As some of you know I recently used some comet/common goldfish to cycle a tank. It started out fine but now there becoming a real nuisance. I feed them when i wake up and just after dark like you're suppose to but they will not go up to the suffice and eat it they wait till it falls to the bottom then eat it. Some of it gets lost in the gravel and it's a pain when I clean there tank because it gets kicked up. I'm getting a little worried that it's going to push up the ammonia levels and do the opposite of what i bought them for. I really don't think I'm over feeding them, i only use a pinch or two of flake fish food. (I use the 2 min rule.) The other problem I'm having is they will not leave my snails alone. They keep picking at them until the snails close up and sink to the bottom. The snails need to be at the surface most of the day to get air. The damn fish also eat all the algae wafflers i leave for the snails. I never had these problems with danios and tetras
I'm thinking about just dumping these guys in my pond and saving them form being given to my roommates piranha when I get back to college. That way i could stock my tank and be dune with these fish. I've read that these guys can live in ponds that are frozen over; Good thing because it's 28F here and my pond is just about frozen. I don't want them to suffer but them again I was going to feed them to piranha. I just want them gone.
There are a lot of points i want to raise with what you just said;
a. Cycling tanks with fish is ok i guess, but there are much better and quicker methods of cycling tanks which don't need fish to cycle the tank at all. So if you bought the fish purely to cycle the tank, well then there would have been better ways of doing it which didn't include using fish.
b. Goldfish actually do feed a great deal from the bottom of the tank, it is natural behavior for them and you can get special sinking goldfish foods which are designed to allow them to perform this natural behavior. It is good if you can vary the fishes diet, since fish flakes are not the most nutrious of foods and can lead to constipation in goldfish, goldfish are omnivores and so do best with a little bit of everything in their diet, including certain types of veg.
c. As mentioned above, goldfish do need veg in their diet, so the algae wafers will actually be doing the goldfish some good. If you want to feed your snails food which the goldfish can't devour easily, then slice up some cucumber (preferably blanched) and put a weight through it and put it in the tank for the snails to eat.
d. There isn't actually a rule for feeding fish, more like a general guide, but with my goldfish they eat all of their food in under a minute and there is never any left over. If you are feeding your goldfish fish flakes and the flakes are settling down into the gravel, it either means you are feeding your fish too much in one go, or you are over-feeding them in general. Small portions but regular feeding sessions are more beneficial for goldfish than giving them a large portion of food once or twice a day.
Also it doesn't matter what time of day you feed the fish as long as you leave a decent period of time inbetween feeding sessions (say about 4hrs+).
e. Gravel is notorious for trapping waste in it, and is not the best type of substrate for any type of fish which produces a lot of waste, whether it be a goldfish, pleco, predatory fish etc. Goldfish can also accidentally swallow and choke on gravel when searching for food in the substrate (which is natural behavior for them as before mentioned), so it is not the safest of substrates for goldfish either.
What does make a much better substrate for goldfish tanks though is sand- because it is very fine and dense, waste does not get trapped inbetween the grains easily like what happens with gravel, so it is a lot easier to keep clean- sand also makes a better substrate for goldfish since it allows them to perform natural behavior like sifting through the substrate looking for food a great deal easier.
You should take into consideration that some types of sands are safer/better for freshwater tanks than others, and any new sand you buy should be washed before you put it in the tank, like you would do with any other type of substrate.
f. How often do you actually clean the substrate in the tank and how do you go about it? Rotting food or poop in the substrate is not good, not only because it can cause ammonia problems, but also because it can harbor nasty diseases like columnaris (which can be very infectious and lethal)- keeping a cleaner substrate will reduce the chances of your fish getting nasty bacterial or fungal infections.
g. What type of snails are you keeping in the tank exactly? Snails generally don't make good tankmates for many types of fish including goldfish, goldfish will pick at the snails feelers and will generally out-compete the snails for food.
h. You shouldn't put indoor goldfish in outdoor ponds if the pond is very cold. Goldfish may be able to endure very cold tempertures, but like any fish in the hobby, a sudden drop or rise in temperature can have a devasting effect on the fishes health- a sudden drop in temp of 3-4degree's or more is enough to cause dropsy (i.e. general kidney failure) in some fish.
Another reason why they wouldn't fair well in a cold outdoor pond is because basically outdoor goldfish start to put on body fat as the temperature slowly drops when the seasons become colder. But indoor goldfish tend to not develop these fats because indoor tanks don't tend to get that cold, so if you put an indoor goldfish outdoors right now, chances are is that it will freeze to death due to lack of body fat- it would be like dumping a tropical dolphin into artic whale waters.
i. At the end of the day you shouldn't give the goldfish to be fed to your friends piranha just because you can't take responsability for them- would you feed a pet hamster to a cat just because you couldn't be bothered to take proper responsability for it? Such an action would be very heartless and unethical etc. Another reason why you shouldn't feed goldfish to tropical predatory fish is because goldfish are actually very unhealthy for fish like piranha's to eat, goldfish have a lot of slime and large scales which are difficult to digest, they are also very oily fish which also makes them difficult to digest- plus there are many other reasons to, you should read up on this article on why not to feed goldfish to tropical predatory fish;
<a href="http
/www.fishforums.net/content/Oddballs...-Pros-And-Cons/" target="_blank">http/www.fishforums.net/content/Oddballs...-Pros-And-Cons/</a>
If the goldfish are also large enough to not be consumed quickly by the piranha, you would be sentencing them to a cruel death of being picked apart bit by bit while alive by the piranha- what have the goldfish done to deserve such a cruel fate?
IMHO, the fact of the matter is that a lot of the problems you are facing could have been avoided if you have done more research and approached the keeping of the goldfish in a more responsable manner- i know this may sound harsh or blunt, but at the end of the day it needs to be said.
But anyways, once you have taken all of this into consideration, the most important thing to do next is plan a responsable course of action over deciding the goldfishes fate and what to do with them. I would appreiciate it if you could answer the questions i have asked you as well in this post, since such information is important to know to work out the best course of action for the goldfish and prevent any future problems with any fish etc.
)
)
.
