Coldwater Questions

[Ilya]

Alright. My goal is to own feederfish. I'm planning on making a river type enviornment. With wood and rocks. However, I have a few questions.

1. How do you keep the cold water cold? And how cold does it have to be?
2. When cycling the water, can I put my plants in first? Or do I have to wait until fully cycled?
3. What would you feed feeder fish?
4. What sort of equipment would I need for them?
5. How many fish is too much for a 20 gallon tank? A 29-30 gallon tank?

6. Should I choose anything other than feeder fish? I want cold water, and maybe I'll put in a turtle.

 

[england]

turtle in cold water is not a good idea..secondly why do you want feeder fish for?
its not such a good idea to feed feeder fish to other fish just incase of diesases.....the pellets n other types of fish food on the market is good enough for fish nowadays

 

[lilfishie]

are you on about feeder goldies?

 

[*Fishkies*]

Try checking out the Coldwater Section of the forum! This is the place for coldwater questions also.

To answer some of your questions....

1. Just don't put a heater in and leave the tank be at room temperature.
2. Plants if live, will actually help in cycling your tank.
3. Well are you using these fish to actually feed to others or are you having them simply as fish?
4. A filter, aeration, plants, substrate(depending on how your keeping the fish), other decorations
5. Once again, is this for fish as a pet, or actually feeders for another animal??
6. Coldwater you could have a fancy goldfish, white cloud minnows, certain corydoras, Zebra danio, Guppy, Pearl Danio, certain barb species.

 

[K.J.]

The problem is with goldfish they'll eat FF, or at least Feeder guppies.

 

[Ilya]

I'm just looking for a pet. I kind of like those feeder fish. But I could use another fish.

 

[*Fishkies*]

Well just so you know, those feeder goldfish are Common Goldfish. I have one, they get up to about 24inches and possibly more. They need a pond in the end. Your best bet would be to buy a type of fantail goldfish. They may be a bit smaller, and a 30gallon tank for one would be great!

Types of Goldfish Take a look at that link. It will give you some insight as to the types of goldfish and some of their needs.

Goldfish in Tanks this is another great site to take a look at. This will help out with your decision ond goldfish and tank sizes.

Both sites were taken from the Coldwater section of the forum.

Have fun

 

[Ilya]

Thanks for the link. I don't really like goldfish. I'm more into fish that hang around in well vegitated areas, and are colourful (yes I spell it the English way). Later, when I'm experienced enough. I might move onto tropical fish .

 

[MHunt]

Thanks for the link. I don't really like goldfish. I'm more into fish that hang around in well vegitated areas, and are colourful (yes I spell it the English way). Later, when I'm experienced enough. I might move onto tropical fish .

To be honest, keeping tropicals isn't that much harder than keeping goldfish. All you need to do is add a heater and away you go. What i would suggest is you do loads of research on the fish you want to keep, that way you stand less chance of getting fish that you aren't able to cope with.

There are more trops out there than i have the space or time to mention, but they're worth considering and like i say are not really any harder to keep than goldfish.

 

[Ilya]

Aren't the tropical fish more expensive? I'm afraid of having to buy new expensive ones after I do something wrong.

But first things first. I need an aquarium, and I'm out of a job at the moment (school). Need one for the summer, then I'll start making money.

 

[MHunt]

Aren't the tropical fish more expensive? I'm afraid of having to buy new expensive ones after I do something wrong.

But first things first. I need an aquarium, and I'm out of a job at the moment (school). Need one for the summer, then I'll start making money.

At most of the LFS's near me, you can pick up three or four small tetra or barb type fish for about the same price of a decent goldfish. I know you were talking about using feeder goldfish which i believe are dirt cheap, but i can pick up neon tetras for as little as £1 or less, or some of the more interesting tropicals for a couple of pound. Obviously i can't comment on the cost of trops where youy are, but just have a look, you might be surprised. If you're prepared just to get hardy tropicals such as livebearers, small tetras, cory's that kind of thing then it shouldn't cost too much. What is probably more important is to spend your money on is a good sized tank. A fish tank is like a hard drive, no matter what size you think you need, you will find it isn't big enough! I wouls always get the biggest tank you can fit in the space and afford at the time, even then it won't be big enough! If you're thinking of keeping goldfish, be aware that the stocking density is much lower, mainly because goldfish are really messy, and the bacteria that breaks down the waste products from the fish doesn't work as fast at lower temperatures. It's often quoted on this forum that you need 10 gallons for each goldfish, wheras you could happily keep 10 small tropicals in a tank that size.

 

[lilfishie]

you could always get feeder guppies, they are tropical but can tolerate coldwater, although the only real difference between the two as said is the heater, feeder guppies dont grow that big so it would mean you could have more than you could with goldies

 

[england]

seriously as long as you have heating and a filter n obviously a tank you will be much better of having tropical once you cycled the tank.you can be lucky enough as well to find second hand tanks with everything included even fish which has already been cycled.....goldfish need a large tank n good filteration were as you can find small fish which stay small ie tetras/barbs/platys/guppys