rohan

Hey everyone

I have a 55 gal tank and I only have 6 young goldfish in it. I was thinking of adding a male and female betta, 3 platies, 2 dwalf gourami, 6 zebra danios and 6 bloodfin tetras. I do not want to over crowd my tank plus I know the goldfish gives off alot of ammonia and I'm aware I have to clean the tank more often, but I want more than just my goldfish in my tank. Can I have all the fishes that I have mention and they live peacefully. Don't know if this info will help in the answer but I also have an undergravel filter plus an overhead filter, pretty much doubt filteration.

Drea

Please use this forum alot, you are heading for trouble. Get into the Beginners info and really review alot of info quickly. You need to know about fish types because you can't mix them up like you are thinking about. So read, read, read quick!

rohan

Thanks alot for the info, I have been reading but it seems like I can really mix much fish with the goldfish. I have been reading about the different fishes behavior and the ones that are good tank mates that is why I suggested the ones I listed.

angelfish220

welcome to fishlore!Goldfish are temperate fish. They require fluctuating temperatures around 65-75 degrees. all the other fish are tropical and require a steady temp. 75-80 degrees. They cannot mix without having one type of fish suffer.

sgould

Correct...goldies and tropicals should not be kept together. They have different needs, and in catering to one you will cause harm to the other. In addition, goldfish get quite a bit large than most people seem to realize. By the time they grow up, 6 in a 55 gallon tank is pretty much fully stocked. In fact, you will probably hear from others that it is actually overstocked.

Kevin

no...goldfish are cold water fish...while the others like warm water
what kind of goldfish do you have? koi? comet (12 cent)? etc.
also, you shouldnt keep male and female bettas together...they are very aggressive towards each other, and more than likely won't get along at all...in fact, bettas dont really get along with anything but small catfish and small plecos

if you got rid of the goldfish, then you could get the other fish...except bettas...and they would do okay together

sgould

Oh, I almost forgot...

Welcome to the site!

rohan

All I have is fancy goldfish, that's it. thanks for the response

COBettaCouple

None of those fish would go with goldfish. It's not good to keep Bettas together. And 6 goldfish is actually a bit overstocked for a 55g tank, 70g would be better.

rohan

One of my goldfish now is just sitting at the bottom of the tank, he will come up and try to eat when I feed, then after he is done he just go back down to the bottom and don't move around. I think the rest of the gldfish now is picking on him since he started doing this because his tail don't look the same as before, it looks like it was being nip at. I can;t tell if he is sick or not but I think he is. What should I do.

jsalemi

Any outward signs of illness? Spots on him? Red gills? Trouble breathing? Trouble swimming (i.e., can't stay straight, swims head-down, etc)?

rohan

he has no spots on him but he do have trouble swimming, he looks like he is struggling to swim whenever he swims. His tail has white spots on it when I last look at him this morning

jsalemi

Could be swim bladder disease, which is really hard to treat, if it's possible at all. The white spots on the tail could be the beginning of ICH, which is opportunistic and will attack an already weak fish.

Any way to isolate him in a quarantine tank for treatment?

rohan

I was going to buy a quarantine tank today and treat him for ich since it is hard to treat the swim bladder disease. Would you think it best that I also treat my main tank since he might or could have already pass it on to my other goldfish. Thanks for your input.

rohan

How do they get swim bladder disease in the first place? I think I bought him like this because I got him on sunday from petsmart. Can swim bladder be pass on to the other goldfish?

rohan

Do you suggest a 30% water change before I put the medicine in? I tested the water and it is pretty good for now. The ammonia went from 0 PPM to 1 ppm. I kinda expected it to go up a little since this is a new tank and it is the first fish is going in it. I have been cycling it for the past 1 1/2 month now and I tested the water before I added the goldfish and it was good. This past sunday was when I put them in the tank.

jsalemi

Swimbladder disease is a misnomer, actually -- it's really more of a disorder with many causes, one of which could be an infection. And some types of goldfish are particularly prone to it, because the way they're breed to get certain traits leads to mis-shaped swim bladders. So it's not something that can be passed on to other fish in the vast majority of cases.

The usual causes are constipation (the stomach and intestines swell, pressing on the swim bladder); gulping air while feeding (common with goldfish), sudden temperature changes; and "it just happens sometimes". It's something that comes on quite suddenly, in usually healthy fish showing no other signs of disease (lost one of my honey gouramis to it not long ago).

A water change would help the ich, but the best treatment is to raise the tank temperature to 82-84 degrees, which would be very hard on the goldfishes. You can treat the whole tank with Ich Attack (an organic compound, so it's safe for even healthy fish), which might not be a bad idea, since the medicine helps kill the free-floating cysts before they get a chance to establish themselves.

COBettaCouple

I'd treat the whole tank with Ich-Attack, like Joe suggested. By the time you see ich, it's common for all the fish to have it at some stage.

rohan

Thanks alot for the imput, I put ick treatment in the water of my main tank last night and this morning. I see sign of illness in two more of my fish, I took them out last night and will be returning them to petsmart because I think I bought one of them sick and it now spread to these two. I'm changing 30% of the water tomorrow, the other three looks fine but the water is a bit cloudy, don't know why. I test the water and the ammonia was reading 1.0 ppm, the nitrate was between 0 to 5.0 ppm and the pH level was about 7.4. Do you guys have any imput for me at these readings? Should I take the fish out of the water when I change it tomorrow? and how much of the treatment should I put in a day. The bottom says up to three treatments. My computer was down so I didn't get to see the medicine that you recommended joe, but I got this one call Quick Cure.

rohan

I have increase water temp. to 84, how long should I do this for and should i still do it tomorrow after I change 50% of the water?? I also added the ick treatment. How will the goldfish react to the water temp. increase? Thanks for all the help you guys are giving me

FishPerson

what can ich do if left for too long?

jsalemi

2 weeks minimum. If you don't have an air stone in the tank, get one and run it all the time, because the higher water temp decreases the amount of free oxygen in the tank, and the air stone helps keep the water agitated to suck more oxygen in.

The goldies will be uncomfortable for a while, but that's better than dying, I guess. Just keep an eye on them.


Kill the fish. The problem is that ich usually starts in the places you can't see, particularly the gills, and if the cysts get numerous enough, they eventually prevent the fish from breathing. Even if they're not in the gills, the fish can get weak trying to fight them off, and thus becomes a target for other opportunistic diseases, like fungus or an infection.

FishPerson

thanks!

COBettaCouple

Ich is definitely an exercise in patience. I think a lot of Ich deaths come from not keeping the temp up for at least 2 weeks because it looks like it cleared up or sometimes people will take out the fish with spots and treat them, then put them back in the main tank only to find the other fish sick. You're doing the right thing to keep them all in the tank and keep the temp up for 2 weeks with as much cleaning and water changes as you can. (Try to get the replacement water as close to tank water temp. as possible so the temp won't dip under 82).

rohan

I will be doing a 50% water change today. I only have three goldfish in the tank, I brought back the others yesterday to petsmart, so I only have three to worry about now. Hopefully they will live through this thing.

rohan

I change the water today and I also have another medicine call MELAFIX, which is an antibacterial fish remedy, can i use it in conjunction with the medicine for the ick? The temp of the water I now have at 80 to 82 degrees. Should I leave out the bio filter for the two weeks also? One of the goldfish is not swimming around like he use to but he still tries, especially when it is feeding time, he makes sure he eats, I guess that is a good thing, what you guys think? I really appreciate the imput from you guys both, everyone needs help and I'm surely one of them . I also have a couple of air-stones in the tank too.

COBettaCouple

What's the name of your ich medicine? If it's Ich-Attack, then they should be ok together.

rohan

it is not ick attack, it is called Quick Cure

COBettaCouple

I'm not really sure if those 2 could be used together. I've never used quick cure.

rohan

The rep. at petsmart is no help when it comes on to stuff like this. My water have been cloudy for the past few days now, could it be because I have taken out the bio-filter since I'm treating my fish??