Goldfish and Tropical fish

[Fish Buddy]

I was reading an artical titled "Some Notes on Siamese Fighting Fish" (Written by Mrs. M. J. Moor) in the 'Aquarist' magazine and in the second paragraph I read that she keeps gouramis, angels, tetras and a goldfish in her 4 foot tank. That made me start thinking "is it really that bad keeping goldfish with tropical fish?" Isn't it just the same with keeping zebra danios with gouramis?
We say things like 'no they like different temperatures' but I know that fancy goldfish sort of require I higher temp than the common goldfish. And for sure zebra danios and honey gouramis like different water temperatures but some people keep them in the same tank at their end-of-range temp.

 

[Mr Miagi]

Goldfish do prefer warmer temps than alot of ppl believe. It is just common miss-belief that goldfish "dont need warm water". It is because they are adaptable that they are able to live in such cold temps. They grow larger and quicker given the right parametres, and i know several fish keepers who have goldfish in large, heated tanks. Im sure they dont heat the water as high as we do for tropicalk fish though.

 

[Dorkhedeos]

i keep my oranda with in my tropical tank, i just lowered the temperature from 76 to 73.





Edit: oh yeah, just make sure you got enough filtration, goldfish are poop machines

 

[dreadedsnail]

unfortunatly my carp and golfish are in a tank with tropical fish, im waiting for a tank to put in my bathroom for my cold water fish, but at the moment they seem fine, when i put them in their new tank i will heat it a bit, i think there much more lively in warm water, and they bask in the sun beams through my fern

 

[sylvia]

The adaptability of goldfish is not only responsible for their being kept in lower temps, but also in higher.

It's true that many fancy goldfish have been bred in warmer climates and have become accustomed to higher temps than a strictly speaking 'coldwater' fish but that does not make them tropical. Tropicals usualy need a temperature around 76, with some needing more, and this is somewhat high for a goldfish while anything lower tends to be much too low for tropicals. Either way, a successful compromise cannot be truly met. Not to mention that goldfish get to 12" and will eat anything, making them incompatible in many other ways. I have also heard that goldfish secrete a chemical that will kill tropicals though I don't know how much truth there is in that. Furthermore, at higher temps, a goldfish' metabolism is faster than that of tropicals which have evolved over millions of years in those temps. Considering goldfish are messy fish anyway, at a higher temp they become even more messy and produce even more waste. The faster metabolism also results in a shortened lifespan (just like the difference between keeping guppies in colder or warmer temps - they live longer in the slightly colder temps even though they are tropical). At higher temperatures (beyond what is good for them), goldfish will have a weaker immune system and are prone to suffering from fungus and fin rot. Similarly, tropicals become weakened and sluggish at a lower temperature and this results in their contracting disease. No matter how you look at it, I would never reccomend keeping goldfish with tropicals though keeping a tank of fancy goldfish at a slightly warmer temp might be beneficial to the fish.

Oh and zebra danios are tropical fish. They originated in india, as have honey and dwarf gouramies (which like a temp as high as 78-80 deg F). Unlike gouramies, however, they are incredibly hardy and adaptable so can be kept in lower temps. A fish that is often kept with tropicals though, and probably shouldn't strictly speaking, is the white cloud mountain minnow. And of course hillstream loaches and 'feeder' minnows (rosy reds and fatheads).

 

[The-Wolf]

Oh and zebra danios are tropical fish.

great reply Silvia, as always
just one note
Zebra Danios are actually classified as sub-tropical.

 

[metfan581]

TO:
The-Wolf and other daino experts

This might be a dumb question to you but I have to ask.
I want to breed zebra dainos in a 10gal
what do I need
How many fish should i get
ph
heat

Help
this is my firsty time attempting to breed fish
i want to do this correctly
PLEASE tell me everything i need to know

 

[Dorkhedeos]

you need good water. mine layed eggs when i first got them too bad i wasnt prepared

 

[metfan581]

thanks


can any one elese give me more info

 

[Fish Buddy]

I know that zebra danios are not coldwater fish. Maybe I should have made the analogy to the mountain minnow (white cloud). The point was, goldfish (fancy anyway) are bread at higher temps then thier homeland waters so it could be 'ok' to place them with other fish that like warmer waters.

To you metfan: You don't need a very large tank for breeding danios. What I did was place the zebra pair in a (say 5g tank) with marbles on the bottom (so they can't get at their eggs and eat them). I didn't use any filtration because they breat with in 2 days and I didn't want to disturb them. The eggs hatch within a few days (really depends on the temp) and you can feed them what you would any egg-borne fri after the 2 days it takes them to eat their yolk sac. (I would use 'liquid fri' because it is easy compaired to live foods)

 

[The-Wolf]

TO:
The-Wolf and other daino experts

This might be a dumb question to you but I have to ask.
I want to breed zebra dainos in a 10gal
what do I need
How many fish should i get
ph
heat

Help
this is my firsty time attempting to breed fish
i want to do this correctly
PLEASE tell me everything i need to know

I have a breeding and sexing page on my website

 

[desley]

If i want to give this a go myself (breeding danios that is) ... how do I tell them apart so I get males and females.

Thanks

 

[The-Wolf]

males are slimmer when compaired to females, like this

as you can see the female is quite large in comparrison.

 

[desley]

Thanks. I already have a larger fatter danio so I am looking now at getting a slimmer one. I always thought the slimmer ones were a little sick or something. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[metfan581]

#@