Most of us love pets. I personally love fishes as pets. If you already have kept fishes as pets, then you might have heard about goldfishes. A goldfish is perhaps the most beautiful fish to keep as a pet. However, many goldfish breeds exist in the world. The most beautiful among these is the Comet Goldfish, also known as Comet-tailed Goldfish or Carassius Auratus. It gained the name Comet because of the long tail it has. However, there are more noticeable differences between an ordinary goldfish and a comet goldfish as well. Let’s directly jump into its details.
Difference Between a Common Goldfish and Comet Goldfish:
Despite having a long and deep forked tail and stiff fins, the comet goldfish is a unique breed that is available in a variety of different colors in the market. You’ll see comets in a variety of colors like red, silver (Tancho single-tail), yellow, orange, brown, and the red-and-white color (Sarasa), a beautiful color. Moreover, the size of comets is a bit smaller in comparison with a common goldfish and hence seem much slimmer.
Taking care of comets also requires less effort as compared to ordinary goldfishes. You don’t need to adopt extra measures for taking care of comets. In comparison to other breeds, the comet goldfish tends to be more active and fancy. Their overall behavior in water is fun to watch as they love to swim actively across their surroundings and can remember their tank surroundings and their owners.
Size and Lifespan:
Like the common goldfish, the comet goldfish can grow up to 12 or a maximum of 13 inches in length. And when it comes to lifespan, you can expect a comet to live for over 14 years. However, if you hope to get such kind of length and lifespan, then you must provide adequate space for comets to live along with a suitable water temperature and feed them regularly.
Tank Size:
If you have planned to buy a couple of comet goldfishes for yourself, then to attain the maximum size and lifespan, you must be aware of the tank size and conditions required to produce these results.
As far as tank size is concerned, you can easily keep several comet goldfishes in a single tank, but this will restrict them from reaching their maximum length. Having multiple fishes in a single tank will result in a lesser area for them to swim and hence will reduce their growth. Now, a question may come into your mind that what is the perfect tank size for keeping a comet goldfish in a healthier environment for a bigger size and lifespan? The answer to your question is a minimum of 50 Gallons tank for a single comet. According to this digit, if you are deciding on keeping 3-4 comet goldfishes, then you need to have a 150-200 gallon tank accordingly.
Tank Conditions:
If you are someone who has kept fishes as pets before, then you might be aware of the fact that fishes love to live in cold water. So you continuously need to measure the temperature of the tank and to keep away any heat-producing source. In the case of comet goldfish, an ideal tank temperature ranges from 50 to 75 Fahrenheit. Furthermore, use the pH scale to measure the pH value of the tank water. It is better to continuously replace the tank water with fresh and cold water to keep the pH value between 6.5 to 7.5.
Feeding Comets:
After creating suitable environmental conditions for keeping comet goldfishes, now it’s time to have an eye on the diet and feeding of comets. Feeding your fishes initially with flakes or pellets won’t be a bad idea because they can generally eat anything. The comet goldfish mostly depends on plants and small insects as their diet. Following is a shortlist of foods which you can feed to your fishes to make them beautiful and healthy:
- Algae
- Flakes and Pullets
- Small insects
- Cucumber
- Worms
- Carrots
- Sliced fruits, etc.
You can feed your comet goldfish with any of the products listed above. However, be careful while you provide them with their meals as they turn out to be more aggressive when being fed. That’s why you must feed your comets 2-3 times a day and feed them by putting the food into two different corners of the tank. Later on, if you find any food left behind, you need to remove it from the water to keep it clean and fresh.
Tank Mates of Comet Goldfish:
As mentioned earlier, if you have a 200 gallons tank, then you can easily keep 3 to 4 comets in it. This space will be enough for them to live and swim freely. But what happens if you put any other organism in the same tank? Well, we are sorry to say that it won’t be a good idea as comet goldfishes don’t like making tank mates. There are two possible reasons behind this: the first one is that the comets become aggressive while you are feeding them. Hence if there are other organisms in the tank, then they will remain hungry as comet goldfishes won’t let them have a single bite. The second reason is that not every fish or water creature can survive in cold water. So if you keep a species that can’t survive this cold water situation, then it will surely die.
If you want to add a tank mate at any cost, then you can select one of the following species. We hope that they will be a good match for your comet goldfishes:
- Shubunkin goldfish
- Wakin goldfish
- Weather Loaches
- Zebra Danios
- Rosy Barbs
More species can also be suitable but make sure that you find those who can survive the cold water of the tank.
Farming or Breeding Comet Goldfish:
If you an aquarium in your house and you are thinking of breeding your comet goldfish, then it’s not a good idea to start a comet breeding in an aquarium. Breeding of fishes is most commonly done in outdoor ponds as they offer larger space and water. However, if you have no ponds nearby your house, don’t worry as we have an alternative solution to your problem.
If you have made up your mind about the breeding of your comet goldfish, then it’s not a bad idea unless you follow some important instructions like:
- You’ll have to buy a separate water tank. In this way, you can keep the parents and the eggs separately in two different tanks.
- After this, you need to reduce the temperature more but for a short period, about 30 to 40 days.
- Try to turn off the light given to that tank. We recommend that you switch on the light for just 7 to 8 hours every day for better breeding of your comet goldfishes.
- Increasing the use of high-quality feed in their diet will also show you positive results.
- When the female has done with the egg spawning process, then you need to remove both parents from the water as they won’t take much time in eating up all of those laid eggs.
- Carefully transfer the eggs to a separate and clean water tank and go to the market to buy some commercial fry food as the eggs will hatch and produce newly born baby comet goldfishes within 1 or 2 days.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q1: What is the maximum length of a comet goldfish?
Ans: Comet goldfish can grow up to 12 or a maximum of 13 inches if treated carefully.
Q2: How long can a comet goldfish live?
Ans: Being active, they can live for a minimum of 4 years to a maximum lifespan of 14 years.
Q3: Can we eat a comet goldfish?
Ans: Yes, a comet goldfish grows up in clean water. That’s why anyone can eat this goldfish like other delicious fishes.
Q4: Why comets die so fast?
Ans: If you don’t give them clean water with suitable water temperature, then they will catch diseases like ammonia poisoning and will die soon.
Conclusion:
If you can provide all the required conditions within the aquarium in your house, then you are most welcome to buy comet goldfishes as your pets. These are the most beautiful goldfishes of all due to their brighter color and being active naturally. However, if you are a beginner or you don’t have large water tanks for the aquarium, then comets are not suitable for you. You can switch to any other option except comet goldfish.
If you are the one who has been keeping comet goldfishes for a long time, then you are free to comment down below about the experience you are having with these beautiful water creatures. Thanks for making this far to the end of the article.
