# Goldfish, the seldom-amongst longtimer fish



## Nightfish (Jun 3, 2009)

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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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

I have watonai, oranda, ryukin, fantail and pearlscale. Used to have shubs, comets, bubble eyes, etc a few years back.:wink:


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## willow (Sep 9, 2006)

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.


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## Nightfish (Jun 3, 2009)

I'd have shot that Heron lol (though it would have been only with a pellet or a paintball gun-canada has some pretty "uncool" gun laws lol)


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## IonBaller07 (Mar 29, 2009)

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.


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

IonBaller07 said:


> 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.


 I addressed that in another thread of his. Goldfish definitely need cooler temperature than the betta requires. Either species suffers from the mix.


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## Nightfish (Jun 3, 2009)

Lupin said:


> I addressed that in another thread of his. Goldfish definitely need cooler temperature than the betta requires. Either species suffers from the mix.


goldfish are quite "open" to different temperatures, though sudden shock changes will kill them, betta's have always done well with my goldfish ya know
I could just be lucky


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## onekatietwo (Apr 12, 2009)

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. 
*


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## Nightfish (Jun 3, 2009)

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


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

Nightfish said:


> goldfish are quite "open" to different temperatures, though sudden shock changes will kill them, betta's have always done well with my goldfish ya know
> I could just be lucky


Well, frankly, I disagree. At higher temperature, you risk increasing their metabolic rate more than necessary or normal. In the process, you shortened severely the lifespan of your fish. Fancy goldfish prefer their temperature a little warmer but no more than 76 degrees however you have "pond" strains particularly comets and shubunkins. Both strains prefer cooler temperature by at least 71-73 degrees. Will your betta thrive at all in this situation? No, it will not. It does not get cold where they originate. In the end, you are still incorrectly accommodating your fish. We can agree to disagree here about your methods. In the end, it is your fish so that's up to you to justify how you accommodate your own fish.


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## redpaulhus (Jul 6, 2008)

Nightfish said:


> 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...


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## Nightfish (Jun 3, 2009)

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.


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## Nightfish (Jun 3, 2009)

Lupin said:


> Well, frankly, I disagree. At higher temperature, you risk increasing their metabolic rate more than necessary or normal. In the process, you shortened severely the lifespan of your fish. Fancy goldfish prefer their temperature a little warmer but no more than 76 degrees however you have "pond" strains particularly comets and shubunkins. Both strains prefer cooler temperature by at least 71-73 degrees. Will your betta thrive at all in this situation? No, it will not. It does not get cold where they originate. In the end, you are still incorrectly accommodating your fish. We can agree to disagree here about your methods. In the end, it is your fish so that's up to you to justify how you accommodate your own fish.


I guess I am just lucky, I mean my old betta lived for years with the comets, only reason he died was a crazy fish killed it (and this fish was crazy)-but that fish killed everything (I think it was a mollie or a guppy of some sort-it was silver, hence his name "Mr. Silver")
I am probably gonna put that betta in with some faintails anyways-which seems like a good idea.
No one has died yet (except those minnows, but then again that store is crap lol)


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## redpaulhus (Jul 6, 2008)

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.





Nightfish said:


> 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
> ...


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## onekatietwo (Apr 12, 2009)

redpaulhus said:


> 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.


I've read that it depends on the feeder fish - that some of them are just the left-overs from high-end breeders. They chose the very nicest fish to raise a bit longer and sell for a lot of money and then ship the rest off to chain stores asap. I've heard that some can turn out to be really great fish.
Also, I know a lot of people who just bought 8 or so, dumped them in their pond, and then had a thriving (and rapidly growing) community of goldfish for the rest of time as they knew it. 

Buuuuut, no first hand experience here. I'd be too nervous to chance it. ESPECIALLY with other, healthy fish. 



> 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.


I wish i lived there!


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## iamntbatman (Jan 3, 2008)

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.


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## Nightfish (Jun 3, 2009)

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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