shellbell4ever

I'm thinking of doing my 30 gallon Long with a couple of Fancy goldfish and a dojo loach (or 2 i heard there better in pairs) and was wondering what would be the best substrate for bothAny suggestions would be greatly appreciated

aquarist48

Good morning Shellbell. When I kept goldfish, I made sure the substrate was too big to go into the fishes mouth after having one goldfish to get a piece of gravel stuck in it's mouth a time or two. Too, keep in mind they love to forage around the bottom looking for food. If the gravel is small enough they will sift through it and that's when it got stuck. I switched the gravel out for river rock. Just wanted to share my experience and I'm sure you'll get some more responses soon.
It sounds like you're going to have a wonderful tank. Keep us posted and I hope you can share some pictures along the way.
Ken

Caligo'sKeeper

I have a cold water aquarium about the same size (only minus the loach!) I have medium sized gravel, but my oranda is medium sized so it works. Since the loach is smaller and they like to dig too I believe maybe go with something of a fine grade gravel.

MissMTS

I would make sure that the gravel doesn't have sharp edges that will hurt the loaches. Maybe sand would be better. I have never kept my goldies with sand, but I hardly thing it would hurt them

shellbell4ever

Thank you all for the suggestions,I am so excited moving in 3 days and my girlfriend is bringing her filter media to start the cycle