My fancy goldfish ate my Danios!!

[ingo_1978]

I have two big fat fancy goldfish both about 4" long. I decided I wanted to get something a bit different for the tank rather than another goldfish. I opted for a small hillstream loach which disappeared from the tank while I was away on business. I just thought it had died and my friend had taken it out of my tank.

I then decided to get some danios, 5 of them. One by one they have been dis-appearing from the tank, I can only assume the goldfish are eating them!!

Are there any other coldwater fish I could try which I can buy big enough to stop them being eaten but which are not a variation on a goldfish?

Are goldfish supposed to eat other fish??

 

[ryan]

I wouldn't think the Goldfish did it. Dainios are very fast moving fish and as you will knoe Fancies are slow fish, they would stand little chance of catching them. I have kept Golden Minnows with large Fancies before with no problems. Hillstream loaches need a high oxygen content and a fast current.

 

[ingo_1978]

They must have there is only one left and haven't found the're bodies and have searched the whole tank!!

It is a corner tank... so it is high rather than long... they may not have enough space to run away.

 

[goldene]

I have 3 hillstreams in with my goldfish and they are doing fine so far they don't have a problem (touch wood) as they can move pretty fast to get away from the goldfish if needed, the only way the fish would eat them would be if they died, so I am baffled to what happend to yours unless it died and then got eaten, as for smaller fish like white clouds etc they have been known to get eaten by the larger fancy fish, so is not really a good idea to keep them together, you can get weather loach to go with them which is something I am considering actually

 

[Opcn]

Zebra danios will die if there temp is below 68 degrees fer. and they will get majorly stressed out if it drops below that temp for even a little bit fancy goldfish could never catch a ZD under normal conditions (even in a 5 gallon tank) but the stress may have killed the zd and then the corpse is fair game and lunch I'm sure that that is what happened. Even better than normal minnows if you can find them stickle back fish are great they dont need fast moveing waterlike minnows and they are not early as easy to swallow (useful once those fancies get to be about 10 inches long)

Opcn

 

[ryan]

The only problem with sticklebacks is when they breed. IME they get highly aggressive and anything in their way even a whale is attacked endlessly and Fancies with long tail and slow movement won't like it.

Some info from a previous post of mine regarding Wheather Loaches -

Most common are the Common, Misgurnus anguillicaudatus (Cantor) and Spotted, Cobitis taenia (Linnaeus) Dojos or Weatherfishes. They are often called "living barometers" of their increased activity at the approach of changing weather. These fishes are pressure-sensitive, swimming about more if its about to rain for instance.

The Common Dojo/Weatherfish is drab to light brown naturally, though there are "Golden" Dojos (xanthistic varieties, not albinos) that are human-produced. This species attains a maximum length of about twelve inches. The Spotted Dojo or Weatherfish only reaches a natural length of six inches. Both are excellent scavengers. They should be kept with their own species.

Hope this helps

 

[Opcn]

IME sticklebacks are only enraged by red bellies I have played with them (wild caught) and minnows and salmon par and sticklebacks have only attacked other sticklebacks in front of me.

Opcn

 

[ryan]

IME sticklebacks are only enraged by red bellies I have played with them (wild caught) and minnows and salmon par and sticklebacks have only attacked other sticklebacks in front of me.

Opcn

Well it worked for you, but then I kept the Ten spinned Stickleback Pungitius pungitius. I kept them with some small Goldfish, and as you know they were attacked no end to the point that the Goldfish stayed in one end and the Sticlkebacks in the other. But no real harm was caused and after breeding everything was fine. So they are a possibility.

 

[kaz petts]

Hi all
Weather loaches are fun to watch.
I have 2 in my tank. Through the day they are pretty still and swim about the bottom of the tank scavanging but by night fall they start swimming around like idiots.
I have watched them at 1am, one of them got into the current from the Fluval filter, was taken by surprise decided to try and swim out of the current, didn't relise how fast it was swimming and dive bombed straight into the gravel at the bottom of the tank. It sat where it landed for a little while to recover and then off it went again . It has since learnt how to surf the current from one side of the tank to the other.

All the best
kaz

 

[ingo_1978]

well my single danio survived it through the night... gonna see if he survives another week and get him afriend if he does.

Have taken your advice and got myself a whether loach which just buried itself in the gravel as soon as I got it. He has just started poking his head out and taking a look around.

Thanks for the adive looks like he's going to be an entertaining fish to watch.

Plus one of my fancy goldfish has sprayed the tank with eggs for the second time