Caring Ranchu Goldfish and Feeding
Caring Ranchu Goldfish
Preparing fish tank
Ranchu Goldfish are some of the more delicate species of goldfish. Unlike the flat-bodied types of goldfish, they have a lower tolerance for pollution. They will need good care and plenty of space. When it comes to feeding, they will not thrive well with fast competitive tank mates. Setting up an aquarium in a manner that will keep your fish happy and healthy is the first step to successfully fish keeping.
Deciding Aquarium Size
The shape and size of the goldfish aquarium is important and depends upon the number of fish you are going to keep. Goldfish need a lot of oxygen and produce a lot of waste. Keep the tank size and shape in mind when you are buying your fish.
Tank Shape: A large surface area of water will help minimize goldfish suffering from an oxygen shortage. Surface area is determined by the shape of the tank. For the same volume of water, an elongated tank offers more surface area (and oxygen) than a tall tank. In a goldfish bowl, filling the bowl to the middle offers more surface area than filling the bowl to the top. Always provide the maximum amount of surface area.
Tank size: It's best to start with a 20 - 30 gallon tank for your first goldfish and then increase the size of the tank by 10 gallons for each additional goldfish. Providing a large amount of water per fish will help dilute the amount of waste and reduce the number of water changes needed
Water rules: Please keep in mind that tank shape and size is important. For proportion when you buy a new tank, think that 1 inch of your young goldfish will need 1 gallon of water. As they are growth it will need more space than young fish. With this in mind, you will be more wisely when tailoring what proper size and how many max-numbers of fish in your new tank will give good environment for any aquarium residents.
Fish - size and growth: To allow for growth, either buy fewer fish than the maximum number of fish (based on the water rules above) or be prepared to get a larger tank. Larger gold fish consume much more oxygen than young fish so maintaining this formula for growing fish will stunt them, and can contribute to disease and even death
Lighting
Most aquariums come with a cover that includes lighting. A cover for the tank is desirable as it reduces evaporation and though they are not prone to jumping, on occasion some gold fish will jump out. Lighting is not essential for goldfish, but does make the aquarium a nice show piece and lighting will help if you have live plants.
Filtration and Temperature
Goldfish produce a lot of waste. Good filtration, especially biological filtration, is very helpful in maintaining the water quality of the aquarium. Filtration systems remove much of the detritus, excess foods and waste. This helps keep the tank clean and maintain the general health of the goldfish.
Goldfish are a cold water fish and will do best at temperatures between 65 - 72° F (18°- 22° C) with ph: 6.0 to 8.0. Unlike the flat-bodied types of goldfish, the Ranchu has a lower tolerance for pollution and cannot tolerate temperatures much below 60° F (16° C).
Aquarium Decor and Substrate
You can add some decor, but make sure that all ornamentation is smooth with no protruding points or sharp edges. Smooth rocks or driftwood, should be used sparingly if at all. Aquarium plants would be the best choice of aquarium decor for goldfish, but unfortunately these fish are diggers. Consequently live plants may be uprooted. Artificial plants make a good substitute and silk plants are safer than plastic ones.
Provide a gravel substrate to help create a natural and comfortable environment for your fish. A medium sized gravel works best.
Feeding Ranchu Goldfish
Ranchu Goldfish will generally eat all kinds of fresh, frozen, and flake foods. To keep a good balance give them a high quality flake food everyday. To care for your Ranchu Goldfish, feed brine shrimp (either live or frozen), blood worms, Daphnia, or tubifex worms as a treat. It is usually better to feed freeze-dried foods as opposed to live foods to avoid parasites and bacterial infections that could be present in live foods. Due to their fleshy head growth they can have poor vision and a harder time seeing their food, so need extra time to feed.
