dmfish

There are a few things I noticed at Pet Smart that I question and one of them is that they have a goldfish in tanks with some tropical fish. I had asked them why and they said it was to eat the baby snails. Now maybe I'm wrong but I thought that goldfish carried alot of diseases.

Another thing I noticed was that they usually have dividers in tanks separating different fish,but all the water is flowing together. which seems to be rather odd.

Could anyone please comment on these 2 subjects.

Jaysee

Dividers are to make it easier to net fish, as well as allow for more options for the tank.

Goldfish in tropical tanks....I have one. Well, it's my grlfriends tank.

It'll shorten their life, but that's true of most fish. Largemouth bass are a perfect example. Florida bass get bigger and die sooner than new jersey bass. The warm water speeds up their lifecycle.

Zenial

Don't worry DMfish, this is fine!

Althought Goldfish are "cold water fish", they're quite happy to live at Tropical Water temperatures (general, that means 20oC or more).

Goldfish have low tolerance to diseases like white-spot and scale rot, but this doesn't mean they definitely have it/disease the tropical fish. Diseases are usually generated by poor tank conditions and less to do with the types of fish. If they did have sick goldfish, ideally they'd be isolated. Most times you can tell whether a fish has a disease in a number of ways: appearance (white spots, red or damaged fins), buoyancy, appetite, whether they're very active... many other ways depending on what kind of fish.

The dividers are more related to territory requirements, many kinds of fish will attack one another or they'll have dominance over the food, leaving the other kind to stave.

Jaysee

Over here, petsmart uses the dividers to seperate guppies and such.

I've never seen them use sickly goldfish when they put them in the other tanks.

aquarist48

Good morning,

Tropical fish should not be mixed with Gold Fish. Gold Fish are temperate fish requiring cooler waters than tropical fish. By keeping Gold Fish in warm water may shorten their life span. Too, the gold fish may have a difficult time competing for food when mixed with tropical fish because they are a lot slower.
Goldfish Caresheet
Ken

Nutter

Spot on!!

Butterfly

Excellent advice Ken!
Thanks
Carol

dmfish

Thanks for the advice, the main reason for my question was weather or not it was a good idea to buy any of the other fish that were in the tank with the goldfish, and also is PetSmart a good place to buy fish?

aquarist48

Hello DM,

The best information I can give you on PetSmart is to go into the store and check out their tanks and stock. You don't want to depend on someones opinion here. You need to go into the store and see for yourself. Study the fish that you might be interested in buying. Are the eyes clear, no physical signs of disease, no ICH, no fin damage. Use your best judgment. One store really shouldn't be compared to another. Check for dead fish in the tanks.

Check all of the tanks out for disease because chances are they use 1 filtration system for all of the tanks (don't know this for certain though).

Ken

Melissawater

That's the same question my Fiance' asked me when he came home from picking up medicated fish food from Petsmart! They have started to do that here now to with some of the goldfish. The other thing you have to be careful with pet stores is them medicating their fish, it makes it hard sometimes to see if a fish has a disease or not. I have had both good and bad luck getting fish there, but the same with the LFS. Seems like luck of the draw lately... Good luck and I hope you get some healthy new babies!

Butterfly

Great advice! Each store will be different in some way so checking out your local store would be best. Talk to the people working in that department and check their advice out before taking it. You never know you may happen upon someone who is knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the hobby.
We shop at Petco mostly just because we have a great guy who knows his stuff working there and we want to support that.
Carol