Tropical and Coldwater Mixing Success story

[daniel.voyce]

Hey people,
A while ago a spent ages trying to find information on mixing tropical fish with coldwater fish as to whether it is possible - there are a lot of conflicting arguements as to whether it actually works - so i just thought id share my experiences for anyone else who wants to have a bit more of a challenging tank whilst still keeping the fishys happy

This is currently the setup i have in my tank:

1 x 3ft / 2ft / 1.5ft laminated glass tank
1 x fluval filter (shifts 1000L p/h)
1 x heater (cant remember the make)
2 live freshwater plants in the aquarium at any one time
2 fake ferns (one near the air outlet of the filter so it catches the bubbles)
lots of pebbles, gravel and other stones (Hint: Go to B&Q and find the ripped bags of them in the garden centre and you get them at about 1/4 price (good as you dont need many!)
2 pieces of slate and 1 piece of driftwood

The temperature is kept at around 25.5 / 26 degrees (about 76/79F) by the heater.

Fish:
We started off with blinky our one fancy goldfish, my girlfriend kept him in a really small tank and he looked pathetic, so we upgraded and added a ton more fish (after cycling properly for 2 weeks (with help from various media and our old filter sponge)
we now have :

1 Fancy Goldfish
1 Black Moore
1 Small silver Shubunkin
2 Plecs
5 Platys
20 Neon Tetra's
7 White Clouds
7 Zebra Danios
3 Bronze corys
and a Siamese Fighter

The tank has been stable for a few months now, all the fish seem happy - the neon's play in the stream of the bubbles and the plecs happily clean the tank. The platys (we think) have started breeding and we have had to fashion a nursery out of some linen and fixed this to the side of the tank (as the first baby got sucked into the filter ( ).

The water although fresh has been made into a 0.1% saline solution (if that actually as we have recently done a large water change) and as of yet we have only had 1 death (a neon who when we bought it had a wierd eye died a few days later).

So if anyone else is thinking of doing it id say go ahead but just be mindful of the temperatures your fish like, if you are mixing goldfish with tropicals ensure that the tropicals wont eat / get eaten by the goldfish and that your filtration system is really efficient as goldfish produce huge amounts of waste.

Another hint: if you are mixing lots of fish as I am - ensure your tank is big enough - fish that school such as neon tetras and white clouds make the tank look neater

The next fish we are going to add to the tank will probably be a cichlid or some gouramis - just need to assess space first

 

[GSD]

Interesting
Do you know how many gallons the tank is?
it sounds nice i'd love to see pics if you have any.

The only concern i have is that goldfish will eat anything that will fit into their mouths.Im guessing that the goldfish are small but when they et bigger those neons could look like a nice snack......

 

[daniel.voyce]

I think it is a 20 Gallon tank but not sure, ill definetly get some pictures done actually and post them up soon

 

[The-Wolf]

Expect to loose the danios soon, as they do not tollerate salt very well.
expect to loose the neons and WCMMs when the golfish and Shubunkins get larger.

Are you aware that common goldfish can reach 2ft in length?
and that you need 20 gallons for the first fish and 10 for each additional fish?
I'm also a firmbeliver that the goldfishes slime coat is toxic to many tropical fish, althought there are some that say it is a myth.
Personally I think that you are heading for a major disaster down the line. It is just a matter of time.
tick, tock, tick, tock

 

[GSD]

please read this.

I seem to be seeing a lot of posts regarding Goldfish in kept in tanks.
There is IMO a lot of confusion about this subject, so I thought that I'd try to put some relevant information here.

Goldfish can live for 20+ years and reach sizes in excess of 15"

You need 20 U.S. gallons for the first fish
and 10 U.S. gallons for each additional fish
This means that in order to keep 5 goldfish
in a tank you would require 60 U.S. gallons.

A goldfish will not grow to its enviroment.
Its' body may, however the internal organs will not.
This can lead to serious problems with deformaties and death.

Fancy Goldfish (moores, fantails, lionheads, etc) should
not be kept with common fish (goldfish, comets, shubunkins etc.)
this is due to the slowness of the fancies when it comes to feeding
and due to the more commons nipping fins.

 

[daniel.voyce]

The salt solution is in a tiny amount and more used as a preventative for the outbreak of parasites i had when i got my shubunkin, it is in such a tiny concentration that i dont think it will affect the zebras, my uncle breeds tropical fish for experiments on water purity and it was his idea as a temporary measure to clear out any remaining parasites - but concern noted

And yep im aware of the goldfish sizes, we saw a bigger version of our goldfish the other day whilst out shopping - he was 15 years old and kept in a massive tank and was just over the size of a large fist. At the moment the tank is plenty big enough for what we have based on the inch per gallon rule, no doubt it will have to be extended in the future.

As for your neon and white cloud prediction - we can but see but they are breeding at the moment - albeit eating them before we can fish them out but breeding non-the-less

As for the goldfish slime coat being toxic to tropicals - in general i would say goldifsh are toxic to tropicals due to different tolerances to water - afterall they are little sh*t and p*ss machines arent they>?

 

[CatLover]

I have my doubt of it working too. The tank is purely tropical temp wise. The only thing cold water about it, is that you've thrown in the goldfish. That temp is way too high for them.

Also, I believe you're over stocked. Especially considering the adult sizes of most of the fish in there. I just hope you don't have a common pleco. Those get gigantic. I wouldn't recommend they be in anything under 100G - this I say from experience.

I'm also concerned about the betta you have in there. It is true that you can sometimes keep one in a community tank, but it's rare, and the fish it lives with must be selected VERY carefully. I think with the crowdedness of the tank, he will get stressed a lot, and soon die.

Don't add anything else to that tank. If you do anything, remove the goldfish and the betta, and make sure you don't have common plecos. If you do, then see if you can exchange them for bristlenoses or some other small species of pleco. After you do all of that, I believe your tank will be much happier

Oh, and I should add that you can't use any salt at all with plecos or cories. They are scaleless fish, and they cannot tolerate salt. I once had a cory that was accidently put in salt water (totally forgot I had added some ) and it died within minutes.

 

[daniel.voyce]

please read this.

I seem to be seeing a lot of posts regarding Goldfish in kept in tanks.
There is IMO a lot of confusion about this subject, so I thought that I'd try to put some relevant information here.

Goldfish can live for 20+ years and reach sizes in excess of 15"

You need 20 U.S. gallons for the first fish
and 10 U.S. gallons for each additional fish
This means that in order to keep 5 goldfish
in a tank you would require 60 U.S. gallons.

A goldfish will not grow to its enviroment.
Its' body may, however the internal organs will not.
This can lead to serious problems with deformaties and death.

Fancy Goldfish (moores, fantails, lionheads, etc) should
not be kept with common fish (goldfish, comets, shubunkins etc.)
this is due to the slowness of the fancies when it comes to feeding
and due to the more commons nipping fins.

[snapback]890128[/snapback]​

I find that my fantail much prefers eating my plants rather than the flake / pellet food, he pigs out on them all day and then more on the flakes etc at feeding time, he is the biggest fish in the aquarium but by no means the slowest

 

[daniel.voyce]

I saw a common pleco recently and it was massive - however ours have more patterns on them and im sure (hope) its not the same, guys im fully aware of the complications involved, however by all rules as long as the temperature doesnt rise too much the goldfish wont be unhappy, my temperature in my tank stablises at 26C however drops sharply over night and i can see it being worse in winter, hence the heater.

I was a bit concerned when i bought the cory's however i got the water tested properly and they said that the traces of salt were so low that it was really a non event and that we should be careful when adding more, they didnt mention the plecs tho

 

[daniel.voyce]

oh and as for the fighter, that was a rescue from my mom's aquarium as she had bought another male and they were ripping each other to bits, i think my one is either braindead or stoned cos he just sits there looking pretty I was initally worried about my fantail and the betta but its been 4 weeks now and not even a nip so fingers crossed it should be okay.

 

[GSD]

i dont think people are worried about the temperature diffrence and more about the amount of fish you have in a small tank.....

 

[OohFeeshy]

Yup, calling it overstocked is like calling Michael Jackson slightly odd. Rather an understatement. You are well over twice the stocking capacity for that tank. Also, by keeping the temperature higher than goldfish need, you are increasing their metabolism so they create more waste. In theory, anyhow. In all, your tank has some serious problems.

 

[Dorkhedeos]

well, even i think its too overstocked, and i never say anything about overstocking, cause i do it myself. i would suggest taking out the goldfish and the plecos. after that, you will only be overstocked.