Pleco And Goldfish?

I have a 50 gal with 14 comet goldfish and an Albino Pleco. Everytime I feed my Pleco an Algea Wafer thing, My gold fish eat it. Is it ok for my goldfish to eat it or is it bad for them. If it is bad, What can I do? It's a new tank and has no algae at all.

 

That many goldfish should be in nothing short of a 280 gallon tank. It is not bad for the fish to try to eat them, they need veggy matter in their diet.

overstocking is BAD, seriously. And if it is an albino common pleco it should be in a 75 gallon by the time it is nearing adulthood. overstocking is BAD, did I mention that?

 

Welcome to FishLore!
Usually we recommend 20 gallons for the first goldfish and 10 gallons more for each additional goldfish. Goldfish are also cooler water fish depending on the type of pleco he may not appreciate the cooler temps.
Since the tank is fairly new please test the water and watch your ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate readings. all of your fish are heavy waste producers and the readings may sky rocket causing your fish to get sick.
Goldfish and plecos both need some vegetable matter in their diet. Perhaps you could drop the veggie wafers in at lights out in two places.
Here are some articles for you to read

Carol

 

both the goldfish and pleco put out a lot of waste. with that many goldfish, you'd have to hide food for the pleco in spots the goldies couldn't get to probably.. but like the posts above suggest, there are enough goldfish there to stock 6 50 gallon tanks and it would be next to impossible to keep good water chemistry. if you can take back most of the goldies, you could have a 50 gallon tank that would have a do-able bioload and give that pleco a better chance of getting some food.

 

I have a 50 gal with 14 comet goldfish and an Albino Pleco. Everytime I feed my Pleco an Algea Wafer thing, My gold fish eat it. Is it ok for my goldfish to eat it or is it bad for them. If it is bad, What can I do? It's a new tank and has no algae at all.

try to feed your pleco at night, like after 11 p.m.; goldfish go to sleep at that time, did u notice they float at the top of the tank? so drop the wafers then, plecos become active at night. and u r overstocked, try to return some goldfish.

 

That many goldfish should be in nothing short of a 280 gallon tank. It is not bad for the fish to try to eat them, they need veggy matter in their diet.

overstocking is BAD, seriously. And if it is an albino common pleco it should be in a 75 gallon by the time it is nearing adulthood. overstocking is BAD, did I mention that?

WE don't have a pet store in town so we bought our fish 4 hours out of town, the closest pet store. I asked them what I should put in my 55gal tank and that This was my first tank. They recommended what I now have in my tank. So if anything is wrong, It's not my fault.

 

WE don't have a pet store in town so we bought our fish 4 hours out of town, the closest pet store. I asked them what I should put in my 55gal tank and that This was my first tank. They recommended what I now have in my tank. So if anything is wrong, It's not my fault.

I'm sorry that you found out the hard way that most fish stores/pet stores don't really know anything about the product their selling. Go from here and learn what you need to do to take care of the fish you have( a bigger tank or more tanks or return some of the goldfish). Research before buying fish is part of the fun of the hobby and will help you know what they need before you get them as well.
Carol

 

I saw someone just this past weekend with two goldfish in a 2.5 g tank

 

Oh that's really bad, Parson. We understand it' s not your fault. What's more natural than trust the specialist advice? It's really frustrating in this hobby that the fish stores are the last people to get advice from, unfortunately.

What they advised to you is nothing short of irresponsible. Unfortunately, the overstock situation is so bad that you will be unable to sustain this system for any length of time from the high pollution so many fish will generate. This will poison them, and there is nothing more depressing than watching one's fish drop one by one, after suffering the lenghty and agonising diseases that go with the poisoning. With such overstocking, even 2x daily clean-ups would still not save you.

 

comets grow up to 6" and they r heavy waste producers, I think 6-8 comets will be enough for a 50g. I had 2 of'em in a 10g, it was my first tank.

 

Oh that's really bad, Parson. We understand it' s not your fault. What's more natural than trust the specialist advice? It's really frustrating in this hobby that the fish stores are the last people to get advice from, unfortunately.

What they advised to you is nothing short of irresponsible. Unfortunately, the overstock situation is so bad that you will be unable to sustain this system for any length of time from the high pollution so many fish will generate. This will poison them, and there is nothing more depressing than watching one's fish drop one by one, after suffering the lenghty and agonising diseases that go with the poisoning. With such overstocking, even 2x daily clean-ups would still not save you.

So far It's been two weeks and I still have 13 goldfish. The ammonia level is at 1 ppm and there is almost nothing for nitrites. I've only changed ten gallons of water. But my ph level is really high like 7.8. I bought this PH decreaser and it says not to lower it more than .5 in 24 hours. Is this right or should I just give up the whole fishkeeping thing. It seems that everywhere I go, everything anyone tells me is different, or someone else thinks its wrong.

 

Oh what a shame you're so discouraged. It's understandable. You're basically starting up with a really difficult situation that a more experienced aquarist would find tricky too - far too many fish, and nowhere to put them.

It will seem like people are telling you opposing things, but most of the time, they're saying the same thing, just in a confusing way, LOL. A lot of fishkeeping methods are not 'universal truths', but we do try to make it clear what we advise is our opinion on the less universal ones. In that case, you unfrotunately have to go with your instinct as to whose advice you feel is the most sensible on a point by point basis.

Perhaps we can help on the specific points where you got different answers. I am sure we can work out why people say differnet, so you can make up your own mind with all the facts.

About the pH decreaser. I think 7.8 should be OK. What is not OK is a large change in pH. So the good news is that, in my opinion, you don't need to do anything about the pH. I think you've got enough work on your hands right now to start optimizing your pH and it's really not that critical, as long as it's stable and not copmletely out of the comfortable range for the species you've got in there. To know what each species need, you can check Fishlore's homepage, and other sites.

 

I have just found this thread, and need to ask, how big are the fish? I am thinking that as you have just recently bought them, they are still quite small.

Suggestion: Do a regular daily 50% water change, use a gravel vacuum to clean the bottom and feed as little as you can. You can comfortably reduce the feeding to every other day without causing any harm to the fish. This will simply reduce the amount of waste they produce while the tank gets started. To feed the plec, night feeding is the best way, and then he will get enough to keep him going, but again, don't overfeed him. Next, you need to find a way to reduce the numbers in there. there are several options here. return them to the shop, which seems unlikely and inconvenient, give them away to friends with ponds, or advertise them locally.

I hate it when pet shops do this sort of thing. I was in one the other day when the shop keeper sold 6 goldfish and a goldfish bowl! How I refrained from shouting, I don't know! The worst of it is that I know the owner knew better, but it still didn't stop her! I spoke to her aferwards and she said that a sale is a sale and they would now be back for a bigger tank! Not the right attitude, wouldn't you agree

So, back to your situation. By reducing the amount of waste and doing 50% changes every day, you have a good chance of keeping the fish alive long enough to reduce the numbers. this would be my option for a solution. Don't worry about the pH value, it really isn't that importanat at the moment. I hope it helps.

 

So far It's been two weeks and I still have 13 goldfish. The ammonia level is at 1 ppm and there is almost nothing for nitrites. I've only changed ten gallons of water. But my ph level is really high like 7.8. I bought this PH decreaser and it says not to lower it more than .5 in 24 hours. Is this right or should I just give up the whole fishkeeping thing. It seems that everywhere I go, everything anyone tells me is different, or someone else thinks its wrong.

Well, the pH is ok.. ours is 7.8 here.. sometimes 7.6.. and we never had luck with pH products when we first started. Finally we found that the best thing is to keep the pH steady.

As far as cycling goes, the main thing is the number of fish. You need a really big tank for 13 goldfish, they get so big and need the swimming room. Is there any chance you'd be able to return 9 of them to the store?

 

Yes you should try to return them. Or you could dig a pond.


Beeboy

 

Perhaps try to sell them on aquabid or list the ones you wanna sell in your local paper. Comet goldfish get up to a foot in length. Honestly, in a 55 gallon at full adulthood size (about 1 ft) with insane amounts of filtration, such as a large canister filter (recirculation 20x per hour if not more), you could probably keep 2 comets.

Armadillo is right, most of what knowledgable people say is the same just worded differently. It is hard to decide who is knowledgable and who is not, but just based on their size and bioload (amount of waste they produce) you can determine water space needed. Just learn the basics such as bioload, length, whether the fish needs a taller tank, normal sized tank, or longer tank, and water perameters and you should be a bit closer to being less frustrated.

Best of luck with the hobby, and just realize that if you learn from the mistake it was not made in vain.

 

Hello, I have a goldfish and a pleco living in the same tank.Nowing Gold fish they like to compete for food and swim around bump into things and are really clumsy. The pleco dose not like it when the goldfish takes the pleco food, this happens so many times its funny because the goldfish dose not even like the pleco food. Its at the piont were the pleco will go and nip at the fin of the goldfish bow do I fix this. I also have so many hiding places so its not that.

 

What kind of pleco and how big is the tank they are in

 

Kindly fill out profile as much as you can so in the future you will avoid other members asking about your fish tank.

How big is your fish tank? Is it just two of them living in the tank? What kind of pleco is it?

 

Kindly fill out profile as much as you can so in the future you will avoid other members asking about your fish tank.

How big is your fish tank? Is it just two of them living in the tank? What kind of pleco is it?

How do you fill out the profile? I'm on mobile app and I can't seen to figure it out

 

you have to fill out the information on the computer, you can't do it on mobile

 

Ok wee edo I go to fill all that out?

 

In the mean time, you can provide your info here for us so we can help you now.

 

Common Goldfish shouldn't be kept in tanks, it causes stunted growth which is incredibly painful and ends up cutting their 25-30 year life span in just 2-3 years.

Plecos also need large volumes of water so these two together is a major issue unless you're packing a tank the size of a wall.

Goldies have no concept of being full so they're going to eat and eat if the food is there.

In my opinion goldfish and plecos aren't compatible together unless it's an outdoor pond.

 

I have a 40 gallon with a really small pleco like 4 inches I dose not seem to be getting bigger over the past 6 months or more

Ive feed only my pleco now at night while the goldfish is not doing much and it seems to work a lot better

 

What is the size comparison between your golfish and pleco? This is something to consider, because goldfish are opportistic feeders, and will eat tank mates if there is not enough room to share..my pair of comets ate my first pleco , which was about 2inch long, compared to my 4inch comets.

 

I have a 40 gallon with a really small pleco like 4 inches I dose not seem to be getting bigger over the past 6 months or more

Ive feed only my pleco now at night while the goldfish is not doing much and it seems to work a lot better

40 g isn't big enough for a common goldfish.