Total Noob - What Is This Fishy?

Duke5A

Member
Welp, my daughter won a fish at a carnival two days ago and has become quite attached to it. Nobody in the family has any kind of aquarium experience.

Wanting to keep this little guy around for a long time I managed to find a 5 gallon tank at a thrift store that came with basically everything. After reading up on how to prep a tank I cleaned it (no solvents), got new rocks for it I rinsed before putting in, filled it with tap water and treated it with bio booster and de-chlorinater. Waiting for it to come up to room temperature.

Now, I've had this poor thing in this carnival tank we bought at the fair because I don't have anything else. Been putting in fresh water about twice a day. My problem is he doesn't seem to want to eat. I've been very sparing with flakes as I didn't want to yuck up the water.

At the fair the game was tossing ping-pong balls into little cups of water. Each ball sunk equaled a goldfish, and three gets you a specialty fish. I have no idea what a specialty fish is supposed to be, but it kinda looks like a goldfish. Does anyone here know what this guy is? Am I feeding it the wrong stuff?

Sorry for the long winded post... Thanks everyone...
 

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MrBryan723

Member
It is indeed a "goldfish". Better known as a koi? Maybe a comet? But I would guess a low quality butterfly koi. They get really big(over a foot) and are more of a pond fish than a tank fish.
 

ponitboss

Member
Duke5A said:
Welp, my daughter won a fish at a carnival two days ago and has become quite attached to it. Nobody in the family has any kind of aquarium experience.

Wanting to keep this little guy around for a long time I managed to find a 5 gallon tank at a thrift store that came with basically everything. After reading up on how to prep a tank I cleaned it (no solvents), got new rocks for it I rinsed before putting in, filled it with tap water and treated it with bio booster and de-chlorinater. Waiting for it to come up to room temperature.

Now, I've had this poor thing in this carnival tank we bought at the fair because I don't have anything else. Been putting in fresh water about twice a day. My problem is he doesn't seem to want to eat. I've been very sparing with flakes as I didn't want to yuck up the water.

At the fair the game was tossing ping-pong balls into little cups of water. Each ball sunk equaled a goldfish, and three gets you a specialty fish. I have no idea what a specialty fish is supposed to be, but it kinda looks like a goldfish. Does anyone here know what this guy is? Am I feeding it the wrong stuff?

Sorry for the long winded post... Thanks everyone...
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HI it looks like a shubunkin comet. And a 5 gallon tank is way to small for it, it gets quite big and produces a lot of waste so I think it would be best to get a bigger aquarium or see if you can rehome him
 

Coptapia

Member
It’s a shubunkin, a colour variety of a common goldfish.
 

Allegra

Member
My son got given one the same and a gold comet, they were in a 25 litre (5.5 gallon) tank. I got them 130 litre (35 gallon) tank and now after coming on here I am realising they will need bigger.
 
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Duke5A

Member
Holy smokes, that is definitely what I did not want to here. There is no way I can accommodate a larger tank for this thing. When it outgrows what what we have I guess I can toss him in my friends pond.

Does this type of fish not eat food floating on the surface? I have yet to see him go after anything I put into the tank, pellets or flakes.
 

Allegra

Member
Duke5A said:
Holy smokes, that is definitely what I did not want to here. There is no way I can accommodate a larger tank for this thing. When it outgrows what what we have I guess I can toss him in my friends pond.

Does this type of fish not eat food floating on the surface? I have yet to see him go after anything I put into the tank, pellets or flakes.
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Yes they do eat from the surface when hungry. In that tiny little tank he could be suffering from poor water quality and or stress which might be making him not well. I'm assuming you are conditioning/removing chlorine from all water changes in the little tank? Is he in the bigger tank yet?
 

Fawkes21

Member
What else is in your friends pond? If possible I'd move him in there straight away

Common goldfish like your fish get big very quickly and produce a lot of waste. And by big I mean 10 to 18 inches.

Until the tank completes the nitrogen cycle you need to do daily water changes conditioned with a product like Seachem prime until it cycles. You'll also need a testing kit to measure the parameters. It's a lot of work so depending on what your friend has, it might be best to transfer him to the pond. Common goldfish do well in ponds and provided there aren't fish that could eat him/ or big enough that he could fit in their mouths he should be fine

Goldfish will eat everything, flakes, pellets, vegetables, insects... If it fits in their mouth they will eat it. He's probably not eating because he's stressed
 

Annie59

Member
Yes, that is a goldfish not a koi. KoI would have barbells by it's mouth. He/she will be better off out of the small tank into a bigger one or a pond
 

Fishproblem

Member
Get that little guy into your friend's pond as soon as you can. In all honesty, he's already outgrown the five gallon. Get your daughter a betta for the new tank to make up for it!
 
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