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Goldfish care tips: Take good care of your goldfish

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Goldfish Facts & Info

All good goldfish keepers take the time to learn about their pets. Knowing more about goldfish helps us to take better care of them.

Why not start by learning the 12 mistakes most new goldfish-keepers make?

You can also explore diseases, like swim bladder disease, and learn how to prevent them.

Plus, do you know the difference between goldfish and koi? Where goldfish come from? And whether or not they have tongues?!

Our Goldfish Facts & Info articles are where you can learn all of this and much more about your goldfish.

Goldfish can live for a long time. But how long do most goldfish live?

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‘How long do goldfish live?’ is a great question with a very surprising answer!

You see, there is a big difference between how long goldfish can live and how long most actually do live.

How long do goldfish live?
How long do goldfish live? Amazingly, some goldfish have lived to be over 40 years old!

In this article, we explore the topic of goldfish lifespan. We look at how long goldfish can live, how long they usually do live, and what you can do to give your goldfish the best chance of living a long life.

We also find out:

  • How long different types of goldfish live
  • How long goldfish live in various scenarios (including out of water!)
  • And we reveal the results of our goldfish lifespan survey…

How long can goldfish live for?

Goldfish can live for several decades. That’s right… decades! For instance, this goldfish lived to be 45 years old.

Now, that’s a long time even for a goldfish. But with proper care, many pet goldfish can live for 5 to 10 years, or potentially even longer.

It’s important to bear this in mind when you decide to keep a goldfish as a pet. You shouldn’t assume that a goldfish is a short-term pet that won’t live very long. You could have your goldfish for many years, so you should be prepared to look after them for a long time.

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Do goldfish have teeth? And could your goldfish bite you?

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Yes! Goldfish do have teeth. However, instead of being on their gums, like human teeth, goldfish have teeth right at the back of their throats.

Do goldfish have teeth?
Don’t worry – your goldfish doesn’t look like this and won’t bite you!

This means that, if you’re hoping to see them, you may be disappointed. Because the teeth are so far back, you won’t be able to spot any, no matter how hard you look.

The photo below shows what goldfish teeth look like and where they are located.

Teeth of a goldfish. Photo Credit: The original uploader was BiotopAG at German Wikipedia. [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Your best chance of seeing a set of goldfish gnashers in real life is actually after they have fallen out… 

Do goldfish lose their teeth? 

Goldfish continuously lose and re-grow their teeth throughout their lives. As old teeth fall out, new teeth are growing behind them, ready to replace the old ones.

If you have a bare-bottomed aquarium then you may spot your goldfish’s old teeth on the bottom of your tank (here’s a video of goldfish teeth that someone collected from their goldfish). If you happen to be watching your fish at the right time then you may even see them spit out an old tooth!

Can goldfish bite?

People are often surprised to hear that goldies have teeth. It may even make you a bit worried that your fish might bite your finger next time you try to feed them.

But there’s no need to worry. Goldfish teeth aren’t sharp and they can’t bite people. They’re actually very flat – a bit like human molars – and are used to crush and grind food.

Do other types of fish have teeth?

You might be surprised to learn than all fish actually have teeth of some description. 

However, not all fish teeth are the same. They vary in shape, size, sharpness, and location within the fish’s mouth.

As you probably know, shark teeth are sharp to cut through the flesh of their prey.

Tiger Shark teeth. Photo credit: Stefan Kühn [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

And you’re probably familiar with the sight of small pointy piranha teeth:

Andrewself at English Wikipedia [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

But did you know about the Sheephead fish, which has these human-like teeth spread all over its mouth?

Andrewself at English Wikipedia [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Now that you’ve seen these, you’re probably glad that goldies only have small, flat teeth, right at the back of their mouths!