I got my goldfish tank!!! :)

[MomeWrath]

I've wanted goldfish indoors (besides the ones that are in the deck pond, who are doing very well) but I was afraid to overload the circuit in my living room with another tank. I had sort of accepted that... but this weekend my husband said, "I think it will be fine, really, since you wouldn't have a heater on the goldfish tank." Well, that's all it took for me lol. I have added another tank to the living room. So now we have three aquariums in our living area: the 75 with SA cichlids and tetras (Pluus one rainbow shark but sshhhh), a 30 with brilliant rasbora and Bolivian rams and a clown pleco, and this weekend we went and picked up a 45 tank and stand with a light at Petsmart for $199. Of course, since we planned goldfish, we wanted to get a canister filter, so we grabbed the TopFin model. BIG mistake. After wrestling it together, wrestling the stupid spray bar into the tank where it uselessly sat 6" below the rim, wrestling with the kinked up hose and all the other garbage, I plugged it in and hit "Prime" where it made ungodly noises, even with the canister filled with water before starting. After trying unsuccessfully to get the stupid thing to prime for twenty minutes, checking hoses, squeezing, sucking on the output side....all to no avail, we packed up the now sopping wet filter and all of it's sopping wet media back in the box, more or less, and took it back.
So here we are standing in the filter aisle, wondering what to do since they no longer make my beloved Whisper EX series, my brilliant husband comes up with another brilliant idea. We didn't want to spend the $ on the Fluval FX4 for $9 worth of fantail goldfish. So Mr. Enabler says, "Well we could put that on the 75, and then take the AquaClear from the 75 and put that on the goldfish tank...couldn't we?" Why, Yes! Yes we could! So...we got the FX4 and got that wrestled onto the 75, moved the biomax from the AC110 into it, where it started up and ran flawlessly after my enabler corrected my poor hose placement and subsequent leaks. Then we moved the AC110 onto the new 45-gallon tank, and suddenly here I have a fully mature cycled filter on a tank with no fish in it. So off I went back to my LFS, wanting to support them despite so so many bad experiences. They had four fantail goldfish...with clamped fins...and two of them with pretty advanced ich infections. So I left and went back to Petsmart. There I found a tank full of healthy fat ryukin, a tank of healthy fat oranda, and a tank of healthy fat fantails. I was so happy. I took forever to decide, but not being a fan of the wen on an adult oranda I went with fantails. Plus one has the most beautiful butterfly tail. The tank is still a teeny bit cloudy this morning, but it's worth it because Queen Mary (White Butterfly) and Davy Jones (Gold) are absolutely loving the pool filter sand bottom. I'm not planning on planting the tank beyond some java fern, so I figured to have fun with the pirate ship theme.
So without further ado....
(Apologies for fish photos...they're so little. Queen Mary's fins are not clamped she was just a little crowded in the bag.)

 

[MomeWrath]

Also, since the FX4 enabled us to remove the supplemental foam-block-on-a-pump filter from the 75, the net gain of electrical appliances plugged in came down to the weak LED on the new tank, which will be staying since it will not be planted.

 

[BigManAquatics]

Glad to see i am not the only husband out there who gets referred to as Mr Enabler lol

 

[MomeWrath]

I sure wish my phone took better pictures. They are so dang cute. Tank is 100% clear this morning and they are thoroughly enjoying vacuuming every square inch of sand. All the little divits in the bottom are so cute. I got one action photo that shows the white one's tail very clearly but of course I can't load it here...

 

[Frank the Fish guy]

You could go for a background poster for your tank. Something with the pirate theme going!

Enabler

 

[MomeWrath]

You could go for a background poster for your tank. Something with the pirate theme going!

Enabler

haha yeah I am not sure what I want to do. The theme sort of came up after I set it up. I originally thought I was going to do something classy and minimalist where the grey wall would just be a backdrop for these beautiful fish. Then I got to looking at that super tall tank and couldn't come up with a way to get some height to my decoration without adding plants. Driftwood is out of the question as I have it in both other tanks and the fungus drives me crazy. Who knows. As most things in my life I start out with one vision and the end result is completely unlike it lol.

 

[Frank the Fish guy]

haha yeah I am not sure what I want to do. The theme sort of came up after I set it up. I originally thought I was going to do something classy and minimalist where the grey wall would just be a backdrop for these beautiful fish. Then I got to looking at that super tall tank and couldn't come up with a way to get some height to my decoration without adding plants. Driftwood is out of the question as I have it in both other tanks and the fungus drives me crazy. Who knows. As most things in my life I start out with one vision and the end result is completely unlike it lol.

That's because the fish are guiding you!

 

[MomeWrath]

So I knew I wanted three fancies in the tank. Two fish just still always seem lonely to me. So I went back to Petsmart and watched the fish for about twenty minutes because the fish people were busy stabilizing a kitten someone dumped off there (grr). It was nice because I got time to really look at all the fish they had there. Finally I picked out the cutest fattest prettiest little red Ryukin and brought him home, along with three big fat MTS I saw while I was there (one for each of my living room tanks, since I will doubtless have more of them soon). The tank is now complete and I couldn't be happier. Also grabbed another java fern from one of the other tanks which I think looks really nice. I finally got a chance to shoot a quick video this morning so you can see the white one's beautiful tail. I'm totally in love with all of them!

 

[Frank the Fish guy]

So I knew I wanted three fancies in the tank. Two fish just still always seem lonely to me. So I went back to Petsmart and watched the fish for about twenty minutes because the fish people were busy stabilizing a kitten someone dumped off there (grr). It was nice because I got time to really look at all the fish they had there. Finally I picked out the cutest fattest prettiest little red Ryukin and brought him home, along with three big fat MTS I saw while I was there (one for each of my living room tanks, since I will doubtless have more of them soon). The tank is now complete and I couldn't be happier. Also grabbed another java fern from one of the other tanks which I think looks really nice. I finally got a chance to shoot a quick video this morning so you can see the white one's beautiful tail. I'm totally in love with all of them!

I just started a similar size goldfish tank and have been pleasantly surprised by how much personality and playfulness they have. Nice fish.

Ahoy mateys!!

 

[sairving]

Your tank looks awesome and the fancies are so pretty. I use to have fancy goldfish during college. They are beautiful fish, but I don't know if I would want to keep them again.

 

[MomeWrath]

Oh and I forgot to mention the new kid's name...
So we have Queen Mary (the white one...that was Blackbeard's ship..)
Davy Jones is the gold one...because gold
The ryukin is The Dread Pirate Roberts!! Because he has come for your SOUULLLLLLLL!!! LOL

 

[MomeWrath]

Your tank looks awesome and the fancies are so pretty. I use to have fancy goldfish during college. They are beautiful fish, but I don't know if I would want to keep them again.

I am curious why you say you would not keep them again? I've never kept goldfish before except outdoors so I'm really sort of out of my depth so to speak.

 

[sairving]

I am curious why you say you would not keep them again? I've never kept goldfish before except outdoors so I'm really sort of out of my depth so to speak.

First time I had them was in college. I
didn't always have the time to do maintenance. Probably not the best time to have fish. Learned some hard lessons and gave up fishkeeping. I think if a forum like this had been around, I would have been more successful.

Now, I have a small planted tank set up for a betta. If I was going to setup another tank, it would be a planted community tank. Fancy Goldfish are beautiful but there are other fish is be interested in keeping first.

Fancies are prone to swim bladder disease but mine never had a problem.

 

[MomeWrath]

First time I had them was in college. I
didn't always have the time to do maintenance. Probably not the best time to have fish. Learned some hard lessons and gave up fishkeeping. I think if a forum like this had been around, I would have been more successful.

Now, I have a small planted tank set up for a betta. If I was going to setup another tank, it would be a planted community tank. Fancy Goldfish are beautiful but there are other fish is be interested in keeping first.

Fancies are prone to swim bladder disease but mine never had a problem.

They are a special new thing for me. I've been drooling over them for months, and when I set my 75 up they were seriously on the consideration list. I let myself get dissuaded by the general public lack of love for goldfish and set up a tropical tank instead. Now I wish I had just gotten them in the first place. These guys and the comets in my deck pond are by far my favorite fish. The only thing I really like better about the tropical tanks is they are all lushly planted and I don't have to worry about the tenants mowing them down

 

[sairving]

They are a special new thing for me. I've been drooling over them for months, and when I set my 75 up they were seriously on the consideration list. I let myself get dissuaded by the general public lack of love for goldfish and set up a tropical tank instead. Now I wish I had just gotten them in the first place. These guys and the comets in my deck pond are by far my favorite fish. The only thing I really like better about the tropical tanks is they are all lushly planted and I don't have to worry about the tenants mowing them down

I think people get the impression that goldfish are boring when they're really not. Mine begged for food all the time even though that were nice and fat. I did have one goldfish that was not very bright. He kept wedging himself behind the filter and would get stuck (I had a box filter). Twice a week at least, I would have to move the filter. Of course this was the fish that after first coming home, somehow managed to get in the filter. I have no idea how he managed that since the box filter was full.

 

[MomeWrath]

They are growing. Still small, but I can see that they are bigger than two weeks ago...


And they ryukin is getting so pretty!


Goldfish are very hard to photograph. Especially really wiggly ones!