Does anybody know about gold fish??

[Kymiie]

My sister had this 10 litre tank for a goldfish she won called fredrick (only a little fish), last week it started leaking water, not alot though, nothing too concerning! But she emptied the tank and looked for holes and there want any, anyway just to be safe, on offer she bought a new 20 litre tank for fredrick, everything is fine!!!

Monday, my sister bought a new goldfish, same finns & size but different colour, called frieda, now what I want to ask is..how do you know if a fish is unhappy or in love?

I ask this becuase since we got the fish both fish just sit at the bottom of the tank, an occasional swim now and then, we havnt whitnessed bullying...so does anybody know whats going on?? The fish r eating and the tank is clean and everything is fine... but the fish just wont swim all around the tank....

Than ks xx

 

[hali]

do you have air going into the tank? goldfish that sit at the bottom - is usually lack of oxygen

 

[Kymiie]

Yes they have air pump :S

 

[Itort]

One problem I see is a 20 litre (approx 5 gal for us Americans) is too small for a goldfish. I won't anything smaller than 80 to 100 litre tank. With two in this small a tank there will be alot of stress and oxygen shortage even with airpump.

 

[Kymiie]

Hum... the lady in pets at home after she asked us loads of questions said it was ok!!!! I dont know..will tell my sis to ring them up x

 

[Kristina]

The people at the petstore were wrong. They will tell you what you want to hear to make a sale, plain and simple.

The basic rule for goldfish is 20 gallons for the first fish, and 10 gallons per fish after. Since they are actually a schooling fish, and should not be kept in groups of less than three, that means a minimum 40 gallon, or 150 litres.

I have been keeping goldfish for many years, and I have some that are 10 years old and over a foot long (fantails, orandas, ryukins and moors, not singletails either, that typically get larger.) If cared for properly, they will live to be 25 or more.

 

[pugsandkids]

My sister set up a 15 gallon tank for my nephews 2nd birthday earlier this month. She was told that golfish are the dirtiest of all fish. That could be a contributing factor, too much junk built up in the water.

 

[MATortoise B]

That is false a 10 gallon would be suffecient for 2 goldfish. As they get older they become less active. If he has always been byhimself he may not like another fish to be around. But as far as the size a 10 gal is fine. 20 and 40 if you want but is really big for 2 gold fish

 

[terryo]

We had a goldfish that we won at a block party. He lived alone in a ten gal. tank with no filter, just a few plants, which he ate and we replaced almost every week, for 10 years. Every other day I put the tank in the sink and we let the water run in it for while and then put in some stress coat. After ten years we decided to put him in the Koi pond and he got sick and died. We're still crying over it. We should have left him in the ten gal. tank.

 

[Yourlocalpoet]

I thought sucking up at the top of the tank was a sign of not enough oxygen? I used to have a couple of goldfish, Morrissey & Johnny, Mozza bullied Johnny and he eventually died, then Mozza went in the pond and is now the size of a shark! Well you know, a baby shark.
- Sorry that doesn't help you in the slightest.

 

[terryo]

When it is very hot out or the pond has a lot of algae, or there isn't enough oxygenating plants, the Kio will come up to the top and it looks like they are sucking air. I only had the one goldfish, but that's why I used to run the water into the little tank...to give oxygen.

 

[spikethebest]

i have waterfalls in my pond, and my goldfish and koi and turtles do just fine together. sorry about your fish Terry.

 

[Kristina]

That is false a 10 gallon would be suffecient for 2 goldfish. As they get older they become less active. If he has always been byhimself he may not like another fish to be around. But as far as the size a 10 gal is fine. 20 and 40 if you want but is really big for 2 gold fish

That is false. My 5-10 year old goldfish are no less active than my 6 month old goldfish. Age has nothing to do with it.

These two fish are 13" and 12" long and weigh several pounds. Can you imagine them in a ten gallon tank, really? A ten gallon is 20" X 12" X 12". They wouldn't even be able to turn around, let alone swim. I am sorry, I respect every one of you, but, none of you would keep a turtle or tortoise in too small of an enclosure, and it is no less cruel to stunt a goldfish by keeping it in too small of an enclosure. That is all I really have to say.

 

[Tom]

Kristina is right about the tank size.

Shell is right about the sucking air at the top during times of low oxygen.

Sarah is right about the "junk" build up in the water. Its a brand new tank, right? If you have the proper filtration and water volume (yours is too small) it takes about 6 weeks to get through the initial nitrogen cycle. The water is toxic and full of bad stuff (metabolites in various states of decomposition) during this time.

Terryo, sorry about your fish. My guess based on the very limited info here is that your fish died of shock and failure to acclimate. Did you do anything to get him used to the temp and drastically different chemical composition of your pond versus the indoor aquarium? Fish that are used to really bad conditions will die if you put them straight into a tank with pristine, perfect water without acclimating them. It is the sudden CHANGE that does it, not necessarily the water quality one way or the other.

 

[terryo]

Kristina your goldfish are BEAUTIFUL!! My one goldfish never got that big at all. If he did grow we would have put him in something bigger. He was just a plain little gold fish. We really loved him so much. He would take food right out of your hand. We kept him on the kitchen counter.
Tom....we put him in a plastic bin and added water from the Koi pond and then after about an hour we poured the whole bin of water with the goldfish into the pond. But I agree with you he just never acclimated to the pond water.

 

[Kristina]

Thanks Terry I have a lot of more of them, lol.

As far as size goes - I took in a little goldfish that had been kept in a bowl for 6 years. Her fins and eyes were too big for her body, which was no larger than the little 6mo old babies I was raising at the time. I actually thought the shock of the change might kill her, but it didn't. She has grown some, but it will always be stunted. Her name is Qiang Zhe, which means "survivor."

She is the little fish at the bottom left. The two at the top, one of which is a blue Ryukin (Hua) and the other an Oranda/Ryukin cross (Huan,) are now about 6" long each.

Qiang Zhe is about half their size.

It is true that to an extent fish will only grow to the size of their container. My issue is that I do not feel it is HUMANE to keep a fish like that. If a fish can reach 15" by keeping it in a large enough tank, then it should be kept that way. I am not pointing this towards you, Terry, I am just saying overall how I feel about it. My statements are not aimed at anyone in particular.

It bothers me when I hear, "It was just a little ten cent goldfish!" What that means to me is that it was only ten cents, so it doesn't matter if you give it everything it needs or not. By that token, 6 of my tortoises were essentially "free." Should I stick those ones in Rubbermaid tubs that they can't turn around in?

Petstores are HORRID perpetrators of misinformation. We know this when it comes to torts. When you really think about it, what gives you reason to think they know more about fish? They don't. If they did, they would not sell those death trap goldfish bowls or bettas in cups. There would not be three gallon aquariums with pictures of several Orandas on the box (Oranda goldfish are the largest of the fancies. Bruce, the world record fish, is 18" long and growing.) Just because a petstore says it, or a company makes it, doesn't mean it is good. Those bowls are no better than the little RES deathbowls.

I am very sorry for your loss, Terry. I recently lost Yue, one of my five year olds. I am not sure what happened, she was just gone. I bawled like a baby. I love my fish no less than my other pets.

In case anyone is curious, my tanks are 100, 110, and 150 gallons. The baby tank is a 55. So I do practice what I preach.

Off my soapbox now.

 

[dmmj]

I used to feed goldfish to my RES and I had one live in there for almost 5 years, till he got eaten , I switched to minnows.

 

[Tom]

Kristina, I feel the same way. Very good points.

My sole remaining tank is a 135. Mostly Tanganyikans. Julies and Lelupi.

 

[MaddieLynn]

I'm glad that there are some other goldie keepers on here!

It is true that goldfish need a much larger tank than 10 gallons. It's better than a bowl, but not ideal. Kind of like how a 29 gallon tank is better for a RES than a 10 gallon, but not ideal. I saw that someone stated the rule of "20 gallons for the first fish + 10 gallons for each additional fish", which is a pretty good rule. However, common/commet/shubunkin goldfish generally need more room than fancy goldfish.

A small tank will also stunt the growth of your goldfish, so if you're thinking "I'll just keep him in here until he outrows it", that's not going to work. What happens is that fish produce hormones in the water, and when the hormones reach a high enough concentration, the fish's body stops growing as a survival mechanism. So what's wrong with that? Well, the outside of the fish stops growing, but the fish's organs keep right on getting bigger and bigger, and eventually this leads to a very painful death for the poor goldfish.

A filter is also necessary, because fish waste produces ammonia... but that's a really long discussion that I don't feel like typing out... so I'll just give you this link:

www.fishlore.com/fishforum

There is a LOT of really good advice on there, including advice on 'cycling' your tank so that your fish don't get poisoned by ammonia.

P.S. - in case anyone is wondering, I do have goldies myself. I have 5 in a 100 gallon outdoor pond. 2 shubunkins, one common, one fantail, and one oranda. I'm fairly sure that one shubunkin is a male and the other is a female, and I think the common is also a female, but I have no idea about the fancies.

 

[RichardS]

However, common/commet/shubunkin goldfish generally need more room than fancy goldfish.

A small tank will also stunt the growth of your goldfish, so if you're thinking "I'll just keep him in here until he outrows it", that's not going to work.

A filter is also necessary, because fish waste produces ammonia...

This is an excellent post. I would also like to add with fish there is a giant difference between surviving and thriving. Fish people use this term to explain why a fish may live for a while in less than ideal conditions. Usually the uninformed owner claims that the fish died of 'old age'. Its sad.