Adding Fish

[Sadie]

Hi. I have a 60 gallon tank with five 1" tetras. The water temp is 72 degrees. I'd like to know if I can add fancy goldfish to this tank with the tetras. Thank you for any advice you can give me.

 

[loganj]

tropical/coldwater

It is never a good idea to mix tropical fish with coldwater fish. If you want to keep Goldfish or any other "coldwater" fish, I strongly suggest setting up another tank for them. Also, 72 deg is too cold for your tetras. They should be maintained at no less than 76 and preferably 78-80 deg F. You can mix most coldwater fish with no problem. It's best not to mix the short fantailed fish (orandas, moors, ect...) with the faster varieties such as comets and shibunkins as the slower fish often will not get their share of the food. It's OK to mix them as long as you understand that the "fancies" may need a little special attention at dinnertime to insure they get enough.
Logan J

 

[Grant R]

You can add plenty more fish to your 60 gallon too. What else are you thinking of adding ?
Remember to add only a few fish at a time ( say 3 max ) , so not to shock your established system / water parameters etc.
Grant.

 

[mitche8359]

I'm not disagreeing with the other posts. I'm just saying that I did have a gold fish with angelfish and tetras in the same tank when I was in college. They all grew and played well together in the tank. Whether it's good for the fish is another story.

 

[Guest]

Re: tropical/coldwater

It is never a good idea to mix tropical fish with coldwater fish. If you want to keep Goldfish or any other "coldwater" fish, I strongly suggest setting up another tank for them. Also, 72 deg is too cold for your tetras. They should be maintained at no less than 76 and preferably 78-80 deg F. You can mix most coldwater fish with no problem. It's best not to mix the short fantailed fish (orandas, moors, ect...) with the faster varieties such as comets and shibunkins as the slower fish often will not get their share of the food. It's OK to mix them as long as you understand that the "fancies" may need a little special attention at dinnertime to insure they get enough.
Logan J

You know, I understand this is the accepted practice, and Iv'e never mixed goldfish w/tetras or anything except a couple algae eaters. What I don't understand is if the temps are so important for goldfish, why do mine thrive outside in my ponds? The water can get into the low 90's in the summer, and they dont get sick or die. They live outside in all seasons, only time i lose any is winter, very few (except to predators).

Can anyone explain why this is?

 

[Grant R]

Very good point. But wouldn't the air on the surface constantly be cooling it, where a tank wouldn't have this 'open-top' advantage ?

 

[mitche8359]

Maybe it's because the water temperature of the pond increases gradually and the goldfish have the time to acclimate to the higher temps. Maybe the real danger for coldwater fish is going directly from a colder temp to a higher temp.

 

[Guest]

I suppose those are possibilities, but it still doesn't make sense to me.

Wonder if Logan has an answer for me??

 

[Sadie]

More Questions...

Thank-you everyone for your much appreciated advice to my question. I would now like to explain my dilemna a little further.
I don't have much time to make a decision.
My neighbor is moving and she has no place for her 4 small/med (2-3") fancy goldfish.
Considering my tank is:
60 gallons.
72 degrees.
404 fluval cannister filter.
Undergravel filter with 2 MaxiJet mp900 powerheads.
containing five 1" tetras.
My questions are these:
If I save these goldfish and put them in my tank, will my tetras fight or shred their tails?
Is my tank and filtration adequate?
Thank You Kind People For Your Advice!

 

[Guest]

Flying by the seat of my pants on this one!

OK, since this is time-sensitive, if I were you I would go ahead and do it.

Your filtration is fine, just do weekly 20% changes, golfish are rather dirty.

Up the temp to 76 or so over the course of a few days. (I have goldfish in a 75 degree tank that do just fine, very healthy) this temp sholud be ok with both types.

You didn't say what kind of tetras, but I believe most would be ok with the goldfish, I doubt there would be aggression either way.

I think your chances of success here are pretty good, but if it turns out bad, then I'm sorry, did the best I could on short notice.

Good Luck!

CC

 

[Sadie]

thank-you

Thank-You Corvuscorax, and thank-you for responding to my pm's question, yes it did answer my question.
The tetras are 2 strawberry/3 blueberry colored. I realize now, but did not know at the time I purchased them that they have some kind of dye in them to create these colors. I originally had 10, five of each color, but the others died a healthy old age of almost 4 years. Pretty good lifespan for these fishes from what I have read. I suppose this means that the remaining tetras don't have much time left, boo hoo, at which time I will probably remove the heater from the tank. Is this a good idea or not?
Also... can I get by with partial water changes and python vacuuming (say 1/2) every 2 weeks or so?

 

[Guest]

Sadie,
you're welcome, no problem.

Ahh, the famous painted glass fish. Should be no prob. getting along w/goldies, but LoganJ may be a better resource for that.

Inso far as removing the heater, I'm not sure but I guess you should when your glass fish are all gone. I dont keep goldies in tanks year round.

See, I have a pond, the goldfishh breed in it every year. I have found that goldies under 3 inches or so ususally dont make it through the winter outside, so i catch what babies i can in october and overwinter them in a 45 gallon. I keep that tank in the mid 70's all winter, never had one get sick or die(except a couple who jumped out) in may or so, they go back to the pond.

 

[loganj]

Sorry it took me so long to get back to this post...computer problems. Here are the preferences for goldfish as I understand it.
ph: about 7.5
Temp: about 72 deg F
Hardness: not critical
This is for the aquarium of course. I have no experience with ponds and would have to defer to those like Corvuscorax who have been there and done that. I have kept algae eaters of various types with goldfish and have never had a problem. Mostly the Chinese algae eaters who, as we all know, would thrive in the toilet...they can live in anything. I have read several times that coldwater fish carry different diseases than the tropicals, but have never seen an example of any of these diseases. As far as the temp goes, I think it has to do with the amount of 02 in the water. I know when the AC quit one summer here, my daughters shibunkin was gasping at the surface when the water temp hit 84 deg. An infusion of cool water made him happy right away. Perhaps the increased surface area in the pond mediates this problem somewhat. Also, although I don't know how deep your pond is, I believe it will be cooler in the deeper areas.
As far as aggression, I have never seen any in goldfish. They all seem to get along quite well. I'm going to guess that you'll be OK doing this, but that's the best I can do...just a guess. I will research this further and try to post something that makes sense later.
Logan J

 

[Beginer]

Hi all,
Regarding to goldfish. Due to their round shape (more tissues more fleshes) which requires more Oxygen, I think they do well in cold water because more Oxygen dissolves in cold water.
Therefore, as long as enough oxygen available (even in hot weather like summer) there's no problem.