Goldfish Habbits

[Tim1981]

Hey Everyone

Just two quick questions; I have 3 common goldfish living in a 26 gallon tank, is this too small?

The second question is do common goldfish school? How many goldfish ideally should I keep in a tank for their own social well being, don’t worry everyone if it’s a few I’m going to get a bigger tank and not keep them in the 26 gallon one.
Any ideas people?

 

[fish-r-fancy]

Well a common rule of thumb is that you should have 20 gallons of water for each common/commet goldfish and 10 gallons for each fancy goldfish (black moors,bubble eyes exc.). A good filter is also a very good help. What filter/s do you have on the tank? Goldfish produce a ton of waste so in order to keep any goldfish you need a good filtration system. So basically what I'm saying is the 3 commons that you have will need a 60 gallon tank and a good filtration system. Until you can get a bigger tank I would just keep doing a ton of water changes. As for your second question I've been keeping common goldfish for a while now and have never seen them schooling. Your going to have to wait for someone else to help you out with that one.

 

[fish-r-fancy]

I got a good link goldfish link

 

[highfire]

Very useful link - many thanks, fish-r-fancy.
Now sorry to butt in on this topic, but I have a goldfish related query.
Please see my sig file for my current set up. I know the goldfish ideally shouldn't be in there, and I am going to re-home him in one of my mum's ponds next spring time when the warmer weather returns.
My question is this: at the moment, the goldie is about 2" long, and I am a little concerned that as he gets bigger he may well take a fancy to the white clouds mountain minnows. They are mature fish, and are full size, but obviously the goldie will get alot bigger.
Should I be concerned for their safety? Can I be safe in assuming that they won't get eaten before the goldie is moved out next year?
Thanks for any help!

 

[Tim1981]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the help, no worries about adding more fuel to the furnace with the extra question.

I have a bio-filter which sits inside the tank, its has a sponge filter which sucks up from the bottom and squirts out the top. Also an air pump with air stone in there too.

Looks like I may need a bigger tank in the long run. They have plenty of oxygen as they never gasp at the surface, I do plenty of water changes which are top ups and complete water changes once a month.

Thanks for all the help so far guys.

I’m meant to squeeze the sponge filter into the old water to clean it right?

 

[fish-r-fancy]

Well Tim since you have good filtration and the fish have enough oxygen, I think the'll be okay for a while just keep up the water changes and try to get a larger tank as soon as possible.

My question is this: at the moment, the goldie is about 2" long, and I am a little concerned that as he gets bigger he may well take a fancy to the white clouds mountain minnows. They are mature fish, and are full size, but obviously the goldie will get alot bigger.
Should I be concerned for their safety? Can I be safe in assuming that they won't get eaten before the goldie is moved out next year?
Thanks for any help!

I'm pretty sure that your goldie will try to have a go at the cloud mountain minnows because I had a couple 2 inch goldfish in with some 1 inches and they were fine for several months and then 1 night I woke up to only 1 fat 2 inch goldfish. However I never kept this 2 paticular fish together so I'm not positive. I would just keep very close attention to the fish and if they start to fight put a diveder in but that woulden't be to good because then the goldie will have even less room.

 

[highfire]

Thanks for the reply, fish-r-fancy.
I am keeping a very close eye (or two!) on my goldie and all is well at the moment, but as he gets bigger I shall have to get myself equipped with the appropriate tools in order to save my WCMM's. I'm hoping that things will be OK until I can re-home him in the spring time. Fingers crossed!

 

[ImperfectFaerie]

Just to clarify- are you taking water out when you do your top ups or just adding more? You really should be removing 25% and then topping the tank off with dechlorinated water, as when water evaporates it just condenses some of the minerals/toxins/etc found in there rather than those going into the air as well. Also, the 100% change, you could eliminate that if you did smaller changes each week. Goldfish are messy!

 

[OohFeeshy]

60g would be rather on the small side- commons grow to over 12" and are just as messy, if not more, than an oscar, so a standard 6x2x2 would probably be preferable.