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Thread: How to take care of Goldfishes?

  1. #1
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    How to take care of Goldfishes?

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    My friend is going to give me 8 nos. of ranchus he bought recently (after Chinese New Year) due to his commitments and nagging wife!
    I need help as I never keep expensive goldfishes before and my previous experience in keeping them ($1 10 fishes) during my schooldays had been unsuccessful.

    I intend to put them in a 4ft tank with a 3 chamber canister chamber filter. My concern is
    a) the water pH
    b) how much water change
    c) what food to feed them. I have JBL discus bits and Spirulina tablets ok for them ?
    d)water plants type and bogwoods water acidic ok?

    Any advices are very welcome. Thanks.

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    I think a lot of us here don't really keep goldfishes. One of the reasons is that they will eat plants.

    As they eat a lot, they dirty the water very quickly. Caninster filter will have a tendency to clog easily. Even Overhead Filter has to be maintained fairly frequently. As for diet, they eat just about anything, but I find Hikari's Sinking Ranchu Pellets to be quite acceptable by the fishes.

    pH of the water should be slighly acidic to neutral. At least that was how I was keeping mine about 3 years back.

    I believe there are at least 2 local forums dedicated to goldfishes. One is Rafflesgold and I can't remember the name of the other one.

    Hope that helps.

    Cheers,
    I have dwarf cichlids in my tanks! Do you?

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    Thanks benny. I have also checked the web for information and give me the feeling that they are generally easy to keep,except water must kept clean all the times.

    I intend to put them in the tank bare with no plants,decorations etc first... just when my the other Tanganyikan tank setup is starting to take off!

    Also wonder how many fishes will be 'sacrificed' by fish owners after the CNY.....

  4. #4
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    Goldfish can tolerate ph 8 with no prolems, don't know for sure the lower part of the ph spectrum. But what I do know is that you need a hell of a big tank for them, you need like 40 liters of water for each goldfish, more is even better, some say 50 liters is ideal, but you can manage with less. And if you give them spirulina tablets they may even not eat the plants all that much. I kept 1 goldfish in a planted tank: valisneria, echinodorus and some crypts, the plants were ok, I just needed to have a constant supply of spirulina. Filters will have a hard time too, 1 piece of goldfish does more waste then 20 barbs, and I mean big barbs! They also like a little salt in their water, just a little not too much.
    Last edited by zoli; 10th Feb 2008 at 18:20.

  5. #5
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    Goldfish are quite hardy. I do almost a complete overhual of my tank very weekend and use de-chlorinated water. As for decorations, my take is keep the tank bare since it will be easier to maintain. Feeding wise they are not too particular, they eat everything and anything.

  6. #6
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    Hmmmm... Maybe you wanna get your friend to sell them to me? I am very interested.

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    Goldfish thrives in hard water. I have seen my bother-in-law putting in coral chips and they are doing very well.

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    golfish are very dirty fishes.. their waste is like ... the water must be clean. my uncle is keeping a few of them in a 5ft tank and using a sump for filtration. the tank is also bare(not many things in the tank

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    heh. So True! I've heard them being refered to as "swimming stomachs" mainly because they produce so much waste! Around here people just by them on whim- without even researching to see how much care they need. Most end up in the dumpster in about a month, never reaching their true potiential- like say a foot long....
    Breeding golden snakeskin guppies

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    Quote Originally Posted by DazzleDiscus View Post
    heh. So True! I've heard them being refered to as "swimming stomachs" mainly because they produce so much waste! Around here people just by them on whim- without even researching to see how much care they need. Most end up in the dumpster in about a month, never reaching their true potiential- like say a foot long....
    Some goldfishes died. I never really able to keep the water clean even 2 water changes per week and it always smell. That's the last time I touch goldfishes

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    i used a overhead filter for my previous goldfish tank... charcoal, wool, biohome in the overhead filter... clean it once a week...

    and yea they are very hardy... they are oppotunistic feeder... won't stop eating if you keep feeding them.. they will just eat till they cannot even swim and float upside down... they are prone to swimming bladder problem...

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    and sometimes they even eat their own shit!

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    yup... they will...

    recycle.. LOL!! kidding...

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    So far for my case, over filtering with 2 external canister filter, gex soil, a forest full of windelov, nanas, together with cleaning crew (7 yamato, 3 oto, 2 leopard corydoras which constantly spawn and some cherries) has work quite well for my 2Ft goldfish tank.

    The goldies seem to like hikari algea wafers that I feed my corydoras and shrimps). The main diet for them are gold fish food from Tetra Fin Gold (contains spirulina).

    Water top up routine every 2 - 3 days due to evaporation from Tornado Fan and weekly 30% water change. (they do better with cooler temperature and I also have a very small pack of coral chip inside one of my canister).

    Hope this info helps.

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    You have sucker fish? The tank glasses always get slimy.

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    The 3 oto will do a good job but weekly simple cleaning using soft sponge from Diaso works wonders. Cheap and good

    Avoid common pleco "sucker fish" if possible because if they don't get enough food, they will start chasing your goldfish (suck their body coat). While if you feed the common pleco enough, chances are you have over-fed the tank and pollute water faster since the goldfish always out complete others.

    Oto are tested to be safest bet.

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    Oto are tested to be safest bet.[/QUOTE]

    Danken. I am tempted again. I saw one new type ranchu body intense red and white. Don't know the name but very nice.

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    With decent water condition and proper feeding, they are by far one of the most hardy fish that is very tolerating to "mis-handling" in my opinion.

    Note that these fishes grow fast. Among the fancy goldfish, the fantail is considered the smallest in size when maxed out. So you have to watch the ranchu, because they can get even bigger than fantail so avoid overcrowding.

    Your 4Ft with 8 small ranchu for a start would be decently roomy and allows very good room to heavily planting of hardy plants like nanas, windelov, swords, etc; but remember these beauties have long life (easily 5 - 10 years with decent care given) so try not to overcrowd i.e. buy too many beauties.

    Happy enjoying the view and keeping them!

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    Feeding: do feed only those sinking pellets, else the air that is trapped inside the food will be taken by the goldfish, causing swim bladder problems. Goldfish are omnivorous, they need meat too.

    They are also coldwater fish, they thrive in colder water. As many has mentioned, filteration is very important. They generate a lot of wastes that foul the water easily.

    Hope you will enjoy keeping them

    Regards

  20. #20
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    Thanks for all the info.

    This time I will try again and only when 100% ready.

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