Need help picking new fish

[Selrahc]

Well, Let's see. I have a 70+ gallon tank. I have a black moor, 1 year old. I have a common goldfish, 1 year old. I have a fancy goldfish fantail, newest. I also have 4 giant Danios, newer. My tank has 2 cool hiding spots. A helicopter decor and a castle. The temp stays year round 74°F. Somewhat cold, but not too cold. I change the water using substrate suction, change it once every week and a half, and about a 20% water change. Only done once since its a fairly new tank for all of them. They recently moved from a 50 gallon.
I have had a lot of heat from some of the fish community with this mixing of goldfish and danios, but they are quite happy in this tank. I would like to add one more type of fish. A school of something or at least a fish that i can have a few more of them. I am not okay with adding more gold fish because the 3 i do have cause enough waste as it is but i really am not sure what to add. I need some expert help. I would really love to add 2 cherry barbs and maybe a ramhorn snail or 2. Is it too much? Do i need to change the water more if i do that? Are there other fish i could look into?
Im not scared of work and not scared of research so I'll do my homework. Just need suggestions and expert tips. Thanks.

 

[Wills]

Hi welcome to the forum

You are right that a lot of people say not to keep other fish with Goldies... and I am inclined to agree with them but there are some situations where people have had success. The common problems are usually that they need to be big enough for the Goldies not to try and eat, the amount of times you hear of something like a Platy stuck in a Goldies mouth is surprisingly high. And then on the other side they need to not be too big so as that they harrass or nip the Goldies. An other issues usually is that the tanks are barely big enough to handle more than just the Goldfish due to the amount of waste they produce (as you will know...) but I wouldnt say that is the case here.

I would say if you go down this route the Giant Danios could work, but could not and its this risk you have to weigh up for the long term health of your fish. If you were to stick with them I would get more of them, in a bigger group they will be less likely to nip the Goldfish. I wouldnt go for the Cherry Barbs as they could easily end up in the Goldies mouths. The snails would probably be ok, Apple Snails are often kept with Goldfish and they come in a wide range of colours now, I saw some purple and some blue ones the other day and they were quite impressive!

I have seen Weather/Dojo Loaches kept with them as well but these are equally huge waste producers and get to a good size and need to be kept in a group so would probably be ruled out because of this.

Some people try and keep Hillstream Loaches with Goldfish, but this does not work out long term as the loaches need a hill-steam environment (hense the name) with lots of flow.

The other areas to look at would be finding other Asian temperate fish, a lot of fish labeled as tropical from that part of the world often do not do well in what people would class as tropical temperatures. Fishbase would be a good place to start.

I supose the problem with what you have planned is that a lot of people have tried it and a lot of people have made mistakes and lost fish as a result - both the Goldfish and the tankmates.

Hope that helps a bit, hopefully I dont sound too negative...
Wills

 

[Selrahc]

This helps a lot. I was thinking the same things but it good to have more expert advice. For now i think if i were to add anything it'll be 2 to 3 more danios and some apple snails. I would like a wide variety but i dont want to compromise the happiness of my fish. I can add some low/medium light plants and decor that can bring a bit more color to the tank.

I'll keep doing research and now i know to look more in-depth into asian tropical fish. They need time for the new 70 gallon tank to cycle and to get settle from their move anyways. I have a 10 gallon on stand by when i add fish to put fish that are exhibiting bad behavior. It's cycled and everything. Never had to use it though but you never know.
Don't worry if your response is more negative. There are a lot of disadvantages to the mixing and there's no guarantee that it will last or give my fish a normal life but i have back up plans and try hard to keep everyone safe and happy. Thanks for the fast reply.

 

[Wills]

Cool glad it helped. When I first got a tank I started with fancies - I had 8 of different types in a 10 gallon tank :O then I moved them to a 55 and rehomed half of them and then I eventually rehomed them to move to tropical before choosing to focus on American Cichlids.

When you said about adding plants etc that is a really good way to keep interest in a tank without having to add fish. And the good thing about Goldfish is that they are so 'artificial' that you can almost do anything you can imagine with the tank they are in. It can look as natural or as artifical as possible and they will still look like they fit in.

I almost hate to suggest it... but would a second tank be an option? So you could have a tank of variety in one and your Goldies in an other?

Wills

 

[Selrahc]

I really wouldn't know where to put a second tank. I only have the timeout tank for short term behavior modification (too disorient them and force them to choose new territories when place back into the original tank. Plus it's tall , not wide like the 70 gallon. I could rehome them but the goldies have been mine longer so I'd hate to let them go.
It's possible that i could build a goldie pond in my back yard/ fountain size near my small garden but that would be only big enough for goldfish barely and i do have some pesky cats in the area might scare me too much.

 

[Wills]

I would focus on aquascaping and get the extra Danios and snails then

I've always wanted to get some big bits of wood and carve them into less natural shapes, like circles and rings to make quite an unusual scape, I always thought something like that would be good with Blood Parrots or Flowerhorns but I bet Fancy Goldfish would look good as well. I bet even if you did something like that and covered it in moss it would look good in most tanks.... hmmm Im having an idea!

Wills