You can dose this conditioner every day until these values read 0 PPM, to save your fish from dying. An emergency water additive you can use is SeaChem prime water conditioner, which detoxifies these compounds temporarily. If you have any level of these compounds in the water, you must act quickly to save your fish. It’s important to understand that ammonia and nitrite are highly toxic. You could also decrease ammonia levels by adding fast-growing live plants. If there is any ammonia or nitrite in the water, you either don’t have enough filtration in your tank, your bacteria colony is not well established in your filters and the tank is not properly cycled, you have too many fish, your tank is not big enough, or you are overfeeding. When testing for nitrite, the target for maintaining healthy water parameters is also 0 PPM. When testing for ammonia, the target for maintaining healthy water parameters is 0 PPM. If you bought the water testing kit as described in my list of necessary items, then testing the water should not be that hard of a task. However, it’s not a big deal at all if you don’t, just make sure you spice their diet up at least weekly. Though it can be hard to give your goldfish a special feeding every day, and many days I am not able to, it is ideal for the fish. So I would only feed frozen foods up to once or twice a week, and the rest of the time, have the special feeding be a veggie or greens. I recommend feeding veggies, fruit, or algae much more often than feeding bloodworms or brine shrimp because their pellets already contain so much animal protein that the biggest need for diversity is from plants or algae. By having 1 “special” feeding a day, your goldfish will have more than enough diversity in their diet. So if you choose to feed your fish 3 times a day, make 1 of those 3 feedings a veggie (broccoli spinach, peas.) or make that feeding a frozen food (Blood worms, brine shrimp). The ideal way to add diversity to a goldfish’s diet is by making 1 of the 2-4 daily feedings a “special” feeding. You can buy these at most local and chain pet stores. Two great frozen fish foods I use and recommend are frozen blood worms and frozen brine shrimp. I choose to always feed frozen foods over live foods because with live foods, there is a risk of them carrying a parasite and infecting your fish, however many hobbyists do this all the time with no problems. You also want to occasionally feed them live or frozen foods. Another option is feeding them algae that grows in the tank or pond, they love eating this. You can also occasionally feed soft fruits like bananas or strawberries, but do this in moderation. Something to keep in mind when feeding veggies is that it’s okay to have big chunks of veggies stay in the tank for an extended time like a semi long-term snack, instead of only giving enough to eat in 30 seconds or so. You should routinely feed some veggies including boiled broccoli, boiled and de-shelled peas, lightly boiled or softened spinach, lightly boiled or softened romaine lettuce, and many others! In the wild, goldfish routinely eat a lot of vegetation and greens, so it’s good to give them a diet plentiful in greens. What else should you feed to your goldfish? In addition to feeding pellets, I highly recommend adding some diversity to their diet. It’s a complicated process, but it’s necessary. You will know your tank is filtered once your water testing kit reads zero ammonia, zero nitrites, and an elevated nitrate level. In short, you will have the throw crushed up fish food into the tank to rot and produce ammonia and allow time for the bacteria colony to settle and establish in the filters so they can handle the ammonia production from the fish once you add them. During this tank cycling process is where I recommend using bottled bacteria to speed up the process and establish a strong bacteria colony, as well as using the water testing kit to ensure ammonia is being converted quickly into nitrate. This beneficial bacteria is responsible for converting the ammonia your fish produce as waste and detoxifying it into a much less harmful compound called nitrate. In short, tank cycling is establishing a beneficial bacteria colony in your filters. If your tank is not properly cycled before adding goldfish, they will likely die, please thoroughly research tank cycling. I am not going to go into the specifics of tank cycling in this article however, I highly recommend you research it because it is crucial that your tank is cycled before adding goldfish. After setting up your tank, you must make sure you have your tank cycled.
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