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Setting up a goldfish tank


Greenteam

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So like title says I got a free 55g tank from a buddy and figured I try goldfish. 

 

I want to ask if anyone here keeps them what should I try to setup to help tanks clean and healthy for the fish. 

 

I will be going my a local fish farm that have every type of Goldfish like Ranchus, Lionsheads, Pearlscales, etc. I know they sell them at 2-3" sizes but assume they get big over time so not sure what stocking limits are for a 55g. 

 

Any recommendations are welcome.

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Goldfish are really messy fish, so overfilter the tank.    They also enjoy eating and destroying your plants.    Sturdier waxy leaved things like anubias's may survive.  Fast growing stuff like duckweek and cabomba will be nice snacks for them that MIGHT be able to grow fast enough to outpace the goldfish.

 

You would not want to put more than 3 in there, depending on the species.

 

Fancy's are prone to swim bladder problems, so if you feed pellets, its good to pre-soak them a minute or so before feeding.

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I think a few fancy , different goldfish types with a thin layer of black non glass gravel looks beautiful .

 

Imagine with some of the fancy types you need to be careful with driftwood and IMO a goldfish display looks best with very little if any decorations .

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A lot of these rules or guidelines are just that because it depends on a lot of other things like filtration, water changes, etc.

 

These are not fancies but you can see what I am able to keep in a 55-gal living room tank.  Two large (12") goldfish plus one of their kids who is about 6-8 inches.  Note the one foot ruler I taped on the tank for the photos.

 

I have two Aquaclear 300 (now called 70) with pre-filter sponges, one DIY double deck air driven sponge filter and one K1/sponge combo.  I only do a 25% weekly water change.  

 

The one (Ogon koi) in my avatar is much bigger but he lives in a large pond.

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I absolutely love my fancy goldfish. Their personalities are great and their history is fascinating. One thing we learned is, although they love sifting through sand, at least one of mine thinks it is great to spit that sand into the filter. Gill ends up having to clean them way too often or else they seize.

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A lot of these rules or guidelines are just that because it depends on a lot of other things like filtration, water changes, etc.

 

These are not fancies but you can see what I am able to keep in a 55-gal living room tank.  Two large (12") goldfish plus one of their kids who is about 6-8 inches.  Note the one foot ruler I taped on the tank for the photos.

 

I have two Aquaclear 300 (now called 70) with pre-filter sponges, one DIY double deck air driven sponge filter and one K1/sponge combo.  I only do a 25% weekly water change.  

 

The one (Ogon koi) in my avatar is much bigger but he lives in a large pond.

Did you breed them inside or outside ?   Very pretty

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I absolutely love my fancy goldfish. Their personalities are great and their history is fascinating. One thing we learned is, although they love sifting through sand, at least one of mine thinks it is great to spit that sand into the filter. Gill ends up having to clean them way too often or else they seize.

I tried sand once in a bog type tank and in time I siphoned it all out .

 

Nothing but a pain but lots here will disagree with me .

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Goldfish do enjoy a lot of room and clean water.  I have three 110-gallon stock tanks, along with some large glass aquaria.  Here is a pic of two of these 110-gal tanks in a corner of the basement.  Each has 8 adult goldfish in it.  Each is filtered with only air (there is a pond air pump in the top-middle of the pic) and diy bucket, sponge, and k1 moving bed filters.

 

The 29-gal is a fry tank.  

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Thanks.  Outside natural spawning.  I have two ponds outside.  These two large fish also grew up outside but they are 15 years old.  Last fall, I decided to move them inside.

Thanks . I asked because I know they can be bred inside/tank but rather rare indeed .

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When I was a child my father and grandfather used to breed fancy goldies (and some other fish too). But I never thought I'll have a tank of them in my home.

It started as a gift to 6th birthday to my DD. She asks for pets but we can't have now, so we agree to get the fish if I will take care of them. Before that time I lost my father, after last Christmass my grandpa passed away. But what my grandpa always said that you can have 3 fancies in 20g if you have good strong filter/s. They always used air driven sponge filters. So far I have 2 but I really think about 3rd one.

 

I have some small light Nat Geo substrate from Petsmart. I like the size but now I would prefer dark/black. In my tank I have 2 filters: one Nat Geo (Eheim's knock-off) internal filter for 40g (50g was to big and didn't fit in 20g tank) and another a Tetra double sponge for 20g. I changed the media in the internal filter to Seachem Matrix and Purigen. I clean/vacuum the tank and wash the internal filter every week or 10 days.

 

I have many plants and a piece of mopani in there. I tried many different plants but some of them my fish ate, some bit, some just died in my conditions. On the wood I have 3 different anubias and Windelof Java Fern. Also there are some crypts, one echinodorus, regular Java Fern, hornwort, water wisteria, pennywort. I keep some duckweed in a bowl because my fish will eat all of it before it'll grow. For plants I use Seachem root tablets and just sometimes small amount of their ferts.

 

Also I originally planted some of the plants in a small pots and hid them in the gravel. But I made holes in them and now runners found their way to grow in open gravel. I did it because goldies may pull plants out.

 

I heard that hikari brand is very good for goldies. I use small sinking pellets for dry food, sometimes give them algae wafer, made homemade jello food, frozen red blood worms, blanched peas, duckweed. Sometimes I also give them pieces of veggeis: ziccini and pumpkin.

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Thanks . I asked because I know they can be bred inside/tank but rather rare indeed .

Right.  Breeding inside is a lot of work because one has to worry about food for the fry.

 

Outside is easy because they feed on green water and algae, which make their color very intense.

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I heard that hikari brand is very good for goldies. I use small sinking pellets for dry food, sometimes give them algae wafer, made homemade jello food, frozen red blood worms, blanched peas, duckweed. Sometimes I also give them pieces of veggeis: ziccini and pumpkin.

That is a very nice and balanced diet.

 

For my indoor fish, I feed them Hikari wheatgerm (sinking) pellets and frozen de-shelled peas.

 

For outside fish, I have to use more economical food because from late spring to late fall, I need 1- 2 pounds of food per day (for lots of goldfish and koi).

 

Now some necessary shrimp content.  How many red cherry shrimps can you keep in a 110-gal stock tank? :)

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So I took my wife to the place that I'm buying from and she got to see all the different Fancy Goldfish. I asked her what she like and gave the ok on all just no bubble eye or celestials because the big eyes made her nervous they would injure themselves.

 

Now time to narrow down my choices too 3 little guys. I'm down to mix like say a 3 mix pack of Lionhead, Ranchu, and maybe a Pearlscale. I don't know if that's ok to mix them or if I should pick a type an get 3 buddies. Also keep in mind the tank is 55g so long term I need to keep them happy with their space.

 

Here's some pictures of the place I'm getting them from. It's outside and guy told me they keep their Goldfish in warm temps so I should not over stress trying to keep them tank cold.

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On a shrimp related note the place had a few of this massive tanks just for shrimps  :phew:  .

 

Of course my wife stood near by while I place my face 2 inches above the surface to get a reallllly good look at this massive swarms in the tanks lol. To my surprise some of the Neo tanks had mixed colors and some of the natural breeding had cause some strange looking color variations in the Neos like one had green body with black stripes. I plan on going back (without the wife) to more closely inspect the shrimps and see if I can find some cool morphs that might be worth getting. I did notice the females were huge I mean inch and half + on some of them.

 

Here's a quick snap I took just to get an idea of what lurks in the dark.

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Glass bottom tanks are very nice with Goldfish. Plants are tough, Goldfish are very dirty. Weekly water changes for 20+%. Fancy's can get sick very easy. Start with and just use Repashy Soilent and super green food, it will help with swim bladder.

I breed/raise/import/sell/export 1000+ goldfish a year. They do and should get large, do not try Comets or Shubunkin for indoor. 55 gallon tank is a little high for some of the Fancys. Orandas and Ryunkins will do well in a 55. I love Ranchus, they are the King of Goldfish. Ranchus truly have personalities and can be fun.

Goldfish are a lot of work, most people do not realize

So no to the Pearlscale in a mixed tank.

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So I took my wife to the place that I'm buying from and she got to see all the different Fancy Goldfish. I asked her what she like and gave the ok on all just no bubble eye or celestials because the big eyes made her nervous they would injure themselves.

 

Now time to narrow down my choices too 3 little guys. I'm down to mix like say a 3 mix pack of Lionhead, Ranchu, and maybe a Pearlscale. I don't know if that's ok to mix them or if I should pick a type an get 3 buddies. Also keep in mind the tank is 55g so long term I need to keep them happy with their space.

 

Here's some pictures of the place I'm getting them from. It's outside and guy told me they keep their Goldfish in warm temps so I should not over stress trying to keep them tank cold.

lol oh you are in Miami .

 

The fish farm does have nice goldfish

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Right.  Breeding inside is a lot of work because one has to worry about food for the fry.

 

Outside is easy because they feed on green water and algae, which make their color very intense.

I actually thought that they needed a seasonal temp change which is why they didn't often breed inside .

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That is a very nice and balanced diet.

 

For my indoor fish, I feed them Hikari wheatgerm (sinking) pellets and frozen de-shelled peas.

 

For outside fish, I have to use more economical food because from late spring to late fall, I need 1- 2 pounds of food per day (for lots of goldfish and koi).

 

Now some necessary shrimp content.  How many red cherry shrimps can you keep in a 110-gal stock tank? :)

Oh wow that is a lot of food .

 

 

''How many red cherry shrimps can you keep in a 110-gal stock tank?''

 

Lol

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I actually thought that they needed a seasonal temp change which is why they didn't often breed inside .

They still do breed indoors but it is obviously better outside.  Some will even spawn hours after received from shipping.  I guess when they are happy, they breed.

 

In my outside ponds, usually a heavy late spring rain will get them started spawning.  To some (me included), it is actually a problem because the population will increase and we have to find places to re-home them.  This year, I will try that "one blue gill per pond" method to try to control the population.

 

This was my koi pond last fall.  I had to call a fishery to catch them and ask them to take the fish.

post-3571-0-69256000-1458052699_thumb.jp

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They still do breed indoors but it is obviously better outside.  Some will even spawn hours after received from shipping.  I guess when they are happy, they breed.

 

In my outside ponds, usually a heavy late spring rain will get them started spawning.  To some (me included), it is actually a problem because the population will increase and we have to find places to re-home them.  This year, I will try that "one blue gill per pond" method to try to control the population.

 

This was my koi pond last fall.  I had to call a fishery to catch them and ask them to take the fish.

Oh nice pic .

 

 ''This year, I will try that "one blue gill per pond" method to try to control the population''

 

Perhaps you might need more than one like 2 females .

 

I would avoid males .

 

I had a pair of dollar sunfish outside in a 125 gallon Rubbermaid .

 

I had them with platies who they ignored UNTILL they started to spawn .

 

Now after years I only have the female left and she does keep the fry population down but since no spawning , no problems with the platies .

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