Mixing Tropical With Goldfish? Help

[eddyg2007]

I currently have in my tank 9 neons, 4 livebearers, 2 algae eaters. It is a 60 litre tank.

I am moving house next week and my girlfriend has 2 goldfish and we do not know what to do with them. I was wondering what would happen if you add the goldfish into my tropical tank? any help will be great

 

[sarah86]

goldfish will eat whatever fits into their mouths so dont do it! unless you dont like youre fish that is lol. my friend did the same thing and the goldfish didnt stop growing it loved the warmer water but loved the live food more

 

[three-fingers]

Basically, the goldfish will produce so much waste it will probably be too much for the biological filter and induce an ammonia spike, killing your fish. The tropical fish will be the first to go, goldfish tend to survive ammonia spikes but their immune systems are lowered severely and they will surely catch something nasty.

60 litres isn't ideal for goldfish anyway, they get big, and are very messy fish. Keeping them at higher temperatures means they are going to need a much bigger tank than that, as it means their metabolism speeds up which makes them produce more ammonia (overloading the filter), and on top of this they will produce more metabolites - stunting their growth and harming their health.

Even if all that weren't the case, or if you had a much bigger tank, the goldfish would grow very quickly and eat the neons.

 

[eddyg2007]

Is there anyway it would work or is it just a no go lol?

 

[rabbut]

No-go. You other fish will become very expencive fish food in the best case scenario Worst case scenario is that adding them wipes out the test of the tank

Goldfish can potential reach 2 foot. The biggest I've seen them though is 18inches (my own old breeding stock) and as stated above eat anything that fits into their mouth. They need a minimum of 30gal a fish idealy

All the best
Rabbut

 

[three-fingers]

Is there anyway it would work or is it just a no go lol?

It could easily work for a short period of time if the goldfish are small, but certainly not long term. Remember you can't just wait for them to grow too big for the tank - because they will likely hit a certain size in an unsuitable tank then stop (which will start killing them due to various reasons).

I've tried it before about 7 years ago, one goldfish ate 11 out of 12 neons in a day, and later tried to eat a corydoras catfish .

I was vastly over filtering the tank with bigger than rated internal, under gravel filter, sponge filer (both powered by a larger than needed air pump) and even eventually a small external. So ammonia wasn't a problem for me, but even with fast growing plants the nitrate level was too high for fancy guppies, otos and various other tropical fish.

Best find the goldfish a new home.

 

[TribeOfShroom]

Goldfish can potential reach 2 foot. The biggest I've seen them though is 18inches (my own old breeding stock) and as stated above eat anything that fits into their mouth.

I know this lol I've caught a 3lb goldfish in our local canal Greedy bugger when for a pop up dog biscuit lol

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Some non-goldfish fish can actually be mixed with goldfish but these are all sub-tropical fish which naturally live and thrive best at the cooler range of tropical temps and grow too large to be eaten by goldfish, a few examples would include weather/dojo loaches, common and some types of rubbernose plecos and full grown yoyo loaches etc.
But generally speaking if the fish is a true tropical fish then its not really that good to keep it in a coldwater or sub-tropical tank, and most community tropical fish will either get eaten or bullied by the goldfish or attack the goldfish.

No-go. You other fish will become very expencive fish food in the best case scenario Worst case scenario is that adding them wipes out the test of the tank

Goldfish can potential reach 2 foot. The biggest I've seen them though is 18inches (my own old breeding stock) and as stated above eat anything that fits into their mouth. They need a minimum of 30gal a fish idealy

All the best
Rabbut

There are dozens of varieties of goldfish varying a great deal in care and size, only common and comet goldfish can grow as large as that however it is very rare for goldfish to grow as large as 2ft long, the only 2ft long common goldfish i have ever seen was one which was caught in a lake and had been gorging itself on a lot of food its entire life, its a lot more common for such varieties of goldfish to grow to only 15inches+- a 30gallon tank would of course be too small for such goldfish though, 75-100gallons minimum would be a lot better for such goldfish.
Fancy varieties of goldfish grow a lot smaller than the non-fancy types, and depending on the variety will grow anywhere between 5-11inches long; the bubble eye goldfish which is the smallest variety at only 5inches long can be kept in a 10-15gallon tank, while large varieties of goldfish like the veiltail which can grow to 9-11inches long need at least a 36"x15"x12" (25gal) tank for the first goldfish and about 10gallons for every one after that.