Goldfish poop and pee. There is a tiny opening under the goldfish called “vent” in the area between the abdomen and the tail fin. This is from where poop is released in the form of small dark-colored pebbles. And goldfish pee by urinating through the gill.
Now that you know that goldfish poop and pee, it’s critical to understand the feces of your goldfish because it can tell you a lot about the health of your fish.
But first, let’s understand…
How Goldfish Poop And Pee – Goldfish Anatomy And Biology
To understand how goldfish poop and pee, we need to learn about goldfish as well as other tropical fish.
Like any other animal, we need to learn about their anatomy and how their bodies function so that we can care for them properly.
Some types of fish need special care compared to other fish.
Understanding how your goldfish poops and pees start with learning how its digestive system works.
Learning how food and water are consumed is crucial.
In the case of goldfish, this process of consumption begins in the mouth. The food and water get digested as follows:
- Food received in the mouth is chewed, and water collected goes to the pharynx located at the back of the mouth. Here it is broken down in smaller crumbs by the pharyngeal teeth below the pharynx.
- The water that the goldfish drinks is then absorbed by an osmosis process, where the water is broken down into a form that can be digested.
- Goldfish do not have stomachs, so the food and water go to the intestines into a pocket called the intestinal bulb, which acts as the stomach. Food is stored here, and it is broken down further by liver enzymes to get the fats and carbohydrates. The caudal intestine (the second half of the intestines) absorbs the food’s protein.
- The water the fish takes in then goes to the kidney, where the excess water turns to urine that contains ammonia. This leaves the goldfish’s body from the teleost gill located at the gill cover. This is where the goldfish pees.
- The poop (which looks like dark-colored short pencil lead like pieces) leaves the intestines through a very tiny opening near the tail fin called the vent.
Phew! Who knew there was so much science involved with goldfish, right?
Now that we have understood how goldfish poop and pee, let’s dive deeper into the facts surrounding goldfish poop and pee…
Facts About Goldfish Poop And Pee
When your goldfish poops, you might see tiny dark-colored strings come out which may become longer until they fall off.
If you notice this, then your goldfish might be producing some bad poop.
Goldfish, like all animals, can have waste issues. Here are some essential facts about goldfish poop:
- Goldfish produces large amounts of solid waste because they don’t have stomachs. When the fish eats, it goes right to the intestines where nutrients are extracted, and the remainder gets excreted out of the vent.
- Solid waste should come out of goldfish as small pellets that are the same color as the food the fish is fed.
- Long string poop and abdominal bloating are symptoms that the fish could be constipated or stressed. They may not be eating well and should be monitored.
- Goldfish can die of constipation because the blockage could damage the intestines as the poop tries to move. The treatment for this type of illness is to feed food that contains high amounts of fiber. This will cause solid waste to flow out with little effort. You can feed your goldfish food like peas, tiny pieces of cucumber, lettuce and flakes, pellets, and bloodworms occasionally. Check out the full list of food that you can feed your goldfish.
- Overfeeding can become an issue very fast because the more you feed them, the more they poop, and it will affect the amount of goldfish poop in the aquarium. Goldfish, by nature, are called opportunity eaters. This means that they eat every time they see you with the food canister. So ideally you should feed tiny amounts of food; 2 to 3 times a day.
- The accumulation of solid waste in an aquarium could cause a decrease in water quality and a build-up of bacteria. This bacteria can grow and multiply as it feeds on the goldfish fecal matter, which is terrible for their health.
Now, coming to goldfish urine, it contains nitrates and ammonia.
Those chemicals tend to build up in the aquarium water over a short period of time.
This can cause the goldfish to suffocate from lack of oxygen.
Here are some of the symptoms of this chemical build-up:
- Burns to the gill, fins and other areas of the fish,
- Gasping for air by staying at the top of the waterline.
So it is important to keep cleaning the goldfish poop and pee from the fish tank…
Cleaning Out Goldfish Waste From The Aquarium Without Hurting The Fish
Goldfish generate tons of waste, so changing between 10% to 15% of the water weekly will keep the fish healthy and ammonia levels down.
The supplies needed to clean out a 30-gallon tank are as follows:
- Two buckets, one to catch the dirty water and one filled with clean dechlorinated water. Designate these buckets only for aquarium use,
- Aquarium vacuum,
- Bottle of a de-chlorinator solution,
- Algae scrubber, and
- Aquarium test kit
Now that you know which supplies to use, it’s important to understand how to clean your aquarium without hurting your pet fish.
The last thing you want to do is hurt them.
Here are some good tips to keep in mind:
- Take the aquarium vacuum and remove the waste under and around the gravel until you get the amount of water needed to be removed.
- Unplug and rinse out any air filters in the bucket of dirty water to remove extra debris. Place them back in the aquarium and then plug the tank air filter in.
- Use the algae scrubber to clean all the glass sides of the aquarium but leave some algae behind because it helps to keep ammonia levels down.
- Use a thermometer to check if the temperature of the freshwater matches the water temperature in the fish tank. If the temperatures are pretty much the same and the fish are already in the tank, then slowly pour the freshwater in.
- If it’s a situation where the fish were removed, then pour the water slowly in the tank. And if the water temperature is the same, then gently place the goldfish back in their nicely cleaned home.
Conclusion & Final Tips!
Goldfish do poop and pee, just like more of the living creatures.
So to keep your goldfish healthy, you will need to keep cleaning the tank to remove the poop and pee from the tank.
I hope you have now understood everything there is to goldfish poop and pee.
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