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Monday, August 12, 2013

A Vital Factor When Caring For Gold Fish Is Knowing Whether Something Is Hot, Warm Or Cold

Here's a quick science lesson, that's relevant to caring for gold fish.

You may remember the concept of thermal expansion. Perhaps you're very familiar with it, even if you learned about it a long time ago.

I won't go into detail, but it is the effect where a substance expands as it gets hot.

If you remember science experiments the same way I do, the most interesting bit was always what happened when the substance was suddenly cooled (thermal contraction) by quenching in water.

The really hot material showed strong reaction as it hit the icy liquid, there and then being misshapen by the rapid cooling.

Now, I am not suggesting that fish are just like pieces of hot metal.

It just seems to me, this shared science memory may drive home my point. This is simply that gold fish, like any substance, find it hard to withstand dramatic temperature falls.

Any expert in caring for gold fish, would tell you to be wary of the water temperature in the aquarium, if you've just cleaned it out, or if you are about to put a new fish into the tank.

Why? Well, is it likely that your tap water is at room temperature? Or that the gold fish tank's temperature is the same as the tank at the pet store? No, to both questions.

And if the difference between the temperatures is too big, it's likely that the fish will not only suffer, but die.

Gold fish are actually quite tolerant of different temperatures, if it's fairly constant. It has been shown that some fish can live when it's so cold that ice floats in the water, and others will live in water at above 80 degrees Fahrenheit for decades.

The actual temperature is not so important - they can tolerate the warm and cold, as long as it is generally unvarying.
However, sudden warming or cooling is quite different and will harm fish very easily.

What does all this mean? It's clear. Looking after gold fish is just a tad more complicated than you might have thought.

Don't worry too much however. Keeping track of the temperature isn't that hard. All it takes is presence of mind and some practice.

And every time you work at it, you will move one step closer to being an expert at caring for gold fish, even if your science knowledge is a little rusty!

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