If you are looking for a bright, active, and undemanding fish for your aquarium, the Comet goldfish is an excellent candidate. It is easily recognizable by its slender, elongated body and luxurious forked tail, which resembles a ribbon. They are most often bright orange or red in color, but other variations are also found.
This fish is a real fidget, it loves space to swim. Therefore, despite its endurance, the comet needs a fairly large aquarium. In cramped conditions, it will be uncomfortable and simply unable to reveal all its natural grace and speed.
Keeping Comets is quite simple if you create the right conditions for them. The key points are clean water with good filtration and proper nutrition. It is omnivorous, but it is important not to overfeed your pet. This fish gets along well with other varieties of goldfish, but it is better not to place it with small or veiltail neighbors due to its active temperament.
Overall, the Comet goldfish is the perfect choice for those who want a classic but very impressive fish. With good care, it will delight you for many years with its playfulness in the water and sunny color.
Description and characteristics
The comet goldfish is the result of the hard work of specialists who, thanks to their painstaking efforts, have bred this variety. It is believed that the fish originated in the United States, but some experts claim that the species was bred in Japan. In some countries, comet aquarium fish are called mables, and their phenotype is valued for its unusual and beautiful appearance. Indeed, the description of the appearance of comet goldfish is spot on: mables have a luxurious forked tail, the ends of which gracefully spread out in the water like bright ribbons. The size of the tail fin is also remarkable—it exceeds the length of the fish's body by two or even three times. Among professional aquarists, it is believed that the longer the tail, the more expensive the specimen.
The body of aquarium gold mables is elongated, slightly stretched in length, and is the standard for the species. If the contours of the body and abdomen are rounded, this is considered a defect. In addition to the tail, aquarium comet fish have a well-formed dorsal fin, and their coloration is striking in its brightness and richness. Depending on the shade of their scales, the fish are divided into several subspecies:
- red comet;
- yellow Mabel;
- black Comet;
- golden Mabel;
- silver Mabel.
The most valuable fish are those with different body and fin colors: for example, some specimens have a basic orange or scarlet background with snow-white or yellow spots – this is the red and white comet. The most expensive subspecies is considered to be the mabel called “black velvet” — an aquarium fish with a coal-black hue.
The color saturation and shades of the phenotype may vary depending on the conditions in the aquarium and nutrition. If a comfortable environment is created for the mabel fish in accordance with the rules of breeding, then the lifespan of comet goldfish in an aquarium can reach 14 years.
Keeping in an artificial pond
Keeping and caring for mables in an aquarium will not cause any difficulties even for a novice aquarist, but some conditions must still be met to ensure that the pets feel comfortable and well. First of all, a spacious tank is necessary, as the fish are quite elongated in length. A 55-liter tank is required to keep one specimen. The aquarium must be equipped with a lid to prevent the fish from jumping out, which comets are capable of doing given their mobility and energy.
Water parameters:
- hardness – 5–17 dH;
- acidity – up to 8 pH;
- water temperature – 20–24C.
An important thing for aquarists to remember is to change ¼ of the water every week to keep the fish from getting sick and stressed. You should also put a filter and aerator in the tank, since these fish aren't big on cleanliness and order and will happily mess up the tank.
Plants for a pond with aquarium fish should be chosen with stiff leaves and developed roots, because mables love to dig in the ground. The ideal option for a tank are plants such as:
- nomaphila recta;
- elodea;
- vallisneria;
- cubic fish.
Experienced aquarists who breed comets install fluorescent lamps in the tank, which make the fish look bright and colorful.
Feeding
Comet fish are voracious, so owners carefully control the amount of food they eat. Their diet should be balanced and varied, so live and plant foods are used for feeding: daphnia, artemia, rotifers, spinach, lettuce leaves, and tubeworms. One serving for each individual should be no more than 3% of the fish's weight, otherwise the pets risk becoming obese. After feeding, food residues are removed from the tank to prevent the development of diseases and contamination of the tank.
Compatibility
Golden mebls are quiet and peaceful fish, and are compatible with many phenotypes. The following species are suitable for cohabitation in one aquarium:
- ternetia fish;
- veiltail fish;
- ancistrus;
- goldfish;
- aquarium spotted catfish;
- neons.
Comets are not compatible with large and aggressive phenotypes, such as angelfish, barbs, and tetras. It is also not recommended to place small fish in the same tank as comets, otherwise the gold comet will happily eat them.
The Comet goldfish is a living classic of aquarium keeping: unpretentious, bright, and active. It is perfect for both beginners and experienced enthusiasts—the main thing is to give it enough space, clean water, and not put it in the same aquarium with slow fish that simply won't be able to get to the food before it. With proper care, Comets live a long time, delighting with their energetic behavior and beautiful tail, similar to a meteor.
Reproduction
Breeding maybes is easy, as the fish do not require any special conditions and readily reproduce in captivity. Golden comets are bred in a separate 40-liter tank, which caring owners equip with sandy substrate and small-leaved vegetation. Readiness for breeding is determined by the following signs:
- males develop growths on their gills.
- females develop a rounded belly.
- males begin to court females.
Fish reach sexual maturity at 2 years of age. As soon as the pets are ready to reproduce, two males and one female are transferred to a spawning tank, where they are stimulated to produce offspring by raising the temperature by 2–4°C.
During one spawning, the female lays about ten thousand eggs, after which the parents are returned to the old aquarium so that they do not eat the eggs. Comet goldfish fry appear in 7-10 days, and after another five days, the babies begin to be fed with live dust or special food.
Diseases
Despite their endurance, comet owners often encounter various diseases. The most common ailments in comets are:
- Fin rot – fish lose their appetite, become lethargic and inactive, their fins stick together, and sometimes black spots can be seen on goldfish.
- Semolina – the body becomes covered with white spots, as if sprinkled with semolina.
- Ascites – pets' eyes bulge, ulcers and sores appear on the body, and fish refuse to eat.
- Dermatomycosis is a disease whose obvious symptom is the appearance of a white coating on the scales of the comet.
Antibiotics, bicillin-5, and table salt are used to treat pets, and infected fish are placed in a quarantine tank. To prevent the development of diseases, water parameters are constantly monitored in aquariums with gold comets, and cleanliness and nutrition are monitored.
The gold comet is an active and peaceful fish with bright colors, which is distinguished by its voracious appetite and love of disorder. If you decide to get a colorful comet, you must follow the rules for feeding and keeping this phenotype so that these attractive and friendly fish will delight the owner of the artificial pond with their presence for a long time.
Even a beginner can breed Artemia.
Artemia eggs can be stored in the freezer for a long time without losing their ability to develop.
It minimally pollutes the fish tank. Other limitations:
