(Or rather NOT!) Hi...I have had 2 gold fish for about 8months..around 4 months ago one of them gradually lost his colour. I looked on a couple of web sites and both said it was because of breeding season and warm weather..he would go back to normal when it got colder. He hasn't. He is healthy..alert..( comes up for food as soon as I open the top of tank)..the other one never changed colour..any ideas???

Gold fish often change colour, for many reasons. The big one is illness but diet can also affect them apparently - what do you feed them (please don't say flakes!!!)

Goldfish shouldn't really be kept in tanks. Best place for them is in a pond where they have more room and can attain their natural size of 12" or over.

Fancies can - though it should be at least a 5 foot tank with over-filtration.

But yep - comets should be in a pond.

That's why I no longer keep gold fish. I can not give then the correct environment at the moment.

What other fish can be kept in ponds then? We want to build a pond in the garden but know nowt about it.

Koi are the other most commonly kept pond fish.

You need the biggest pond that you have room for and a good filter from an aquarium shop.

As Robin said - Koi but they need quite a bit of specialist care.
Golden orfe are an easier choice though they need a large surface area and flowing water (fountain/waterfall). They are very active & fascinating to watch.
Sturgeon/sterlets are becoming popular but are just as fussy as koi - though if building a koi pond they'd make an interesting addition.
Golden rudd are easier still as the rudd is a native fish in the UK. Similarly the golden tench which is beautiful but will spend most of its time lurking at the bottom.
You can also keep other uk fish like dace, sticklebacks & minnows but for an easy, pretty, fish the good old goldfish is going to be hard to beat.

Yeah, as mentioned above, koi need a bit more attention as they're more susceptible to disease if water quality isn't good than, say, goldfish or others. So good filtration needed.

Just a bog standard goldfish that someone won at a fair and was going to flush down the loo!!! I DO give them flakes on alternate days...they also have blood worms and spinach!

Could you swap the flakes for pellets? Or granules if it is small. The problem with flake is that they float on the surface and the fish can take in air with them. Not always a massive issue but could lead to problems.

The blood worms and spinach is good. You could try raw prawn and mince occasionally. and switch up the bloodworms - try brine shrimp sometimes. The occasional pea is good too.

Diet isn't the only factor in colour though.

What size is the tank? I'm guessing it isn't a big 6 foot tank

The absolute minimum would be 4 foot doubling up on the filtration but even that is a bit too small. As others have said, if it is a comet (ordinary goldfish) it should really be in a pond. In reality it is the only place it can thrive. You might consider finding a pond home for him come spring.

That's a very good varied diet!

Whats the average lifespan for goldfish?

5-10 years I have heard if kept in a suitable environment, eg 1 fish to 65 litres I suppose, minimum, the bigger tank the better, or a decent pond. I prefer tropicals though, as I don't have a garden

Do you remember when anyone could get a goldfish at a fairground?

I have 2 which are at least over 14 years old and still going strong, HUGE bloody things now. (originally had 4, lost 2 to a heron) They are outside in a raised pond in sheltered position which is about 5 feet wide, 7 ft long and at 4feet deep with a huge pond filter. They had babies about 5 years ago and now have a pond full of them some of their babies grew up to be truely beautiful (white with red dots).

There is something calming and serene about watching fish swim about in a tank

Is there much difference between the goldfish people used to pick up at the fair to the ones which you and other posters have?

not to my knowledge, goldfish are goldfish.

My mum got them from a proper fish shop (think they are still going in fact) and she just picked up about 4 goldfish and 4 shubunkin and they were just cheap goldfish, nothing special about them.

I love going in the garden in the summer and watching them. A cup of tea/ cold drink and fish watching... lovely

There is no real difference.

A good goldfish keeper probably got his stock from a hobby breeder and keeps his fish in a pond or huge tank suitable to their needs. They tend to live 15 to 20 years and reach over 12 inches - some even longer lived and bigger..

Fish from a fair (or pet shop) are usually farm bred, stunted and end up in awful conditions - small unfiltered tanks. They tend to live between a few weeks before the ammonia kills them or suffer for a few years before the stunted organs kill them. They may reach 6 inches and survive 8+ years. But most are smaller and much shorter lived.

Ah right. It sounds awful though for the farm bred ones. BTW can you recall when the goldfish are fairs were banned?

They also had this toy in china which was a little keyring full of water with a tiny creature in it, i think they might have banned that but im not sure. It reminded me of the goldfish at the fairs hung up in those carrier bags

I too thought fair ground goldfish were banned, but apparently not:

Schoolgirl calls for ban on fairground goldfish


How can we stop goldfish being given away as prizes?

It seems a ban was on the cards back in 2005 but politicians caved in to the fairground lobby and mearly banned giving them to under 16s.
However local councils can ban it in their area so maybe thats why I've not seen it in Notts for a long time (not that I frequent fairs that much!)

It should be illegal to house fish like that.


I don't like this practice of betta fish being kept in small 200ml glasses either in some aquarium shops here. Fish often get forgotten on the animal cruelty issue