I Rescued Gold Fish Any Advise?

catfish_guy
  • #1
First of read the top half first so you understand the situation. ALSO this is not there permanent home. I have 65 gallon I can pull out of storage, eventually. 4 gold fish in a 20 gallon tall)':

so there situation Before This. A 55 gallon with 2 full grown angles and a little one. On gourami (largish) about 15-20 feeder gold fish. 3 telescopes goldies. 4 of what I assume is calico goldies (calico is what I think there called). Two 5-7 inch koi. It was an active tank.

My friends parents decided the did not want the goldfish or koi .so they Sold what they could and were left with all the feeders and most of the fancy/calico goldfish.

I rescued two tcallico's 1 fancy and and a comment goldfish that I was attached to. He already had the name the big one.

So I'm asking for what I can do to help them until there moved witch could be 8 months to a year and then some(I know it's long)

I'm just trying to help these fellas as I don't know what's going to happen the rest)': please don't get mad

Also I know these guys get big. Exspecisl the commet.
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dojafish
  • #2
The two 'calico' goldfish are fantails, calico is a descriptive word for their tri-color patterns.

Usually, it's not recommended to keep a single-tail variety of goldfish with the fancy varieties. Reason being because they are more agile and able to out-compete the other goldfish for food. So first thing being that you make sure that the other goldfish are able to eat, especially for that one that looks like a telescope. I have three telescopes and I do give them a little more attention to make sure they get food. But he looks like he has good eye development so he might be okay, but just keep an eye on him.

A couple things I recommend that you invest in:
-Prime water conditioner
-Liquid water test kit (API brand is good)
-Heavy filtration system
-Heater
-Quality food

Goldfish produce A LOT of waste and having 3 fancies and a common goldfish in a 20 gallon tank will quickly foul the water in no time at all. So be prepared to do a lot of maintenance and water changes every few days give or take. Prime water conditioner will come in handy because it helps detoxify ammonia temporarily to help alleviate the fish from the toxicity.

A liquid water test kit is a small investment but it is well-worth it in the long run. They are also much more reliable and accurate than paper test strips. You will want to test the waters regularly and maintain parameters, 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, and <20ppm Nitrate is what you should strive for to keep the fish in good health.

If you don't already know what the Nitrogen cycle is, please research that at your earliest convenience. It is the first important thing to understand when keeping fish. If your tank is not cycled then that simply adds to the importance of water changes.

It would probably be a good idea to look into a filtration system that will be suitable for the 65 gallon setup down the road. That way you won't have to buy two different filters, and you will have adequate filtration to help you maintain the tank. Although do keep in mind that you will need to clean out the mechanical filtration every time you do water changes to completely remove the waste from the system.

A heater would be a good idea, common goldfish are usually quite resilient but their fancy cousins not so much. They are often referred to as "cold water fish" but they actually can't handle many things quite as well as the common goldies, cold water to a certain degree included. Keeping them around 72-75F should be okay.

Quality food. You wouldn't believe how much junk food are on the market for goldfish, and many of them cause issues for their poorly developed digestive tracts. Fancy goldfish actually have the same exact organs in size and layout as a common goldfish do, but it's squished in their squished body, leaving them very susceptible to obstructions in their digestive tract and swim bladder issues. Some things to know about their diet and feeding habits:
-They are omnivores, leaning more towards herbivorous needs.
-They hold strong to the instincts of their wild ancestors, who constantly graze and feed to get as large as possible for survival and the quickest chance to reproduce. Goldfish always act hungry, even when they're not, because of this. They don't actually need to eat a lot.
-Goldfish don't exactly have a stomach, they do have a weird tiny lobe in their digestive tract but a lot of food can easily pass it and become absorbed and processed throughout the rest of the tract.
-It's better to feed frequent tiny meals than 1-2 large meals daily due to their grazing nature and biology.

I usually recommend soft foods like gel foods (Repashy, for example), or blanched veggies for them to eat. If you want to feed pellets, I would suggest a sinking variety of small pellets (less than 2mm) to reduce the risk of accidentally getting air into their digestive tract and causing obstruction. Brands I've liked for my fancies are Northfin Goldfish, Dainichi, and I'm going to try Aquacarium Goldfish Pellets. I'm not a fan of HikarI besides their Vibra Bites for picky eaters. For veggies, you can do some blanched cucumbers, zucchini, peeled peas, lettuce, spinach, and fruits like watermelon, orange, apples, and peeled grapes.

Please feel free to ask questions, and sorry if this is overloading. There's quite a few people who can help you with goldfish, and I can tag them here if you want other opinions lol. I have ten fancy goldfish in a minI outdoor pond and a separate pond with common goldfish, comet, and koi. They're pretty tough fish so you should be okay, but try to make them comfortable in terms of a clean environment until you can set them up in the 65.
 
catfish_guy
  • Thread Starter
  • #3
Thanks candiedragon for all this info. I just have one question. If I have a betta tank that's heavily planted how long would it take the benifical bacteria from that floss stuff inside the tank to get a cycle going on these fish.

Ps. I just woke up and there all alive
 
dojafish
  • #4
Thanks candiedragon for all this info. I just have one question. If I have a betta tank that's heavily planted how long would it take the benifical bacteria from that floss stuff inside the tank to get a cycle going on these fish.

Ps. I just woke up and there all alive
I can't give you a definitive answer but it should definitely get you going much quicker since there will be an established colony to boot. The goldfish will produce a lot of ammonia so the bacteria should be able to produce quickly with all that food source available. I'd still say give it a bare minimum of 2-3 weeks, depending on how well you keep up on maintenance.
 
Skavatar
  • #5
a betta's bioload is much less than 4 goldfish, even if you took all the filter media from the betta tank and placed it into the goldfish filter, it would take a few weeks for the small amount of bacteria to grow into a large enough colony to fully cycle the bioload of 4 goldfish.

you need to get Seachem Prime, its a life saver when doing fish in cycle. you can dose up to 5X the recommended dosage to detox ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates every 24-48hrs.

I run 2 filters in my goldfish tanks, I do 70-75% weekly water changes, and vacuum.

you need the API Freshwater Master Test kit. you need to know your water parameters.

a bottle of TSS Tetra Safe Start would help get your tank cycled much quicker (2-3 weeks).

until your goldfish tank gets cycled, you might have to do large water changes every 2-3 days depending on the ammonia and nitrite levels.
 

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