People agree to look after a goldfish believing it is the easiest job in pet care, and your written notes exist to correct two cheerful misunderstandings before they happen. The first is that a goldfish is always hungry; it is always begging, which is different, and it will eat itself into filthy water if a kind sitter believes the performance. The second is that a clean-looking tank is a healthy one, when a goldfish actually depends on the invisible bacteria in its filter that enthusiastic cleaning destroys. Write both corrections down plainly, with measured amounts attached, and your sitter can keep a big, messy, charming fish safely for weeks.
Fix the food amount and the feeding days in writing
Weigh or portion the food before you leave rather than describing it: a labelled pot per feed, containing the pellets or flakes your goldfish normally gets, makes overfeeding a deliberate act instead of an accident. State the feeding days and times, and whether you want one feed a day or two smaller ones, because goldfish keep well on a leaner holiday schedule that also protects the water. Add the vegetable routine if yours gets one, such as a skinned pea or a piece of greens on set days, already prepared or clearly described, and then the key sentence: the fish will follow them around the glass begging after every meal, and the answer is always that the pot for today is finished.
Explain the waste load so water rules make sense
Tell your sitter, without embarrassment, that goldfish produce far more waste than their size suggests and that the water, not the fish, is what they are really looking after. That one idea explains everything that follows. Uneaten food must come out with the net if it is still visible after a few minutes. The surface should stay moving from the filter outflow. A sour smell or cloudy water is a phone call, not a problem to solve by feeding less for a few days or, worse, by emptying and scrubbing the tank. A sitter who understands they are guarding water quality will follow the remaining steps in the right spirit rather than as arbitrary rules.
Write the water change exactly, or forbid it clearly
On a short trip, write that no water change is needed and only top-ups to your marked line with the conditioned water you left are wanted. On a longer trip where you do need one, write it like a recipe: how many buckets, siphoned from the gravel, replaced with conditioned water of a similar temperature, poured back gently. State the filter rule in capital letters if you must: media is rinsed only in a bucket of removed tank water, never under the tap, and never replaced with new while you are away. Goldfish have been lost to kindness with a tap and a scrubbing sponge more often than to any missed meal, so this paragraph earns its emphasis.
Leave contacts, dates, and a rehearsal if you can
End the sheet with your number, your away dates, and your aquarium shop or vet contact, and if the trip is long, rehearse the water change once with the sitter before you go, since buckets and siphons are far easier shown than described. When you return, ask what surprised them; goldfish sitters reliably report the begging, which tells you your portion pots did their job. Keeping the final version of these notes in KinsLe's Care Pass means your sitter gets temporary access to the exact portions, change steps, and warning signs at the tank itself, and the notes improve with every trip instead of being rewritten from memory each time.