Other Fishies together?

[I_<3_cavies]

Does anyone know if you just put 9 goldfish together will they have babies? I have 9 and dont want anymore.

 

[VoodooJoint]

Goldfish are highly unlikely to breed in any kind of fish tank setting.

 

[aqh88]

The goldfish advocates on the fish board will have me hung if I don't speak up. They are going around to fish stores and walmarts leaving fliers that say goldfish are not bowl fish and list minimum sizes to keep them happy and healthy.

Following their advice and research you better have one heck of a tank to put 9 goldfish together. The size I always heard is at least a 30g for the first 1-2, 55g for 2-3, and another at least 10gallons for each goldfish after that. Giving you at minimum a 115gallon tank. That is for fancies. If you bought feeders, comets, or common goldfish don't even try it. 1 will fill a 55g. Find someone with a nice pond. These guys are carp relatives and carp are caught for food fish. The nonfancy varieties can reach several feet in length, fancy goldfish can reach 8-10", and all are very thick bodied. Making them some of the largest and messiest of the commonly sold fish.

Goldfish are extremely messy and even if you follow the above sizes recommended to me by every good goldfish keeper I know you will still have to heavily filter the tanks and do water changes weekly to twice weekly. Keeping goldfish in smaller tanks will result in polluted water and stunting. Stunting is where a fish's outsides stop growing due to lack of space or water pollution but their insides will often keep growing. The fish end up with dwarfed bodies, large heads, bent spines, and in extreme cases their guts have split out of their skin. All this stress will kill them in less than half their potential lifespan. Like having a guinea pig live only 3years due to it's living conditions instead of the 6+ years they can live with ease if kept properly. Except a goldfish should easily live 20years and the record is something like 70years for a goldfish and over 200years for a koi that is being kept in China. That is why I have no goldfish. I don't want to devote a tank the size of a 55g to keeping them and my 30g looks quite nice with the angelfish and yoyo loaches. Many serious goldfish keepers I know build indoor ponds out of livestock waterers to keep their pets healthy.

Have a read at this thread if you want other opinions and more info.

 

[bunnyluv17]

Can the fancy goldfish live in outdoor ponds?

 

[aqh88]

In warmer areas but not where the pond freezes over. I'm not sure the minimum temp but they are slightly less hardy than the other goldfish varieties. I would think around 40-50F and above would be fine. Goldfish are actually coldwater fish and prefer it when tanks are kept in the low to mid 70s so no higher than 78F and preferably around 76F.

 

[bromers]

I have kept fish for YEARS! One time it actually happend our goldfish got pregnant but oscar died just before giving birth. Yes It was called Ocsar.
But that only happend once, that kind of thing isnt common though.

 

[aqh88]

Goldfish don't get pregnant. They lay eggs and probably like most fish only lay eggs if there is a male around. If an egg laying fish looks pregnant it's usually a case of bloat/dropsy which is extremely common in goldfish. It can be caused by many things including poor water quality(ever tested nitrates on a goldfish tank?), diet, and a variety of bacterial, parasitic, and fungal infections. Goldfish are mostly herbivorous fish and should be provided some plant matter such as growing a bit of duckweed for them or tossing in cheap plants for them to chew up or feeding them things like veggie flakes. Feeding them only on meaty flakes made for tropical fish like tetras and freeze dried foods like brineshrimp and bloodworms can increase the chance of bloat.

 

[nikilovesdogs]

Yes, goldfish lay eggs.

Some tropical fish are live bearers, which means they give birth to live minnow babies. The other type are egg bearers, which means the mother lays eggs and the minnow babies hatch from the eggs.

Maybe you had something other than goldfish, bromers?

 

[l_eris_l]

Bloat is very common in goldfish. You have no idea how many times friends of mine have told me of their goldfish going belly up and they were confused about why...

Aqh88, thank you for speaking up! Goldfish are easily the most abused fish on the planet (with bettas a close second), so it is refreshing to hear someone educated on the topic.


~Eris~

 

[cavypaulita]

Thanks for speaking up for the poor goldies.
I have goldfish and I suffer so much to see the conditions in which they are kept in most fish stores around here. There aren't stores that can be trusted.
THey treat goldies as objects which can be replaced. Goldfish are very social fish, they come to you..and they need a huge space to be well.

just wanted to say thanks for speaking up for goldfish.

Pauli