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Goldfish, the seldom-amongst longtimer fish

2K views 16 replies 7 participants last post by  Nightfish 
#1 ·
Well, I don't see a place for these colourful little guys. Since I began having pet fish, I always went back to "goldfish".
They are my favorites, they have a lot that tropical fish don't-I think-for one, a lot of tropical fish look the same, I like a tank of colourful individuals. Nothing against any of the others, I think all fish are cool (though I'd never feed a goldfish to anything, I don't like the whole "feeder fish" thing).
right now I have 10 fish in my new tank, and named them all (with somewhat silly names)

Dennis – Rosy Red Minnow
Donny – Mosquito Fish (thats what the site said-he was sold as a Rosy Red)
Dave – Rosy Red Minnow
Amoeba – Comet
Montreal Waters – Comet
Phil Collins – Shubunkin (I think, that's what they said)
Lenin – Shubunkin (I think, that's what they said)Biggie Smalls – Comet
Lt. Orange – Comet
Nightfish – Betta



Well obviously Nightfish is a Betta and not a goldfish, but does very well with them (can't keep him with them when changing the water or something of the like, he gets mad)

But the other fish get a long with him and its a great set up.
anyone else have any "goldfish" ?
 
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#2 ·
I have watonai, oranda, ryukin, fantail and pearlscale. Used to have shubs, comets, bubble eyes, etc a few years back.:wink:
 
#3 ·
i used to keep commets,however a change in things,the pond was dismantled
and i donated my fish to the cematary,where some of my family are laid to rest,
they have lovely ponds there,and i get to see them.
apart from a beautiful white female,who was eaten from my pond by a heron.
 
#5 ·
Ive never had goldfish but I deffinitly would if I had a bigger tank. HOw did you go about getting a betta to live with them, dont goldfish need much colder water.
 
#6 ·
I addressed that in another thread of his. Goldfish definitely need cooler temperature than the betta requires. Either species suffers from the mix.
 
#8 ·
I have one Ryukin and one black Moor. I'm going to get a few more as soon as I get a 55 gallon tank set up and cycled.

I think goldfish are my favorites (Hmm, maybe after sharks...) I just wish they were smaller. It takes a HUGE aquarium to keep goldfish. Or, well, a pond. But that's too much money and work for me right now.

There is a thread in the Cyprinids and Atherinids forum just for goldfish pictures. You should put yours up.
 
#9 · (Edited)
odd thing happened today-one of my fish vanished...no body, no trace (eg no body or splashes if he jumped out, which I never heard a minnow do-its a rosy red)
its all just goldfish in the tank (some big some small) nothing would have eaten him-even if the betta attacked it there'd still be a corpse
and no other animals are allowed in the room...
very odd...

***well I found him, stuck in "Biggie Smalls" mouth, he couldn't spit it out so had to get the little thing out with some tweezers, that was tricky to say the least***

so I gotta get a new Rosy Red-these things happen-seems 1 in 3 goldfish you get from most anywhere dies within a day or two, really sad
 
#11 ·
seems 1 in 3 goldfish you get from most anywhere dies within a day or two, really sad
How big is this tank ?

I've never seen 33% losses on healthy goldfish in appropriately sized and stocked tanks or ponds - but IMO that means approx 20g per goldfish (and large frequent partial water changes, of course).

I would never trust an adult goldfish with minnow or gambusia sized tankmates - a 5-6" goldfish would happily slurp down a 2" minnow in my experience, never mind 7" or 10" goldfish...
 
#12 ·
the pet stores around my home are just terrible-I actually had to go to a neighbouring city to get good fish (eg ones that wern't sickly and stuff)
the minnows were big, but that store seems not to be very good with fish
goldfish are a very hit or miss thing (eg the stores rarely have healthy ones)
its very common to see many unhealthy ones, dead ones, diseased ones, etc
thus they can sell them for 17 cents and no one really cares
the minnows seemed to be from a bad batch-though the mosquito fish I got with them is fine, oddly.
tropical fish are easy to get - I mean they tend to care for fish if your gonna spend like 10-20 dollars each on them.
my tank is 33 gallons, and temporarily has more fish then it normally does (but this is not for long) all the other fish seem fine, I guess that was just a bad batch.
 
#14 ·
ahhhh that explains the death rate.
If you're getting goldfish for less than a dollar each - they're feeders, they've been in poor conditions since soon after they hatched, most are carrying parasites and microbial infections before they even get to the LFS.
I don't sell any feeders (guppies, rosies/tuffies, or goldfish) as pets - too much of a chance of them nuking an entire tank with the various diseases they are carrying.
The chicken served at KFC get better handling than feeder fishes... :(
I'm impressed you've been able to keep that high a percentage alive - I would expect closer to 90% to be dead in a month when buying feeders.

Our goldfish start around $7 for small fantails, nicer fans, comets etc run $15 and up. We commonly carry small (ie tennis ball to softball sized bodies) imported ryunkins (etc) in the $30 -50 range. I think our "average" price for pet goldfish is about $12-15.
 
#16 ·
I'm not really interested in goldfish. For one thing, there just aren't really that many suitable tankmates commonly available for them, so it's difficult to set up communities with them despite the fact that they can be perfectly well-behaved community fish. Secondly, they just don't interest me as much as other fish that have the same sort of requirements in terms of tank size and massive filtration. If I had a heavily filtered 75g or larger tank, I would go for some sort of cichlid long before I went for goldfish. They just have more interesting personalities, in my opinion.
 
#17 ·
sadly my tanks are a "survival of the fittest" and the fittest are indeed thriving now There has been no death-save the two the betta killed (then the betta himself-he seemed the type to die simply because I put him in a bowl...he hated bowls) But where there is death-there is life, one of my Mosquito fish had babies-so they are growing up in the ten gallon tank (I spotted 4)
 
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