Chemicals to keep away from your Goldfish

February 22, 2010 10:21 am admin Reference

Chlorine and chloramine are two chemicals that your goldfish don’t want in their water at any level. Both chemicals are added to sterilize municipal water, and are safe for human consumption. But, for your goldfish, they’re deadly – painfully deadly. In fish, chlorine and chloramine cause cell death or acute necrosis, and the cells in the sensitive gills are particularly susceptible. Goldfish placed in water with chlorine or chloramine will asphyxiate when the cells in their gills die off, leaving them with no way to breathe. Chlorine treatment used to be an easy part of goldfish care– you just needed to let your water sit out a day or two and the chlorine would break down, dissipating from the water. But now, many municipal water systems add the more stable chloramine, a combination of chlorine and ammonia, which can only be removed by treatment. Before you add any new water to your tank, even during a partial water change, condition the water using a water treatment product that is appropriate for where you live. The water treatment product will have instructions about how much solution to use per gallon of tap water.