Re-homing My Goldfish To A Pond!

[Benson112]

I need a new tank for my goldfish. The one they have is sooooo tatty and doesnt fit in the space i have allocated them in the new house. Does anybody have an old tank they would like to sell?

 

[slim4130]

what sort of size fella?

 

[Benson112]

No bigger than 2ft really mate, sorry should have said that! haha Dont really want a big 3ft-er in my kitchen for 2 goldfish lol. Something like this would be spot on:

Little tank on ebay

 

[slim4130]

Do you want just the tank, or a tank and stand? Stuff in it (filter/light/gravel etc) or a bare tank for your bits?

 

[Benson112]

Ive got a filter, but some lighting would be nice. No stand required just a tank and hood really! Lighting would be nice but isnt needed as such

 

[DevUK]

It might be worth pointing out a 60cm tank isn't suitable for a single adult goldfish, let alone 2 Ideally you want 20 - 30gallons...

 

[Benson112]

It might be worth pointing out a 60cm tank isn't suitable for a single adult goldfish, let alone 2 Ideally you want 20 - 30gallons...

Which would be equivalent to what size mate? Ive based the size requirements on the size of the tank they have been in for the last 3 years. over a year of that aswel in the hands of somebody who didnt look after them at all and....youll love this bit....had 2 common pleco in there aswel!! I have since stolen my tank back, re-homed the pleco (who were already the full length of the tank!) But Gerard and Owen seem quite happy in their tank on their own lol, not trying to justify it just letting you know the scenario. If you say its not suitable then ill listen.

 

[tom_os]

i would recommend going to your loacl tip if you have one. you could pick everying you need for a tenner.

every tank bar one i have is from the tip and i have never had any problems.

 

[three-fingers]

Which would be equivalent to what size mate? Ive based the size requirements on the size of the tank they have been in for the last 3 years. over a year of that aswel in the hands of somebody who didnt look after them at all and....youll love this bit....had 2 common pleco in there aswel!! I have since stolen my tank back, re-homed the pleco (who were already the full length of the tank!) But Gerard and Owen seem quite happy in their tank on their own lol, not trying to justify it just letting you know the scenario. If you say its not suitable then ill listen.

A 20gal is usually between 2.5-3 feet long, unless you find one that's taller. Here in the coldwater fish section it's recommended that they have 20gallons per fish and another 10gal for every other fish.

Thing is with goldfish is that that are basically carp - they can get very big, 8-10" easily and up to about a foot.

They live a long time (up to around 40 years, expect a minimum of 20 years if you look after them correctly and nothing goes wrong) and grow quite fast, though it does appear that (unlike a lot of other species) they can be stunted significantly in small tanks and this eventually kills them, if I remember correctly I think it has something to do with the build up of metabolites and other waste products in the water that damages their liver.

Being big messy carp, they pretty much demand an external filter too, although if you wanted to use several internal filters it would probably do, you would need to clean them out a lot more.

It's a shame about goldfish, they are a very abused species. Even the people who actually want yo look after them properly often don't have the space (I had to rehome my goldfish years ago).

What I would recommend doing is either getting a 20+ gallon tank and an external filter (picking these up second hand should cost too much), or finding someone with a decent sized deep enough pond that will take them. Obviously, releasing them into the wild is not an option (just had to mention that as I've seen a few that have been, they can damage ecosystems over the short term, and are usually eaten by other fish or herons due to their bright colours anyway) .

 

[Benson112]

I have 3 pond options, one is huge!

My worry is that because they have been inside and relatively warm for so long, will they be ok in a pond? And also, what about the food situation? Beings they have been on flake food for so long!

I want these guys to have the best chance of survival, ive had them for 3 years and know they have been through some pants times in the hands of their adoptive owner! But im now starting to realise that i am just as bad (granted i do a better job than the last person but its still seriously sub standard)

So...ill find out which pond they are welcome in tonight...am i right in presuming that the floating bag method as with tropicals is the best way to climatise them to their new pond?

i would recommend going to your loacl tip if you have one. you could pick everying you need for a tenner.

every tank bar one i have is from the tip and i have never had any problems.

Ill bare that in mind for the future! Problem with my tip is that they have huge bins for you to chuck stuff in...and fish tanks (for me anyway) would be far too tempting not to chuck in and watch it explode into a million bits (did this a few weeks ago with a cracked tank haha)

 

[Benson112]

Well they are in their new home to anyone who is interested!

A thread that started off looking for a little tank for them ended up with them going into a huge pond, by themselves! So they now have masses of room to swim about in, i just hope they get used to the cold and food etc. If i had more time i would have introduced them slower...but i had the chance to rehome them tonight so i took it.

For what its worth, i did it as best i could, climatising them and introducing them to the new water slowly:

 

[three-fingers]

That's fantastic! Looks very nice for them!

You should male sure it's deep enough for winter though, shallow ponds can be bad for fish when they freeze over.

 

[Benson112]

The pond is in two sections, the shallow one that they are in on their own at the min, and then a much larger, deeper section for when they are a little bigger. We were concerned about them with the pump etc in the big section so thought it best to let them grow a bit first. They can have summer in the bit they are in now and ell move them over when it starts to get cold again.

Been trying to wake my mate up all morning to go check on them haha how sad!