tell them that they’re regular goldfish. (One of which was a rescue from a carnival.)
Because of their aquarium busting size, they should only be kept in the largest tanks, although they can be kept in smaller tanks while they’re still very young. The minimum size tank for a small group of comet goldfish should be a 55 gallon tank, though a 75 gallon tank is preferable. This will give them a chance to grow to a full and healthy size – something that can’t happen in smaller tanks.
When it comes to choosing a filter for goldfish, the mantra “bigger is better” applies here. The best filter for a goldfish tank is a canister filter, but you can achieve the same results (and spend far less money) by using a high quality hang-on-back filter in conjunction with a sponge filter.
It’s important to remember that goldfish are cold-water fish, and will do best if kept in a cool room. They should never be kept in a heated tank or in an overly hot room. If their tanks temperature gets too high, it may result in permanent nerve damage to the goldfish.
Since comet goldfish require coldwater, they should never be kept with tropical fish, as the tank will either be too warm for the goldfish, or too cold for the tropical fish. Some good tank mates are gold barbs, dojo loaches and some people have had success with zebra danios. But the danios will nip at the goldfish if they aren’t kept in a school of at least six, and some are nippers regardless, so add danios with caution.
Feeding
Getting comet goldfish to accept food is not difficult – they will eat nearly anything that will fit in their mouth. With that being said, feeding them properly is what can be more difficult.
In the wild goldfish are omnivores, and they feed on plant matter, algae, insects and small crustaceans. But their diet is primarily composed of plant matter and algae, and it’s important to replicate this in the home aquarium. If their diet doesn’t contain enough fiber from plants and algae, they may develop a condition called bloat.
When a goldfish develops bloat, they will swell up, and generally just flop around on the bottom of the tank. Most cases of bloat can be cured with shelled peas, which will clear out the “blockage” causing the bloat. But it’s obviously best to ensure that the goldfish never develop bloat in the first place.
This can be done by providing comet goldfish with a wide variety of vegetables and Spirulina based flakes or pellets. Their favorite vegetables are shelled peas, cucumber, zucchini medallions and brocoli. They will also eat many types of aquatic plant clippings taken from other healthy tanks, so they can be a good way to dispose of excess plants. I personally feed my goldfish Hikari Goldfish Gold
Breeding
Breeding comet goldfish in the home aquarium is difficult and should generally only be done in outdoor ponds. If you do plan on breeding them in an aquarium, then a separate tank must be set up to separate the parents from the eggs.
Like most cold-water fish, comet goldfish require a trigger to start spawning. The easiest way to do this is to lower the temperature for a period of around one month, and to reduce the light period to less than 8 hours a day for the tank.
Adding some high quality foods to their diet can also help to condition the comet goldfish for breeding, and frozen or live foods should be fed daily in addition to the usual vegetables and herbivore flakes and pellets.
After a month of lowered temperatures 58F (14C) the temperature should be slowly raised until it reaches the low 70s (21C). The light cycle should also be increased until the tank is receiving 12 hours of light a day. This will generally trigger spawning behaviour, which is always easy to spot.
When spawning has been triggered, the male will begin to chase any females, nudging the stomach in an attempt to make her release her eggs. After a short time, the female will release up to 1000 eggs, which are usually released into any live, or fake plants in the aquarium.
The parents must be removed from the tank as soon as spawning has been successful, as they will happily eat every last egg in the aquarium. The eggs will hatch after a day or two, and after 24-48 hours, they will become free-swimming. At that time they can be fed infusoria, baby brine shrimp or commercially available fry foods.
I am glad I’ve found your site. How many goldfish food pellets should I feed my baby comets? I have 2 of them. My white one is a fast eater, he would eat 4 at a time, leaving my orange one with only 1 or 2 pellets left. I currently feed them 2 times a day.
It’s tough to determine exactly how much to feed a fish, but a good rule of thumb is too feed them as much as they can consume it completely in three minutes. Any more than that and you’re overfeeding them.
And I’ve encountered your problem numerous times in the past. The way I usually get around it, is that I add food to both sides of that tank at the same time. Usually the fish that eats most of the food will be too busy on one side, which allows the other fish to eat in relative peace. If that doesn’t work, trying adding some visual breaks in its sight line using ornaments. This might allow the other fish to eat without being seen for a short time.
Whenever I tried to feed the orange one a bit more, the white one would swim fast and get it first. I am scared that I will over feed my snowy. When this happened, I only fed my them once a day.
Try feeding them in seperage tanks so the orange one can eat peacefully
And as much as he/she wants
In my case. I feed them several times in a day, since I have a good filtration system the downfall is I clean my filter media very often.
Hello. I have a question. I have two comet goldfish, both are orange. One of them, is chasing the other around my tank should I be concerned with this behaviour? I’ve been told that they can attack other fish but I’m not entirely sure.
How large is your tank? Assuming you have a large enough tank for your goldfish, I wouldn’t be too concerned. This is pretty normal behaviour, though many people keep three goldfish together to space out the aggression a little bit. It normally won’t progress to anything that is harmful to the goldfish. As long as the goldfish is eating, and it’s not constant, I wouldn’t worry about it.
If it does become a problem, you can partially combat it by creating breaks in the line of sight. What this means is you can arrange plants (more likely fake silk plants, since goldfish like to eat everything) and ornaments, so that that goldfish will have spots in the tank where it can’t see the other fish. This does a lot to reduce aggression.
Chasing can indicate either tank bullying or spawning. Is the one doing the chasing being persistent and specifically following the other one’s belly area (spawning; the male chases the female and nudges her to prompt her to lay eggs)? Or is he nipping at the fins (tank bullying)? If it’s not persistent and neither fish are taking any serious damage, then that’s pretty normal.
I have one comet goldfish and would like to get another – but all the ones I see at the pet store are much smaller – I’m afraid it will be attacked. Is that a misconception or should I keep looking for a similarly sized fish?
It all depends on the size difference. I’ve added goldfish as small as two inches into a tank with six inch goldfish. While they smaller goldfish hid for a while, it eventually came out. While you may experience some aggression, it usually doesn’t amount to much. The key is to not mix fancy and regular goldfish, or you will likely then get some issues.
When you add the new fish, just make sure there are plenty of places to hide, and keep a close eye on it to make sure there are no major issues. But unless there are huge size differences, you should be fine.
Hi,
I have two comet goldfish, i just bought one recently and immediately the new guy started chasing the old guy. I was thinking maybe they wanted to breed but the old one stomach is not robust to seems she is having eggs inside her. Please what can I do as this chasing is becoming more aggressive.
Steve
It’s really difficult to stop aggression once it’s begun. The most common cause is one of the fish is ill, or at least weakened for reason or another. Once it’s begun, there’s almost nothing you can do to stop it. The best advice is to get rid of the aggressive fish, but if that isn’t possible there are a few things to try.
The first thing you could try is upgrading the size of your tank. I don’t know what size you have right now, but when goldfish feel cramped they often become more aggressive. Of course this isn’t the easiest thing to do, so if you can’t do that, try adding ornaments and fake plants to divide the tank. If there are line of sight breaks, where the fish can’t see each other, that often helps too.
If that doesn’t work, you can take the more docile fish out of the tank for a while in an effort to help it get stronger. Take a good look at it – does it seem to be suffering from any conditions? Sometimes just upping the water changes and feeding it a high quality diet will work wonders with a fish, so it can stand up for itself when it returns to the tank.
These aren’t the easiest suggestions to implement, but I hope they help.
Is it normal for male Comet Goldfish to attempt courtship? I have two male Comets that are both about 7 inches long and recently started showing signs of breeding. I think they’re both males because they both have breeding stars (or ‘white pimples’ as I’ve heard them being described as) on their gill covers. I purchased them when they were only about an inch long and they’ve always been very sociable with each other, they love playing ‘tag’ and rubbing against each other, it’s quite charming and comical and totally non aggressive. But now it seems more like they’re trying to breed. This has been going on for about one week and I have yet to see any eggs or cloudy bursts coming from either of them though. I would describe it as nudging each others belly and vigorously shaking their tale fins together as if trying to stimulate reproduction. I’m assuming they’re ready to breed but they don’t know they’re both boys haha. Is that normal behavior??
Are the stars in perfect symmetry and alignment? It’s quite easy to mistake ich for breeding stars, as ich would also account for their behavior. Ich is often randomly distributed, while breeding stars look perfect on each scale. If it’s not ich, then what you are describing sounds very much like breeding behavior. It can occasionally be the result of aggression between two males, but it doesn’t sound like that in this case. Males in rare instances will go into courtship mode if there are absolutely no females around.
So assuming you can rule out ich, it’s time to get your goldfish dates. 😉
I saw my goldfishes this morning displaying same behavior and I know they are all males since I had identified them already and used them as breeders before see at wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animals_displaying_homosexual_behavior
Well I can definitely rule out ich and possibly start considering buying them a girlfriend. Eek! I don’t know if I’m ready to be a grandparent!!
That is normal, your goldfish are both males since they show breeding star and obviously if breeding stars appears they are in breeding mode but the problem is they are all males and that is why they chase each other even though they are all males that is why you did not see any eggs since they are all males and tendency they will show gay behavior and being gay behavior is normal to fishes too.
I’m definitely not worried about aggression. However, I do feel reassured now knowing that other people are seeing the same behavior in their goldfish and that mine aren’t just freakishly weird haha. It keeps me entertained! Thank you all for your time, it is much appreciated!!!!
Your welcome, just give them proper environment and care and their okay.
I have had my goldfish for five or six years. He is alone in a ten gallon tank. I will get him a new tank, with plants! Given they are social he needs a buddy. Does this make sense since he has been alone for so long? Also you mentioned veggies. I have given him peas but is that broccoli the same that humans eat? By the way I have no idea if he is male or female just saying he as a matter of speech.
You need to be careful when adding a new friends for your goldfish. First of all, you need to make sure the tank is large enough. For two goldfish, you’re looking at a 55 gallon (208 litre) tank and often you can run into aggression issues. I would make sure you can return the fish if they start fighting.
And you can feed them most of the vegetables that humans eat, as long as they are thoroughly washed, and blanched (boiled for a few minutes) and allowed to cool.
As for the plants, you should read one of my latest articles on plants you can keep with goldfish. These fish love to eat plants, and many of them will be almost immediately eaten. You can read the article here.
going to read your new blog, thank you for sharing
I have 1 medium sized tank goldfish and 1 medium small goldfish I’m trying to find out what one is the male or female. The little one chases the big one around?
PLEASE HELP ME ASAP!!!!!!
Unfortunately, sexing juvenile goldfish is almost impossible. They are really only easy to distinguish when they need breeding season, and males develop breeding tubercles (white bumps) all over their gills and pectoral fin, while the females become plumper, and their vent becomes enlarged near their anal fin.
Hi! I have around a 4400 litre pond outdoors – We currently have 1 9yo large comet in it with a smaller fish which I’m not sure of the breed, would you be able to tell me how many we could have. I’ve found over the years that a lot of fish tend to eat them, which is a bit annoying but I guess that’s nature! So, I guess any tips for training the fish to avoid the birds or should I just leave them to learn to be quick?
Also – one other question, how clear should the pond be? We change the water well, but it’s really quite green – we tried algae remover by the way!
Thanks 🙂
A good rule of thumb is one inch of fish per square foot of pond surface area. So you may have to do a little bit of math to figure out how many fish you can have. It’s also a good idea to use the maximum size as a guideline, and not the size the fish currently are. With the massive size of comet goldfish though, you’re not going to be able to have a lot. Probably somewhere in the neighbourhood of a half dozen or slightly more.
The bird threat can only really be effectively dealt with during the construction of the pond. I know many people build ponds with depths too deep for herons to stand, and with rock overhangs to keep out other predators. Obviously, you can’t rebuild the pond now, so what you can do is place some shrubs to block the view of the pond from birds, or install netting over it to keep the birds out. Also, depending on where you live, you can place fake bird predators nearby, and some people in the south use fake gator heads, while in Canada here I know many people use fakes owls.
I’ve also heard you can buy ultrasonic bird repellers, but I’ve never tried them personally, so I don’t know how effective they are.
As for the algae, do you have many rocks in the pond? Is there much motion in the water? Is there any way to provide any shade to the pond? And do you have any live plants in the water?
Hi! So i’ve just realised i’ve talked about the wrong fish – it’s about this size that I was looking for http://aquariumtidings.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Goldfish3.jpg (I know that you used this photo! –
So should I be looking user the care of a large goldfish now or continue with carp as I am slightly confused between the difference as the photos look the same on the website (http://aquariumtidings.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Comet_Goldfish_With_Fry.jpg vs the previous link) – I definitely didn’t mean the large carp like this http://www.findmefishing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Large-Carp.jpg if that’s what you thought I meant!!
As for the algae there isn’t many rocks and a smallish -medium plant and some lily pads. The fake owl is a good idea – but the fish come up to eat the floating food – won’t that scare the fish to eat?
Thanks 🙂
Sorry – Realised i mentioned carp above – not sure what i got that from but regardless the photos do look similar, so I would like to ask again what type of fish care should I be giving it.
Goldfish are a species of a carp, and while they won’t grow to the same monstrous size in the photo, they can grow absolutely huge in an outdoor pond. And comet goldfish are the same as common goldfish, with the exception of the tail shape and other minor differences.
Sometimes rocks react with the water and aid algae growth, but if you only have a few it should be negligible. You can try adding more live plants, as those will compete with the algae and may help, though you run a real risk of the goldfish eating them. Probably the only way to really deal with the algae is to lessen the amount of sunlight reaching the pond. You can try to do this via planting, or by landscaping.
And fish seem more attuned to movement, so I don’t think the owl would scare them. And if you’re concerned about that, then you can place the owl just beyond their line of sight, but still close to the pond.
Use an ultraviolet light filter on your pump it will kill the green water algae. I have a 1000 gallon pond and use a 15 watt ultraviolet filter it will clear the water in about 3 days
Hi I have two small comet gold fish both about an inch long, one probably a little shorter than that. They got along great in their take home tank a little 3.5 gallon filter tank. And stayed in it just fine while I set up the main tank a 20 gallon(for the next year or so). The problem I’m seeing now is that the bigger of the two has started becoming very aggressive to the smaller one chasing it around the tank and nipping it. Neither show any signs of illness, but the bigger of the two is being quite the bully and I feel horrible that I can’t figure out why 🙁
Does the fish look sick at all? They often exhibit that behavior when one of the fish are sick.
If both fish are healthy, it could be that the goldfish are competing for space. They tend to get very aggressive when the tanks are too small for them, and they’re trying to drive the other fish so they can get more space – but there’s no where for the other fish to go in the aquarium.
You can try adding fake plants and decorations to break up the line of sight in the tank, but beyond that, there isn’t much you can do besides upgrade your tank further. Though areas where the fish can’t see each other may help for a while.
how many times should i fead it a day
At the very maximum, I would feed them twice daily. Once in the morning, and once in the evening. Make sure all of the food is consumed with two to three minutes, and that there are no leftovers. If there, then you are feeding them too much.
as often as you want as long as there no leftovers the downside also with frequent feeding is they will have plenty of waste and that you will have to clean your filter frequently also, to be safe you need to partial water change daily at least 10%
Hi there. I’ve had comet goldfish for about a week now and I’m worried about it. My sister got it at a fair and gave it to me to take care of it. I put it in it’s new tank but it just sits in the corner and stays there. It looks dead but when I poke it with a stick (to make sure it’s alive) it swims slightly and goes back into its corner. Sometimes I see it laying on it’s side. I know it’s eating because the food disappears after I leave it alone for about an hour. What should I do?
Does it look ill at all? By that, I mean does it have any white spots on it? Anything that looks like fungus? Does it look bloated?
A good first step with a sick goldfish is to change the water. Usually bad water is the culprit, and trying doing a fair size water change (approx. 25% of the water). If this doesn’t help, trying feeding it some lightly boiled, and shelled peas. This will deal with any potential constipation issues it may have.
If that doesn’t do anything, then you need to start looking at it’s habitat. How warm is its water? What size tank is it kept in? What do you feed it? If you can provide this information, I can offer more help.
My goldfish doesn’t look ill at all. No white spots, fungus like things, or anything weird, and it doesn’t look bloated at all. I’ve tried the water changes by about 10-30% and that didn’t really work. I’ll try the peas later.
I don’t know the temperature (my thermometer broke).
The tank size is about 3 gallons (It’s still quite small, so it has a small tank for now).
And I feed it Tetra Goldfish Flakes (for the first 5 days I feed it some cucumbers and tropical fish flakes until I got the goldfish flakes).
There many possible culprit, if it stay in the bottom it is just stress in new environment and maybe protozoa parasites too and also because if it has sbd it would have swim upside down the best you should do is increase the temperature of your water put salt and strong aeration plus daily water change.
I am going to get a couple of comet goldfish and could they live without a bubbler/filter? I have not enough for one.
Unless you have a very large aquarium, you won’t be able to keep them healthy in a tank without a filter. Waste will start to build up fast, and there will be no way for it be processed. The fish will likely get sick, and could even die if you don’t do daily water changes. You really need a filter for your aquarium.
No you need proper filtration and aeration system remember they will consume oxygen in the water and they will excrete waste plus the food that you will gave them. If you will place them in a big pond with plants they will have their natural filtration system but if in a small aquarium they will really need aeration and filtration system. you can make you own DIY filtration system if you have low budget.
I kept mine for years without an aerator, but it’s definitely better to have one, and goldfish for sure need a filter.
I’m a little bit confused at the start of your article “Quick Stats” you give a temperature range of 75 to 86 degrees F. later on you indicate that they are better suited to a “cool room” . 75 to 86 is hardly a cool room. I’ve never used a heater in my goldfish tank can you better explain your temp ranges?
You’re right, it’s actually a bit confusing and I should amend it. Usually around 22-24 degrees is where they grow fastest with the least amount of stress, but it was really meant as the upper range they can still survive in with proper stocking and aeration. I’ll fix that in the near future when I can think of a way to state it more precisely.
One thing about breeding is that it can happen on accident in an indoor aquarium as well. Spawning can be triggered by peak water conditions and temperatures between 70 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit. (That’s how I once ended up with over a hundred goldfish.)
If you will separate the female and male and feed them plenty of live foods and high protein fish foods, you will end up thousands of goldfish. this is what I do in breeding my goldfish, one goldfish will produce 4 thousand plus fry
I have 3 comets, a 13″ and 2 5-6″! Would you recommend the new life 1mm pellets or 3mm? Thanks!
Those sound like some impressive goldfish – you’re obviously doing something right there. You should be able to stick with the 3mm pellets, but I would also up the amount of vegetables and frozen foods you’re feeding them. Big goldfish like that have voracious appetites and you need to make sure you can keep up with it.
Thanks! They are fair fish that seem to like my accommodations! What veggies and frozen foods would you recommend? I’d love to supplement their diet!
Mine absolutely love lightly boiled zucchini medallions and shelled peas. But you can try many different vegetables if you want to experiment. As for the frozen foods, I mainly stick with brine shrimp, bloodworms, and daphnia. They really appreciate this, but just make sure you don’t over do – they sometimes get constipated if you do.
I have multiple Comet’s in different stages of life, from the 8 inch adults in my pond to the 2 inch ones i’m currently keeping in my tank. All ranging from solid gold, black and orange and even red and whites. Though after my first successful spawning in my outdoor pond, I managed to rescue 3 small babies from the pond (The rest must have been eaten or very well hidden) But these three small babies have been and for the most part stayed this yucky brown color. One is now just starting to get a bit of black along his back but the other two are still a dark brown grey. Im hoping they will change color but is this a normal color for newborn/infant comets?
Goldfish are naturally brown, and when goldfish are born, you often get numerous fish with the natural colouring, or at least some of the natural colouring. Most of these are culled out when breeding, but in the wild, the natural colour fish tend to have much higher survival rates – which is probably why those three survived. It’s doubtful they will colour up much more than they have, and they’ll probably stay the brownish colour for the rest of their lives.
I hope this helps.
Thanks it really dose help, Ive just noticed one gaining a bit of black along its back but not much other change, even if they stay this color I love them and will hopefully live long healthy lives out in my pond when they are large enough.
My fry went through the same thing with coloring, all three of my surviving ones changed color a few months after the black appeared.
I have a new question. I have three young comets, one about 4 inches with the tail and the other two about 3 with the tail. I think two are females and the other is a male. The one i think is a male has been chasing the others in their belly area with no noticeable biting, I know this is spawning behavior but the tank has consistently been set around 70F. Im hoping they dont spawn they are in a 30 gal tank before they move to my pond and if they spawn there is no way i could separate them from the eggs/fry. But at that temp and the size of the fish is spawning even possible?
70F is actually pretty warm for goldfish, and more than warm enough for them breed. But the size is definitely on the small side, and they usually don’t breed until they’re around five inches or so. Are you sure it isn’t just aggression at this point? Does the male have raised while breeding tubercles?
gold fish starts to breed at 1 year old, they will be stimulate to breed if they are place in new freshly change water that is why your goldfish shows spawning behavior, also, some goldfish even if in small size they are matured already specifically when they are broght from pet store since they are stock at the pet store a bit longer already.
No I Haven’t noticed any of the tubercles on him yet. And it may be aggressive but I haven’t noticed any nipping or biting from any of them and when he chases them he is always under their belly. I thought They would have been too small since my other comets never showed any of these signs until i put them in the pond when they were about 6 inches or so. I feed them plenty and there are lots of grass/plants for hiding to prevent constant bullying if it were to happen but he is always following the other two around the tank. I would move him to my molly/guppie tank but i fear putting him in with them the smaller fish would gang up on him
Hi, i have a white comet about 10 cm. long it started changing into orange, is it normal chance of color or is sick??
How long have you had the goldfish? Sometimes if you just bought it from a store, it may have been orange originally, but its colour faded due to stress or illness. If you’ve had it for a while in good conditions, then its colour is simply changing as it matures. This is perfectly normal, and goldfish colors often change as they age – though I will admit it’s quite rare for a white goldfish to turn orange.
My parents are looking to get some comet goldfish to put in their small pond outside. What are the first steps to take?
The key thing is to find fish that are healthy. You want to find a store that only has healthy fish in the tank, and if there are any dead ones, you don’t want to buy from that store. Always look to see if they may have any illnesses. Spots, fuzz, and discoloration are a good indication of this.
After this, it’s as simple as choosing a small number of fish to start, and then acclimatizing them to the water. You can do this buy adding a cup of water from the pond to the bag every 5-10 minutes, until you have around equal parts water. Then using a net, take the fish out of the bag, and place them in the pond, making sure not to get any water from the bag into the pond (it can contain illnesses from the pet store).
Then you shouldn’t feed them for 24 hours, and make sure to check on them regularly to make sure they don’t jump out of the pond.
ok, so I am doing an extra credit project for biology, and I am using three comet goldfish. The problem is, im not sure which one may be male. They are too small to tell yet, i think they are about two inches long, exept the one i THINK is male. The one i suspect to be male is white, has longer fins, and smaller, thinner body. What do you guys think? Also, how old are they when they can breed? There are too many sources out there, and each say different things. I have a 50 gallon tank for when they re older, and a pond for them with other koi and comets when the experiment is done. Thanks a ton!
A lot depends on their diet, water temperature, and even the goldfish themselves, but most will usually start to breed by two years of age.
Do you have any pictures of them? I might be able to tell if you can e-mail them to me.
admin@aquariumtidings.com
Oh, also the project is genetics XD forgot to mention. I am doing dominant and recessive genes in coloration and fin type, thx.
Hi , I have one moor gold fish and one comet goldfish , can i know the best way to breed them .
There’s not much more to it then what I wrote in the article. Though you may end up with some very odd, non-commercial fish if you breed those varieties.
What will be the best pair to breed in goldfish type 🙂 and how can i do it can you advise 🙂
I would just always breed the same types – it keeps the gene pool relatively pure, and you won’t get any odd combinations.
I am making an outdoor water garden with live plants (floating, submerged, marginal, rooted floating). It is about 20 gal. I have a pump.
I want to have 3 comet goldfish. Do I need a filter as well as the pump? And is that enough space?
Thanks
Unfortunately, that is too small for comet goldfish. I would recommend going with mosquitofish or rosy red minnows. The goldfish will outgrow that size within a season.
As for a filter, there are lots of easy to make DIY filters you can find online. A commercial filter would be overkill for a pond that small.
Ok, thank you!
I have two comet fish. Can someone tell me how to give care to them? And when they will give babies etc?
Most of what you need is covered in the article. Do you have any specific questions?
I was wondering if there was something I could put in my pond to eat the eggs. I just removed 91 babies from my pond. Last year it was 98. I do not know what to do with them.
That’s an incredible survival rate. Usually the adults deals with most of the babies. But I do know that many snails will eat the eggs, so you should try whatever snails will survive in your region. They should be larger snails like pond snails, though. But be warned, they can also damage plants. Beyond that, you could try less aggressive native fish. What area do you live in?
Hey I’m building a aquaponics system for my classroom, and I was wondering what plant would be a good choice to balance life between the comet goldfish and the plant, and keep them both alive.
Leafy plants always do really well, like lettuce, kale, etc. You could try more traditional plants like tomatoes or cucumbers, but you need a heavily stocked fish holding tank for that, and that can be difficult with a newly setup tank. Some herbs might work, too, but I haven’t tried them personally.
Is it weird that my fish started to spawn as they were only reached about 4-5 inches long, pretty small compared to other comet, do you think they are new kind of comet? All the eggs are fertilized completely but I’m not sure the fry will survive
It’s not unheard of them to spawn when they’re that small. And if you keep the fry in there with them, you probably won’t have many survive. Goldfish are notorious for eating their fry.
Hi – I have an older comet goldfish (won at the county fair 7-9 years ago) – He has lived through two house moves and has been my little friend for a long time. I keep his water quite clean, and just fill it from the tub using AquaSafe, Water Conditioner, and Clarifier. He has moved up twice in tanks and has grown quite large, I believe he’s almost 7in or more. He lost all his scales some years ago over time…and has some sort of orange thing or growth on his side, but it’s been there forever and doesn’t seem to bother him. He has been in a 20 gallon tank for a few years and fine. Recently he started floating upside some, I determined this to be “stunting” – stunted growth due to his tank size, so I bought him a nice 38 gallon tank and he has been great for the last 3 days or so, swimming all around, no floating. But now he is doing it again. He will come back and swim normally, then go rest floating upside down. I’m at a loss for what to do. I’ve put a search out locally to try and find him a bigger home somewhere because I just don’t have room for a 55 gallon tank. Is this what’s going on? Does he absolutely need a bigger home? I have been told by others that his tank is plenty big…advice appreciated! He is swimming normally now but I’m keeping a very close eye on him. It’s as though his tail is pulling him upward, slightly kinked or swollen back there, is that his air bladder? He did live with another goldfish before, but that fish died a few years ago. Just want to save him and or do whatever I can to help him live longer if possible. Thanks-
It definitely sounds like a swim bladder problem. Sometimes, when goldfish have too much protein and too little fiber in their diets, they end up with problems like that.
I would recommend feeding the fish lightly boiled and shelled peas for the next few days. Quite often, this will fix a swim bladder problem in fish. I would also try more vegetables like zucchini in its diet for to help it clear out its system.
The scale loss is a bit more concerning though. Is the goldfish kept with any other fish? Is there anything sharp in the tank? Are there any signs of infection, like raw skin or bleeding? It’s not normal for a goldfish to lose all of its scales like that.
Hi thank you for the response….I started the pea method this morning. He lost all his scales a few years ago and has seemed ok since. I don’t really remember how or why it happened. There are no other fish in his tank. His friend died a few years back and this guy has remained. Nothing sharp in his tank…no signs of other infection except he has what looks to be maybe a small tumor on his side….which has also been there a long time, it’s orange. He has been swimming pretty normally the last two days or so. I have been getting very mixed opinions on tank size…some say 29 gallon minimum which seems very small to me, other info says 55gallon minimum. I try to give him a nice home! I’m willing to try and move him somewhere if that is the humane thing to do! Advice appreciated.
I think you could probably get away with 40 gallons, but 29 is too small for a comet goldfish. The water is very difficult to keep clean and you usually end up with some stunting.
Just hoping to extend his life if possible; but I also certainly don’t want him to suffer. He seems normal and happy again today. But based on his age and size, would moving him to a larger home be good? I can’t imagine anyone would risk throwing him in with other fish…even though I don’t believe him to be sick…..
Like I said, I definitely try to provide a nice home for him…I can’t imagine he’d have a larger space by himself anywhere else… I am actually going to call a local fish store/specialist today when they open to get their opinion on it. Thanks again-
I understand it’s a lot of money to invest for a fish that’s quite ill. To be honest, it’d be best to move him to a bigger tank, but if it was me, I may consider keeping him in his home until the end of his life
ThankS for the information dude, you helped me keep my fish alive to this day 🙂
I’m always glad to help out a goldfish. 🙂
How big are baby comet’s (average size)
Goldfish are really tiny when they’re first hatched. At their longest, they’re only a few millimeters and look like nothing more than eyes with a tail.
Hi! I have 3 large(13” and 2- 7”)comets that will need to be transported to our new home! I’m looking for advice on the best way to do this. The trip is about 35 minutes
Thanks!
Since it’s not a long trip, you can keep it pretty simple. I would buy a styrofoam cooler and large, thick bags. Place a minimum of two bags (double bagged) over the edges of the cooler and fill it 1/3 of the way up with freshly changed aquarium water. Once the water has been added, place an ammonia treatment product in the water (available at all fish stores). If you don’t feed your fish for a day or two before hand, it will also help to keep the water clean and safe for them. After the water is ready, add the goldfish to the bag and seal it with plenty of air inside with a rubber band. If the weather is too hot or cold there, you may want to add hot or cold packs, though goldfish are pretty resilient to temperature changes.
Using this method, you should be able to move your fish without issue.
Wonderful thank you so much! I will have to give some peas as a treat once they are settled!
Hello again! Since getting our fish settled on Sunday, my 14” comet is eating fine but is face down, tail up with slight movement in the corner of the tank most of the the time. I’m trying to figure out if it’s stress or something else? Maybe he’s fine? I’m not sure how to post a video on here or I would show you. Thanks in advance!
Sorry about the delayed response, but it sounds like it might be a water issue. Have you tested the water lately? I’d start with daily water changes and also feed the goldfish blanched, lightly shelled peas in case it’s a swim bladder problem. Let me know how the fish is doing now.
What should I be testing for in the water? Just so o know to get the right thing! Also I’m not sure if going from hard water to soft water would do anything? As far as peas, shelled as in not in the pod or to squeeze the contents out of the little membrane of the pea, hope that makes sense! Boiled, fresh, can or frozen peas?
Thanks, he is still worrying me. Responds to food and little movement after that
The main concern is ammonia in the water. If you take a sample of your aquarium water to most pet stores, like Petsmart, they will test the water for free. Also, if you don’t acclimate the fish first,it can hurt fish to go from hard to soft water.
As for the peas, frozen peas are fine and after boiling them, squeeze them out of the shells directly into the aquarium. It makes it easier for the fish to eat them and you won’t end up with discarded shells in the aquarium.
I hope this helps.
Water test came back fine, slightly high nitrates. Got some stress coat and gave him the peas. He reacted well to the peas! How much and how often should I feed him and the others peas?
My goldfish has been pregnant for a month now and I’m not sure how to take care of it. I don’t when when it will give birth. How should I handle it when it does.
Unfortunately, goldfish don’t become pregnant. If it has a bloated stomach, it usually means that the fish is ill. First, you should feed your goldfish some lightly blanched shelled peas. If it’s constipation – which is common in goldfish – it should clear it right up. Otherwise, you may need to look into using antibiotics for your fish.
It is a comet goldfish. It has been pregnant for around a month now and it’s stomach u really big. How should I take care of this? It is the only fish in the tank since the other comet gold fish died.
Do I take the fish out of the tank and hand breed it? If so, how do I do that? This is my first time experiencing a pregnant fish so I have no idea what I am suppose to be doing.
Goldfish do not become pregnant. They lay eggs and if their stomach is large, there is something wrong with it. Like I said in my previous comment, your fish is most likely sick and you’ll need to do something about it.
I was surprised to find 7 baby fish in my pond outside , they are around 1-1/2 inches long .Are they ok to stay in there with the parents?Also how often do they breed ?
First of all, congrats on the new goldfish babies. But how large of the parents? Generally speaking, unless you have truly massive goldfish, they should be fine with their parents when they’re an inch long. And goldfish generally breed around once a month through spring and summer. So you could expect a lot more babies if you keep the conditions right for them.
help me pls how do i make my fish have babys
Are you looking to breed them? First of all, how old are the fish? And what’s the setup like?
I had a very interesting little surprise today after I’d finished doing my weekly water change/gravel siphon. I say surprise because I have 6 comet goldfish ranging from about 2″-5/6″ excluding the fins in a 29gal tank. 😬, I know but they’re basically rescues and I’m actively trying to find homes for them. Don’t worry, I’m running two 30gal hang on the back filters. I don’t change the media in both on the same day or do a water change on the same day as a media change. It’s a lot of work but these guys are so much happier now being out of an algae covered tank with brown water and on a processed food only diet that they laid eggs. Which was both shocking and unexpected because I’ve read that they won’t breed in such a small overcrowded environment but apparently that’s a myth. Or maybe they just feel like their environment and diet is now sufficient enough? I don’t know what to think at this point really.
Unfortunately I think I likely siphoned the majority of them and any other eggs that hadn’t been eaten out today but I don’t know what I’d do with them anyway. However, a few of them and some eggs got sucked to into the filters too so I grabbed both filters down and dumped them out into a bucket then just kind of dunked the media into that water a couple times to loose any fry that might have been clinging to it without really rinsing the media. I gently removed what eggs didn’t fall out when I dumped out the filters and put all that into the little one gallon tank I had gotten from someone just a few days ago because well, I’m not really sure why, I just felt like I needed it. I know it’s really too small, even for fry, but boy am I glad I had it on hand now. Initially, there were only 2 visible fry but now we’re up to 6. I’m not anticipating any of them to survive but hey, at least I can say I tried. I’m gonna have to purchase additional items to attempt to save these little guys but it’ll be worth it if even one makes it I guess. It’s all really rather exciting at the same time as being an inconvenience.
Please feel free to share any thoughts as to why my goldfish rescues decided to breed in such a small tank when pretty much every website I’ve read as a means of research for proper care says they won’t.
Thanks for letting my me share either way.
Hi there my female gomet has started to swim around weaker and always wane be with the male and female never alone should i be wearied about it she was always full off energy but the past 2 days she is swimming much slower
Please help me with any advice.. I have 2 female and 1 male comet fish.. I got more than 1000 baby comets in December in 2 groups with 2 weeks difference in age.. the 2nd group couldn’t make it and almost 900 fries died because of the fungus.. the rest of the fries grew up and they are almost 4 months now. I’m really worried about losing them because for the last month I didn’t see much difference in their size and each 2 days 1 or 2 fish die! I feed them brine shrimp, egg and fry powder food. I feed them each 8 hours. I change water every week. I really want to know what’s the problem and how can I solve it. What is the best food to be given for this age of comet goldfish and what’s the quantity to be served (for almost 50 fish)?
What sort of aquarium do you have them in? If they’re all in the aquarium, you’re probably having huge water problems. Have you tested the water recently?
How can I test the water?? The aquarium measurements are: 60 (L) 35 (W) 40(h). And yes all of them are in the same aquarium except the small ones in a smaller aquarium. All the small fish are in good health none of them are dying. But the bigger ones are still dying and they sink at the bottom of the aquarium they cannot swim until they die.
I have 3commet goldfish, my 1female seems a bit weak,she does eat and swim,but tilts alot to one side.She doesn’t seem to want to be alone,she stays constantly with the male and other female.don’t know what to do,dont know if shes sick. Plz help
I have a very large comet, a 4H fair rescue, about 6-7 inches long and around 8 years old. She gets 1/8 tsp of Wardley medium (4mm) floating pellets daily. This food is now unavailable and I’m looking for alternatives. Some say the floating pellets can contribute to swim bladder issues, and she does sometimes seem to have problems staying down. I’m not sure if I should get something “slowly” sinking and/or larger, or stick with what has kept her going lo these many years.
How do I identify the gender of my comets. I have 3 4″ or 5″ in a pond. 2 3″ in a 26 gal and I just added 6 small store bought ones.