Goldfish Eating My White Cloud Mountain Minnows!

[greengoddess]

Hi,

I am a relative newbie at keeping fish and have only been doing it for 12 months. I have a 240 litre tank that houses 2 fantail goldfish (each of them are approx 2 inches long excluding their long veil tails). A few months ago after spending a lot of time getting advice on this forum I bought 12 White Cloud Mountain Minnows and introduced them to the tank. For the first 10 minutes the tank was bubbling like a jacuzzi as the goldfish chased them around the tank. Since then they have all got along just fine and it has been very peaceful. I have just got back from 2 weeks holiday to find I now have 10 minnows instead of 12. This evening I witnessed the youngest goldfish chasing them around the tank for the first time. I am assuming that she has eaten the 2 missing minnows. None of the minnows were ill so I suspect the goldfish caught them by surprise.

I was warned by some forum members that the minnows may get eaten but most forum members thought they would be OK especially as I was introducing them while my goldfish were young in the hope that they would get used to sharing he tank.

Anyway, all that aside, is there anything I can do to stop this without getting rid of any of my fish? They belong to my two young children and my kids are especially fond of both goldfish.

Many thanks for your help.

 

[Skins]

have you checked inside your filter for the two that are missing?
(I'm persuming your using an external filter)

Keith.

 

[greengoddess]

have you checked inside your filter for the two that are missing?
(I'm persuming your using an external filter)

Keith.

Great suggestion! I didn't think of that but I've just checked and they're not there unfortunately. It also seems to be a bit of a coincidence that they went missing when I was on holiday. I had an automatic feeder set up and it was not putting anywhere near as much food into the tank as the fish are used to. I wonder if the goldfish got unusually hungry and decided to snack on the minnows. Is that a feasible suggestion?

 

[Caprichoso]

Hi,

Sorry to hear about that! I know that some goldfish can get quite large but mountain minnows will stay small. I think that will make them a constant target for your goldies. I witnessed my mom's goldfish try to swallow a fish that seemed way too big to eat but it tried anyway! We were able to pull the live fish out because the fish's tail was sticking out of it's mouth!

I would just keep an eye out for any more disappearances and make a decision from that point.

Good luck