Question About Fancy Goldfish and Water Temps...

[ArtesiaWells]

I've read wildly conflicting information on this one -- though the vast majority of Goldfish species are labeled as "cold water" fish, some sources say the fancy, round-bodied type (as I'm keeping) shouldn't have cool/cold water in their environment...that it should be in excess of 70 degrees or so...

To me, I was under the assumption that tropical species need these kinds of water temps, not goldies...that being said, I keep my tank at room temperature, which means the tank and its water is always on the cooler side (I use almost cold tap water during changes/replenishes) and never use a heater with goldies...is this okay? Are fancy bodied types pretty much "cold water" inhabitants as well?

 

[Coursair]

I've read wildly conflicting information on this one -- though the vast majority of Goldfish species are labeled as "cold water" fish, some sources say the fancy, round-bodied type (as I'm keeping) shouldn't have cool/cold water in their environment...that it should be in excess of 70 degrees or so...

To me, I was under the assumption that tropical species need these kinds of water temps, not goldies...that being said, I keep my tank at room temperature, which means the tank and its water is always on the cooler side (I use almost cold tap water during changes/replenishes) and never use a heater with goldies...is this okay? Are fancy bodied types pretty much "cold water" inhabitants as well?

I would say they are Cool water. They don't handle overwintering in a pond, but house temps should be ok. Too warm leads to less oxygen.

Lots of room, clean water and SINKING foods or soaked flakes. Fancies have issues with floating foods.

 

[jetajockey]

I think they are best classified as subtropical, but their native counterparts, although long removed ,do live in a pretty wide range of temperatures.

 

[ArtesiaWells]

I would say they are Cool water. They don't handle overwintering in a pond, but house temps should be ok. Too warm leads to less oxygen.

Lots of room, clean water and SINKING foods or soaked flakes. Fancies have issues with floating foods.

Thank you very much for the reply, Coursair...

Let me address a couple of the elements you discuss and mention above, beginning with the "cool water"...so, it is okay if I fill their tank back up, during the second stage of the water change process, with (conditioned with Prime) tap water that's on the colder side? As for the oxygen, they definitely have plenty of that -- besides the surface agitation my two HOBs create (incredible amounts), I'm pumping tons of bubbles into the tank via two 18" bars that make the water almost club-soda-like...

As for their space, I just rehomed them from a 10 gallon (VERY long story on how this all happened; please refer to my thread about this in the general freshwater section) to a new Marineland 60 gallon, with two power HOBs turning over more than 800 gallons per hour and the aforementioned bubble bars. Decor is very sparse right now, as the tank is a project in progress, and we don't really have the tank themed right now (we're thinking "Asian" for their original habitat) so they have plenty of room for swimming. With regard to the food -- I have been feeding them flakes mostly, not the sinking pellets (I have both) and I do notice that one of them, a juvinile, small silver and gold guy we have named "Bubbles" or "Mr. Bubbles" due to his fascination with riding the wave of these things in the rear of the aquarium has been suffering from the dreaded swim bloat disease, which I have been treating since he was in the 10 gallon for almost a year through daily water changes, fasting and frozen, cooked peas.

Should I regulate the food to ONLY the Tetra sinking granules?

 

[Coursair]

Thank you very much for the reply, Coursair...

Let me address a couple of the elements you discuss and mention above, beginning with the "cool water"...so, it is okay if I fill their tank back up, during the second stage of the water change process, with (conditioned with Prime) tap water that's on the colder side? As for the oxygen, they definitely have plenty of that -- besides the surface agitation my two HOBs create (incredible amounts), I'm pumping tons of bubbles into the tank via two 18" bars that make the water almost club-soda-like...

As for their space, I just rehomed them from a 10 gallon (VERY long story on how this all happened; please refer to my thread about this in the general freshwater section) to a new Marineland 60 gallon, with two power HOBs turning over more than 800 gallons per hour and the aforementioned bubble bars. Decor is very sparse right now, as the tank is a project in progress, and we don't really have the tank themed right now (we're thinking "Asian" for their original habitat) so they have plenty of room for swimming. With regard to the food -- I have been feeding them flakes mostly, not the sinking pellets (I have both) and I do notice that one of them, a juvinile, small silver and gold guy we have named "Bubbles" or "Mr. Bubbles" due to his fascination with riding the wave of these things in the rear of the aquarium has been suffering from the dreaded swim bloat disease, which I have been treating since he was in the 10 gallon for almost a year through daily water changes, fasting and frozen, cooked peas.

Should I regulate the food to ONLY the Tetra sinking granules?

Soak ANY flakes before you feed them. Then they'll be fine. Omega One Algae Wafers are good also.

Be careful of too strong currents. They aren't strong swimmers and too much current can throw them around. Bubble bars don't add oxygen directly. They do allow more water to contact the air via movement of the surface.

Any decor needs smooth edges. Fake plants should be Silk or soft no hard edges. Nothing sharp or pointy to stab them. Some live plants will survive with GF esp. Anubias or other thick leaves, non tasty plants.

Fresh veggies and greens are good. We fed Romaine and Zucchini. Use a veggie clip so they don't have to chase it. Organic is best, still rinse well. I cut Zuc into pieces so they can eat the inner area. Peel if not organic. Blanch or freeze or leave in tank overnight to soften slightly.
Peas, frozen/thawed/skinned and lightly broken into pieces are good.

Read food ingredients. Many are mostly filler. Omega One and some others have better main ingredients. I offer lots of different foods. Spirulina is one to look for as first or second ingredient.

I don't heat Fancies. Just temp match tap water to tank. Doesn't have to be exact, just don't shock them.

 

[ArtesiaWells]

Soak ANY flakes before you feed them. Then they'll be fine. Omega One Algae Wafers are good also.

Well, what if the flakes make their way, because of the current in this tank, all throughout the water and below the surface? Would this be sufficient versus soaking them?

Be careful of too strong currents. They aren't strong swimmers and too much current can throw them around. Bubble bars don't add oxygen directly. They do allow more water to contact the air via movement of the surface.

I understand about the bars' oxygenation of the water; now I'm concerned, based on what you say here, about the currents in this tank -- it does seem like even when they're still, they're being moved about a bit from the currents, but I didn't really think much of the fact that this could be coming from the bubble bar output. Should I reduce the force of the air pressure from the pump a bit?

Any decor needs smooth edges. Fake plants should be Silk or soft no hard edges. Nothing sharp or pointy to stab them. Some live plants will survive with GF esp. Anubias or other thick leaves, non tasty plants.

As I stated, we still don't know what we want to decorate with in terms of a theme; right now, it's a sort of hodge-podge of ideas, with the natural-colored pebble substrate, a tree stump piece off to the left and an Asian gazebo off to the right. We have some randomly-placed plants in there as well (plastic) with tall ones towards the back and a little "garden path" made up of a cut-up Marineland "plant mat" which my wife designed to look as though its snaking away from the Asian gazebo...difficult to explain the setup without pics, but suffice to say, we wanted to originally go with either an Asian or natural theme for the tank. Now, we don't know what direction it's going in; we are even considering scrapping those ideas and doing a castle setup, with two castle structures in the middle joined by a bridge ornament she picked up last night, and the rest all plants. I saw a castle setup on some guy's tank on Youtube with blue LED lighting throughout the aquarium and it looked stunning...

Fresh veggies and greens are good. We fed Romaine and Zucchini. Use a veggie clip so they don't have to chase it. Organic is best, still rinse well. I cut Zuc into pieces so they can eat the inner area. Peel if not organic. Blanch or freeze or leave in tank overnight to soften slightly.
Peas, frozen/thawed/skinned and lightly broken into pieces are good.

We tried the zucchini clipped to the feeder thingy; all they did was peck at it randomly and eventually turned the disc of zucchini into a frisbee or toy of some kind. We feed the peas when they appear bloated.

Read food ingredients. Many are mostly filler. Omega One and some others have better main ingredients. I offer lots of different foods. Spirulina is one to look for as first or second ingredient.

I normally feed Tetra's goldfish flakes or Aqueon's flakes, but right now I'm using NutraFin...is this okay?

I don't heat Fancies. Just temp match tap water to tank. Doesn't have to be exact, just don't shock them.

So, no heater on the tank necessary, and just keep their water at room temp so long as the room is on the coolish side?

BTW Tina -- my wife and I LOVE San Francisco! What part of town are you in? Have you ever indulged in House of Prime Rib or Far East Cafe in Chinatown? YUM!

 

[Coursair]

Well, what if the flakes make their way, because of the current in this tank, all throughout the water and below the surface? Would this be sufficient versus soaking them?

I'd still briefly soak them, it just lets them expand before a fish grabs it. We fed our flakes in a bowl, add tank water and feed it via turkey baster
Could aim it to each fish. Target feed the slowest

I understand about the bars' oxygenation of the water; now I'm concerned, based on what you say here, about the currents in this tank -- it does seem like even when they're still, they're being moved about a bit from the currents, but I didn't really think much of the fact that this could be coming from the bubble bar output. Should I reduce the force of the air pressure from the pump a bit?

You can try turning pump down a bit or people have DIYd diffusers with plastic water bottles, check YouTube and see if there is a vid of installing one, Betta people use them.

Or add a tall piece of decor to break up the flow.


As I stated, we still don't know what we want to decorate with in terms of a theme; right now, it's a sort of hodge-podge of ideas, with the natural-colored pebble substrate, a tree stump piece off to the left and an Asian gazebo off to the right. We have some randomly-placed plants in there as well (plastic) with tall ones towards the back and a little "garden path" made up of a cut-up Marineland "plant mat" which my wife designed to look as though its snaking away from the Asian gazebo...difficult to explain the setup without pics, but suffice to say, we wanted to originally go with either an Asian or natural theme for the tank. Now, we don't know what direction it's going in; we are even considering scrapping those ideas and doing a castle setup, with two castle structures in the middle joined by a bridge ornament she picked up last night, and the rest all plants. I saw a castle setup on some guy's tank on Youtube with blue LED lighting throughout the aquarium and it looked stunning...

We tried the zucchini clipped to the feeder thingy; all they did was peck at it randomly and eventually turned the disc of zucchini into a frisbee or toy of some kind. We feed the peas when they appear bloated.

Try to avoid any bloat. Read ingredients. Look for Spirulina or real greens rather than Corn/Wheat/Soy as first ingrdients.

I normally feed Tetra's goldfish flakes or Aqueon's flakes, but right now I'm using NutraFin...is this okay?

So, no heater on the tank necessary, and just keep their water at room temp so long as the room is on the coolish side?

60's are fine. If your house gets super cold you can use a heater.

BTW Tina -- my wife and I LOVE San Francisco! What part of town are you in? Have you ever indulged in House of Prime Rib or Far East Cafe in Chinatown? YUM!

I'm across the Bay from SF. I know more about the LFSs than the restaurants at this point
My last trip was the ZAP Zinfindel Festival. 100 ? Wineries. Had fab Thai food after.

 

[ArtesiaWells]

Will get back to you when I process your answers...thank you!

 

[Coursair]

Will get back to you when I process your answers...thank you!

Sorry, thought my answers would show up better

 

[ArtesiaWells]

Sorry, thought my answers would show up better

That's okay; normally when someone replies within a response, as you did, they set it off with a different color, so this was just a bit more difficult to read...

But no worries.