The Cold Blooded Goldfish
Goldfish, like most fish species are cold-blooded. Unlike a warm blooded animal who uses homeostasis to keep its internal body temperature constant, the body temperature of a cold-blooded goldfish is regulated by external environmental factors. When a cold-blooded amphibian like a pond turtle is cold, it will seek out a nice place to sunbathe to warm its body temperature. Goldfish don’t have the luxury of getting out of the cold water to warm itself up; instead a goldfish simply slows down. This is most noticeable In a goldfish pond during winter, when the water temperature drops to 50*F (10*C) or bellow. Goldfish become less active, sit at the bottom of the goldfish pond and eat very little. At 40*F (5*C) goldfish go into a semi-hibernation and don’t eat at all. There is little they can do raise their internal body temperature other than sit at the bottom where the water temperature is slightly warmer or seek out any pond heaters to sit next to.
The main difference between being cold-blooded or warm-blooded is that warm-blooded animals use a lot of their intake of calories to warm their bodies while cold-blooded animals don’t have to. Warm-blooded animals need to eat 3-4 times as much as cold-blooded animals. A cold-blooded goldfish can go a week or more without eating and not die from starvation. The goldfish will not look emaciated or show signs of malnutrition but it will be hungry. While warm-blooded animals would waste away and die, a goldfish will just stop growing during extended periods of not eating. As soon as food is reintroduced, the goldfish will resume growing. This makes it okay to err on the side of underfeeding a goldfish as overfeeding is more harmful to a goldfish (More on goldfish feeding and goldfish care).
Hmm? I would buy some test kits for ammonia and ph to make sure your water is in good order. Then I would make sure the water in the tank is cool to add more oxygen in the water. You can also add oxygen by getting a filter or some live aquatic plants. If the ammonia is high, change the water. If the ph is off read this post on ph and tank water.
I would try feeding your goldfish some other type of food to see if it will eat. Flakes seem to work best.
I have just gotten a goldfish recently, out of my trip to wales. My goldfish as been doing the same as you have described, but instead of laying on the gravel, it’s just been blowing bubbles at the top of the tank, and when I come home every day, I see tons of bubble covering the top of the tank. It’s stopped doing that now but it’s still not eating and it’s always at the top of the tank, trying to blow the bubbles again but then pops them. This is the closest thing I can find to what my goldfish has been doing. I just thought this was to do with the trip from Wales but it’s been going on for weeks! what should I do???
this really helped me and my goldfish thank you!!!
I go t a lot of my information from these goldfish books
the reason why this helped with a project is beacuse this project is done for many schools but in the report we need back up proof that the colder it gets the slower the goldfish oral and operculum movments are and its pretty hard to find this information
This was such a great help. It helped me with a project thank you so much!
Ps. You should tag in the tags for this “How temperature affects a goldfish” and this will help so many people out thanks again!