Gold fish are a realy popular pet and are the most popular fish to keep as pets bu tfor all the wrong reasons.

People often opt for keeping a goldfish as a first fish as they dont want to buy a tank and only intend to buy a gold fish bowl, this is realy bad for the fish as gold fish bowls have a very small surface area of water because of the shape of the bowl this doesnt allow enough oxygen into the water and can kill your fish, another reason for not using a goldfish bowl is that it is hard to fit a filter into such a small tank and goldfish realy need filtration as they are very messy.

Goldfish can live for over 20 years if looked after properly and the myth that a goldfish only grows to the size of its tank is partly right in the fact that if you put a goldfish in a very small tank it will stunt its growth but a properly cared for goldfish will get to between 6 and 10 inches fully grown and can be kept with other goldfish.

Setting up tour tank is pritty much the same as you would for tropical fish but without the heater.

You will need a decent sized tank, a filter and a light.
Gravel in the bottom and any plants or ornaments you may choose but remember if using real plants the goldfish will eat them.

You need to fill your tank up and leave it to stand for at least 5 days to allow the chlorine to disperse out of the water before adding fish.

You will need to change 25% of your water every week as goldfish are very messy and feed them twice a day i use a flaked goldfish food and a pelet food for mine one in a morning and one at night.

Goldfish are very relaxing to watch but are actually more difficult to look after than tropical fish as they need cleaning more often as they are very messy fish.

You can keep gold fish in ponds but i have never done this so cant realy tell you anything about this.