Are Goldfish Easier Than Tropical?

[branjie]

Hi all,
I have a 100 Litre community tank with about 22 small tropical fish. The tank is cycled, and has been going for approx three months. I've run into trouble with cloudy water and no one can come up with an answer re. how to fix it. It's got to the point where I'm thinking I'm going to have to board the fish at my LFS while I clean out the tank and cycle all over again, but that could take up to 6 weeks, and the boarding fees for my fish would end up pretty expensive. I'm wondering if I should just change to goldfish. Are they easier? Do you have to worry about:

pH?
carbonate hardness?
cycling the tank?
compatibility of fish?
frequent water changes?
strange things going on like cloudy tanks with no forseeable solution?


I had goldfish a long time ago, and never seemed to have any where near the trouble I'm having with tropicals. As long as the tank was filtered, and cleaned regularly, my goldfish were fine. With goldfish can you just keep the tank clean, feed the fish, and you're pretty much o.k?

 

[cuticom]

You have to worry about all that and more, you could fit one or two small goldies in your tank, but would have to upgrade as they grow. They are extremely messy fish, need heaps of water changes, and get big, fantails can easily get to 6-8 inches not including tail (and if ya don't believe me, am happy to fish some of my adult fantails out of my pond for ya) and the single tails can easily get in excess of 12-16 inches. Water changes are a priority, especially as they get bigger, goldies also release a growth inhibiting hormone into the water, thus stunting them if the waters not changed.

Goldfish are easy to care for, their hardy, they can tolerate most 6-8 pH, they don't need a heater, and are friendly peaceful fish, well most of the time anyway LOL. They still need their tank cycled, and they can still have bacteria blooms.

 

[branjie]

Thanks for the info cuticom. I thought seeing as warm water is an ideal breeder for bacteria, you might not get bacterial blooms in coldwater tanks, but I guess that was too much to hope for. Sounds like goldies are as hard as tropicals, and not really suited to tanks. Makes me feel guilty for keeping a tank with tropicals when I was younger. I had no idea. I think I'll stick with tropicals. Thanks!

 

[jnrcorps]

goldfish are easier than tropical, in some cases. Goldfish are quite a hardy fish and do well with other goldfish 98% of the time

 

[Spishkey]

if you prefer maybe we can help you clear up your bacterial bloom?
what have you tried so far to treat it with?
the easiest way i find to clear up a bloom is do a really really good gravel/sand vac, get all that muck in between the stones out! then once you refill do not (and i repeat DO NOT) do another water change until the bloom is gone.
the more water you take out, the worse the bloom gets!!!! just get any debris out of there (dead leaves un eaten food fish crap etc) add white filter wool to your filter if you dont already have it in there (its very cheap to buy)

 

[Truck]

100 litres isnt big enough for any type of goldfish

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

I've not had tropical fish before but my issue with tropical fish is...my cousin who owned some had a 2 hour power cut and all his fish died from the heater going off. There was a woman in the fish shop yesterday when I was in frantically looking for a new tank as hers had broken and her fish were in buckets with the heater in them.

I've had goldfish for years, powercuts don't bother them; it just turns their filter off. I've never put anything into the water to purify it (waits for abuse) and my fish thrive in it. My current fish I've had for 8 years and one for 9 years. My first two goldfish died when we'd had one 7 years and one 9 years.

 

[three-fingers]

I've not had tropical fish before but my issue with tropical fish is...my cousin who owned some had a 2 hour power cut and all his fish died from the heater going off. There was a woman in the fish shop yesterday when I was in frantically looking for a new tank as hers had broken and her fish were in buckets with the heater in them.

I've had goldfish for years, powercuts don't bother them; it just turns their filter off. I've never put anything into the water to purify it (waits for abuse) and my fish thrive in it. My current fish I've had for 8 years and one for 9 years. My first two goldfish died when we'd had one 7 years and one 9 years.

For most people this isnt the case. Most peoples goldfish dont live that long buuuuut, heres the thing: your fish lived a very short life compared to what they should have had. And I'm betting they were stunted by thier environment too.

Yes goldfish are hardy, in the sense that they can put up with a lot of abuse and not die. But that doesnt mean it's right.

They are just big messy cyprinids, no different from silver sharks and large barbs at the end of the day, except from they grow even larger, produce more waste and just happen to be able to survive being abused, even if it results in cutting their lifespan by about 75% (like your fish) and stunting their growth significantly.

There's nothing special about goldfish that makes them easier to keep, they are just easier to abuse because they wont die, and are cheap to buy.

Weather a fish is thriving or not is subjective unless you know what they should look like, how they should behave, what size they should reach, how fast they should grow and how long they should live. The vast, vast majority of people just don't realise that goldfish should be very active all the time, get very large (around 12" minimum, expect around 16" most of the time), grow fast (to about 8" in under 2 years) and live for 20-40 odd years.

It's a shame, but even if people knew all this stuff, most probably wouldn't care.

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

I've never put anything in the water because there is no need to; we have no chemicals and no chlorine added. I've been water tested and the water is 100% safe for goldfish.

My smallest goldfish is about 7-8" long but that one particular fish has always been smaller than the rest. The rest are all way bigger.

So you've assumed a lot about me in the previous post when in reality I didn't give any information to be "assumed" on.