oranda questions

[Elite]

I've had my little oranda goldfish, bryce , for about 1.5 months now. I bought him with a moor, but the mor passed away quite a while ago. I basically cycled using a lot of gravel and filter media from one of my other tanks. Bryce is doing very well, and is making me wonder why I've been keeping warm water fish, lol. He's so entergetic, and folows my finger, and loves to eat. I adore him. He's about an inch long, not including his tail. He's white with an orange head. He has a tail deformity that I didn't notice when I bought him, but I was attatched already and wanted to wait it out to see how he did with it. He's fine. Right now he's in a temporary 10 gal, but he was in a 20 gal when he was living at my friends house and I have that setup waiting for him for whe he moves into my mother's classroom in a couple weeks. He has hideous purple gravel and neon plants, but it's cool cause he's a goldfish, lol. It's pretty sad when my favorite tank looks like that...I think it's awesome...I think I need to redecorate all my other ones. Well, my betta's tank might be equally as cool (whate gravel with black stone pillars coming up--he's a white VT named spooky, octagonal tank).
And now my questions...
1. How big should his final tank be? Should I go with the 20 gal we already have for him, or trade it in and get a 29?
2. Should we get him another friend? We still love the moors, lol
3. What do goldfish like to eat? I know he dislikes bloodworms and normal flake food, we feed him omega1 goldfish flakes, but would he like soemthing else with it?
4. My filter in there is large/strong enough for a 40 gal. I didn't want to have to get a different filter for ever tank I gave him, but is that just WAY too much?
5. Would he eat white clouds or could they live together? What about apple snails?
6. Do they like a certain kind of gravel, plants, or rock structures, or are they just happy wherever?
7. There is no light on the tank because I could only fit the giant filter on the side of the tank, so I could'nt fit the cover on, so I couldn't fit the lights on. Do you think that's okay?

Thanks a lot! Goldfish are quite possibly the best ever

 

[wwestar2000]

1)A Ten gallon is supposidly enough for one. The rule is ten gallons per fish. So with a moor a 20 gallon. But the 29 gallon will be better.
2) I would get him a friend. But thats just an opinion.
3)idk? I think its an individual thing.
4) I think it might be for a 10 gallon. But if you upgrade soon remember the bigger the better. AKA 29 gallon.
5) I think at a size he will but not sure. Not sure about a small snail being eaten but a big snail will be fine.
6) I think silk plants. And don't clutter to much. Let him have free space to swim.
7) ummmm. Maybe you could put the tank 25 percent trough a window. People say the fish need light but im not sure.

 

[black angel]

Its nice to see that you love this little guy and you want the best for him. now on to the questions.
1.the size of tank is up to you and what you want to stock it with. each fantail type needs at least 10 gallons to grow properly but the more room you can give then the better. for two then 20 would be the minimum.
2. you can get him a friend but you MUST quarantine any new arrival for at least a month to make sure it doesnt carry any disease over to the other fish, especially ich.
3.goldfish benefit from a varied diet and eat a wide variety of foods. they like most fruit and especially love orange which gives vitaminc. you could also try lightly cooked zucchini, lettuce just lightly dipped into boiled water too. they will also eat some vegetables too like brocolli and cucumber. they eat a lot of the specially formulated dried foods too. dont give a goldie raw shrimp, i read somewhere they can react badly to it. so in essence they are real garbage merchants and like just about everything but only give as treats, though you can make up your own gelatine and add mashed fruits and veg to it with maybe some flaked rice and fish.
they love to eat peas as well and these should only be frozen peas that have been boiled, shelled and squashed.
4. the filter sounds strong enough as they need filtration to be 10 times the tank capacity to promote healthy growth.
5.as he is so small then you could add a few white clouds and he may try to catch them to begin with but he will soon get used to them being there. my own oranda had minnows with him from a tiny size and even when he was bigger he didnt try to eat them. minnows are a good idea as well if you have just one fish that might be a bit skittish about coming out.
6.goldies are happy whatever you give them but when choosing hollow ornaments make sure as they grow that they will still be able to easily get in and out.
7. goldies dont need an overhead light and do just as well with natural but i would suggest making sure the lid was as tight on as possible as goldies, particularly commons, have a tendency to jump.

on the subject of gravel, a lot of people decide to do without as this makes cleaning the tank a lot easier and cuts down the chance of bacterial infections. if you do stick with the gravel, make sure you have a gravel vac and use it often!

i hope some of that jelped and i'm sure other members will help you out too. good luck with your fish

 

[Elite]

My poor goldie I just figured out today that my mum unplugged his filter because it shorted and almost started a fire...wish she had told me. For some reason it just didn't occur to me that the filter wasn't working. So now I have to go find him a new filter, or at least new tubing for another one I have. It's been a bad fish day.

I love having a substrate, I dont think I'd even consider having bare bottoms on anny of my large tanks. On the other hand, if it didn't look so cool I'd take the gravel out of my betta tank cause that is a pain to clean.

Once my tanks working again maybe I'll add the white clouds. It's weird though, I've never seen them in person. None of our fish stores stock them. I'd have to actually order them...ugh. But I think I'll have to order apple snails too, so that won't be too irritating.

I'll try the zuccini, I have some of that on hand right now D