finished with tropicals

[nigel]

I finished with tropical fish i fed up of em dying all the time so i;m trying my hand at goldfish,so any info out there from experienced goldfish keepers would be much appreciated.
I have a 40 gallon tank with a fluval 4 filter which i am going to clean out thoroughlly & start from scratch,so what do i need in terms of heater,substrate (i like sand) do i have to cycle the tank ,water changes how often,do i add water conditioner to the tap water & anything else i forgot .
The fish i;m getting are established fish comets & shubunkins about 6 inches long from my friend whos moving up north they are beautiful fish very healthy, he has no heater just oxygen & filter he only cleans them out about once every 3 weeks.
So any1 out there with any info would be much appeciated THANKS VERY MUCH.

 

[bribones]

how many fish are we talking about here ? 40 gallons is suitable for 3 fish at the most ,the comets will reach a canny size the fluval 4 is quite a powerfull pump/filter so you may get away with 4 although some will say not ,pesonaly for the tank id stick with the shubumkins ,treat em much the same way as tropical but with no heater,water changes every few weeks and keep an eye on the water parameters

 

[black angel]

yes everyone has different opinions on this and heres my 2 cents

for 40 gallons i would say two goldfish or 3 fantails. you will also need 10x filtration as they are incredibly messy fish and use gravel that they either cant pick up or too small for them to choke on. dont use sand as it clogs the gills and the tank will become cloudy as they love to sift through the substrate. ph needs to be over 7 and they prefer hard water. they arent any easier to keep than tropicals and still require weekly water changes to stay healthy.

 

[nigel]

my friend has the same size tank as me & there are about 7 of these fish in there, he says he has no trouble with them he;s had them about 5 years.
whats the best substrate for them is small coloured gravel best or large gravel .
Plus do they like a current in the tank THANKS

 

[GSD]

5 years is NOTHING for a goldfish they live to be 20 thats a normal age!

 

[ryan]

More than three Goldfish will cause problems in the long term, especailly if they are feed correctly and grow correctly. Sand is the best substrate, but they are equally as happy with small gravel.

 

[sylvia]

Goldfish get to 12 inches and are extremely messy. The general guideline is one goldfish in 20 gallons and 10 gallons for each further goldfish. So for 2 goldfish you need 30 gallons, for 5 you need 60, etc... 7 goldfish in a 40 gallon is incredibly over-stocked. Also, goldfish are very fast growers if kept in a correctly stocked tank. The particular fish you are interested in, BTW, are also one of the largest-growing varieties. Fancy strains like bubble-eyes usualy reach a much smaller maximum size. If you have had bad experiences with tropicals, I'm sure you'll appreciate that keeping more fish than is reccomended can only result in disaster.

As for 5 years - goldfish can reach the age of 30 and are remarkably hardy (which is, I suppose, the reason you want goldfish in the first place). Living to the age of 5 is the equivalent of a human dying at 13... I know your friend's fish are still alive but you get the picture anyway.

Also, please don't think that because these are hardy coldwater fish you don't need to cycle the tank or do weekly partial water changes with de-chlorinated water. It isn't fair to treat goldfish like they deserve less than tropicals just because they can deal with a lot more and are forgiving of mistakes.