Can Goldfish Be Tropical?

[Tankboomshazam]

My cousin has goldfish, and a week ago,I noticed they were 24 degrees Celsius.They seem fine, but in every thing I've read,goldfishes were supposed to live in cold water.
Me Confused!!

 

[Noahs ark6]

Golsfish do best in cold water and are sold as cold water fish . Whilst you can keep them in tropical tanks, it speeds up their metabolism, resulting in an early death, and it's advised you keep them in coldwater
If his goldfish are in the tank with no other fish, ask him to gradually (over a day or two) lower the temp to room temp. He won't need to use a heater aswell, resulting in a lower electricity bill.

 

[Tankboomshazam]

Thanks for the advice, but there is a big problem. My cousin is one of those people who always thinks he is right, and I may have trouble convincing him.

 

[cornclose]

I had goldfish in my first aquarium - its what got me into fish keeping in the first place.

It was a 50 litre tank with under gravel filter, no heater, and a single strip light, some decor etc. never had a thermometer for a few years but one day decided to see what temperature the water was at using a digital probe from Maplin that I had lying around. To my surprise, it was about 22 C. The location of the tank (kitchen) and the light were raising it to that temperature.

All this stemmed from my 8 year old bringing back a goldfish from a Fayre, I couldn't bare to see it in a bowl so decided that at least a decent tank and filter was best. Findus was his name, he lived (along with a few additions, Finlay, Nichola, John and Sandra) for 7 years and was about 6" long before he died!

 

[Tankboomshazam]

wow! what type of goldfish was Findus? my cousin has fully grown comets. not sure, but there might be a difference. i heard comets are more hardy than other types of fish.

 

[Peter C]

My uncles fish (again from pikeys at the fair) lasted a good ten years in a heated tank, grew huge aswell

 

[joyboy]

They're not supposed to be but my black moor goldfish lived in tropical tank with my rainbows for more than 3 years and it was HUGE and very healthy. The LFS was amazed at his size and colour when i gave him. So i guess it can be done!

 

[cornclose]

wow! what type of goldfish was Findus? my cousin has fully grown comets. not sure, but there might be a difference. i heard comets are more hardy than other types of fish.

I've no idea! Another interesting thing though, he turned completely white/silver. He was bright orange at first, but after a few years his colour began to fade, and 4 years in he was an albino!

He liked pH 7.5, GH 10-12 best, so that's what I kept them all at. And of course, no heater... but still low 20's C.

 

[MBOU]

They will live in tropical fine, it will just drastically shorten its lifespan.

Think about it:

Fish are cold blooded which meeans they rely on external temperatures to function.

e.g. keeping tropical fish in cold water means their metabolism slows down drastically and they cant digest their food properly or metabolize the nutrients and they will eventually waste away and die because it wont matter how much they eat, they cant process it.

For goldfish in tropical water, its reversed, being too warm will speed up their metabolism, they will eat lots, digest it too fast, not keep weight on, live fast and short lives. They wont ever be happy.

There are exceptions of course, some fancies do ok in low tropical (though i would class that as 22-24 deg C) and only some do ok in those temperatures and best not housed with tropical fish. Best sub tropicals in top of their range than tropicals being too cold.

 

[Noahs ark6]

Thanks for the advice, but there is a big problem. My cousin is one of those people who always thinks he is right, and I may have trouble convincing him.

Will the prospect of saving some cash not convinve him? it sure would me

 

[Nancy6]

much appreciated

 

[Amavi]

I agree and relate to what others have said. I have two pretty goldfish to start with in a small tank and eventually I got my hands on a rio 180 with an ehiem external filter. I moved on to tropical very quickly with the two goldies and they did well until I bought my danios. Put it this way I have constipated goldies the next day and they soon left for a new home!

As others have said they can live in tropical but again it speeds up the metabolism and shortens their life span.

 

[Tankboomshazam]

@ noahs ark6,you may be right. i'll facebook him 2morrow and see what he thinks. for the sake of the goldfish!!

 

[Tankboomshazam]

I've just been to his house again about a week ago,and i noticed a fish he'd dubbed 'Lepoard' had lost it's legendary black spot. maybe the temperature bleaches the fish? he's turned of the heater, but i suppose the colour will never return.

 

[MBOU]

Glad the heaters are off, there arent any tropical fish in there are there? Because if so... there is still going to be the same problem for a different lot of fish!

Goldfishchange colours thoughout their lives, they most of all start out life as black and then you get the reds, the yellows, the red and white sarassas, the shubunkins, the whites and the ones that stay black. But at any time they might have odd patches of colour that may stay or may fade.

Stress will make fish lose colour but if this is the case, correcting the problem would mean their colours come back fine. If the colour doesnt come back then either the fish is still unhappy or it was just coincidental and the goldfish was changing colour like most eventually do!

Gold is the most unnatural colour for a goldfish to be, you would never find such obnoxiously coloured carp in the rivers where the goldfish descended from because they may as well be wearing a big neon sign saying "eat me" for all the predators to see. Black and bronze are their more natural colours.

Though a lot depends on genetics and I'm taking my chances and guessing you dont know the genetic history of the fish, what colour its parent, grand parents and great grandparents are... without that information you can't predict what colour the goldfish might go.