Buying a goldfish

[Eoin]

Hi. My wife was thinking about keeping a single goldfish in a small, non-aerated tank at her desk at work. We went to our local pet store to look at the goldfish, but were surprised to find that they all had maximum growth limits at 8” and over. I have couple of questions.

1. Will the size of the goldfish be determined by the size of their living environment, or will my wife end up with a giant goldfish after a few years?
2. Am I correct in the assumption that certain goldfish do not require a pump to keep oxygen in the water?
3. What in your opinion would be the best goldfish for keeping as a solitary fish in a smallish tank?

Cheers

 

[grimlock3000]

Goldfish eat a lot and as a result they produce a lot of waste. The truth is that you need about 10 gallons of well filtered water at a stable temp.

1. Will the size of the goldfish be determined by the size of their living environment, or will my wife end up with a giant goldfish after a few years?

Fish usually do not grow to full size in small tanks because they are not healthy environments. Then they die early after having their growth stunted by a tank that is too small.

2. Am I correct in the assumption that certain goldfish do not require a pump to keep oxygen in the water?

You would need a decent filter to keep the water healthy, and this would put oxygen in the water.

3. What in your opinion would be the best goldfish for keeping as a solitary fish in a smallish tank?

How large of a tank can you commit to?

 

[cdawson]

Hi. My wife was thinking about keeping a single goldfish in a small, non-aerated tank at her desk at work. We went to our local pet store to look at the goldfish, but were surprised to find that they all had maximum growth limits at 8” and over. I have couple of questions.

1. Will the size of the goldfish be determined by the size of their living environment, or will my wife end up with a giant goldfish after a few years?
2. Am I correct in the assumption that certain goldfish do not require a pump to keep oxygen in the water?
3. What in your opinion would be the best goldfish for keeping as a solitary fish in a smallish tank?

Cheers

Sorry, but a goldfish is the LAST fish you want to be keeping in any tank that's considered small. Even regular 15 cent comets reach a max size of 8" and create ALOT of waste.
Tell you wife a Betta is pretty much the only thing she can go with. Small tanks under 10 gallons are death traps and cannot sustain anything for too long without constant water changes.

 

[malkore]

Everyone in the fish hobby agrees you need at least 10gallons per goldfish, just to cope with their heavy bio-load. Others say 20gallons is needed.

Either you can't keep an 8" fish in a 10 gallon tank, which is why goldies are really most suited to ponds, or very large indoor tanks (100+ gallons)

 

[flipz]

Just like everyone else said, goldfish really do create a lot of waste, and 10 gallons per goldfish is the minimum recommended. As kids thats what we always got, just because they are cheap I suppose. And over the years people have all just come to assume that they are fine in a tiny little "goldfish" bowl, but really they aren't. Your LFS won't even think twice about selling you one with a bowl though, they just want your money.

-brent

 

[Eoin]

I had a feeling this might be the case. It didn’t seem right to me to have a fish like that in a space such as my wife wanted. I think I will get her a fake fish and tank for her. She has a habit of killing anything live anyway…..

 

[Menagerie]

If you could get a small set up (2 gal) with filter and heater that could hold a betta. Or fake fish are okay too.

 

[grimlock3000]

Someone bought me a fish shaped fish bowl for Xmas last year to put my Betta in. They were thinking the bowl would be an upgrade over the nice 10g tank my Betta is currently in, since the Betta would get to be alone in the bowl. The fish bowl holds about 3/4 gallon of water, so I obviously decided against using it 8O I have 4 fake fish in it now, and for some reason, its gotten cloudy. Damn fake fish are must be pooping or something

 

[Eoin]

Just wondering, what kind of a store did you get the fake fish in? I'm not even sure where to look.

 

[Hypostomus]

1. Will the size of the goldfish be determined by the size of their living environment, or will my wife end up with a giant goldfish after a few years?
2. Am I correct in the assumption that certain goldfish do not require a pump to keep oxygen in the water?

1. Hardly. A goldfish I got as a rescue increased its size by about three times in two months!
2. Not in that size tank. At a minimum, get a 10g tank with an air pump, bubbler, and a strong filter. Then you can house *one* of the smaller ornamentals...for a while, anyway.

Fake fish can be found as part of tank set-ups...there are some cheaper ones on eBay here: http://search.ebay.com/search/searc...=&soloctog=9&=&sosortproperty=1&sosortorder=1

Just take the fish out and put them in your tank and then keep the other tank for later...or sell it.