Will There Be Enough Room For Our Fish?

thanks to a misinformed employee, we have three goldfish and a 5 gallon tank. right now, I do between 20% and fifty% water changes daily to keep the ammonia down and remove any food they don't with our fish net and rinse it. so far, the ammonia is almost zero but it's a tough cycle considering keeping them in such a small tank will leave them stunted.since the employees convinced by parents the small tank could hold fifteen fish, namely goldfish, i've been fighting to get a bigger tank. now, within April, we're getting a sixty gallon tank, 1200mm*450mm*450mm. right now all three are around three inches long (including their tails, two inches while excluding their tails) and I was wondering if the tank size is big enough to accommodate our two feeder and one orlanda goldfish when full grown, and maybe one or two more? or is that pushing the limit?

 

Goldfish come from carps. Common goldfish are almost like carps, just a little bit smaller. Each common goldfish need 40 gals AT LEAST. And fancy goldfish need 20 gals each.
So... you would need 100 gals to house the fish.
Can you rehome them? Have you considered setting up a pond? Goldfish are messy fish, they don't have stomachs, so they are pooping machines, and they consume a lot of oxygen. This are some of the main reasons they need tanks so big another one is that they grow to a feet (common ones, fancy grow to about 8 inches.)
And by the way, fancy goldfish and common goldfish are usually not good tankmates, fancy goldfish have bad sight and the more slI'm bodied, fast goldfish will probably outocompete them for food.
I know it sucks to have someone at a LFS blatantly lie to you about fish, but it has happened to everyone. A guy at a LFS almost convinced me to buy 6 Danios for a 1 gal tank when I was first starting out. Thankfully I did not buy it.

 

Pardon my asking but if the main reason is their pooping, then is it possible to use a filter intended for a bigger aquarium on the sixty gallon one or will that fail?

 

40 gallons for a fish that grows over a foot long? Am I missing something?

Common Goldies need no less than a pond.

If I were you, i'd return the Commons to your LFS. The Oranda will do great in the 60gal with another Fancy Goldfish friend.

Also if I were you, i'd go and give that LFS a piece of my mind.

 

40 gals would be the least, I personally wouldn't go with anything less than a 75 gal. Altough yeah, a pond is way better.

 

i'd love to give him a piece of my mind

in the 60 gallon, along with two orlandas, are there any other fish we can add to the tank or will it be too little for more than the two?

 

Pardon my asking but if the main reason is their pooping, then is it possible to use a filter intended for a bigger aquarium on the sixty gallon one or will that fail?

A bigger filter will help but there is only so much a filter can do. The fish get big too, and you don't want to stunt their growth.
Even with the best filtration in the world you would still have to do a lot of big water changes to get nitrates out and even then swimming space may become an issue.

i'd love to give him a piece of my mind

in the 60 gallon, along with two orlandas, are there any other fish we can add to the tank or will it be too little for more than the two?

Goldfish are best kept with goldfish. You can get 3 orandas in there. Still, you will need very good filtration and weekly 50% water changes.
Goldfish are cold water, most fish at the store at tropical.

 

in case it does become possible to make a pond, how big and deep would it have to be to keep them happy and healthy?

 

Depends on your climate. If your water freezes in the winter you will have to make it deep. At least 3 ft I believe.
If I were to build a pond I would probably make it around 3 mt long, 2 mt wide and 50 cm deep (I live in Mexico so no freezed water).
Research on the internet if you want to learn more about ponds tho, there is a lot of good info out there which is hard to explain in a forum post
And by the way, the following advice will make your fishkeeping hobby way easier: research research research and research!!!! There are so many points of view and different experiences that you really need to have an open mind and compare them all until you create your own opinion.

 

Beanfish has suggested 3 Orandas in your 60 gal. Now, while he isn't wrong, I always stock on the conservative side, thus I would only suggest 2. The decision is yours: Welcome to Aquarism, haha.

 

after quite a while of online hunting and tracking down people and making enquiries to find the best tank fast I came across a 1800mm*480mm*540mm tank with 423 litres capacity or around 110 gallon capacity, will this do for our three fish with comfortable room to spare?

also, my orlanda always comes to the surface first to eat and eats before the others, but to be safe, I initially feed them, then after two or three minutes when they've eaten I put another three pieces of fish food in case my orlanda didn't eat enough and most of the time, it doesn't eat the new pieces so ill scoop them up in our fish net and throw them away. is this bad or unhealthy for them or adding to the problem of the commons outcompeting it for food? or is it a solution?

 

after quite a while of online hunting and tracking down people and making enquiries to find the best tank fast I came across a 1800mm*480mm*540mm tank with 423 litres capacity or around 110 gallon capacity, will this do for our three fish with comfortable room to spare?

No, it won't. Your Commons are going to grow to over a foot long each; they need a pond. If you wanted to comfortably house them in a domestic aquarium, you'd be looking at a tank at least 3 times the size of that.

 

Honestly, I would recommend forgetting about putting single tail goldfish in a tank because they truly belong in ponds.

Fancy goldfish however can thrive in a tank given the right conditions as they are not as athletic nor do they get as long as the single tail goldfish.

 

you all are probably getting tired of making us give up the idea of keeping commons, but we're getting a tank custom built, so we can afford to at least consider making them a separate tank and keeping our orlanda and maybe some more fancies in a separate tank

so if you have any idea of comfortable dimensions for them, we're all ears

 

That sounds awesome. Commons can be kept in tanks for sure, but the tank needs to be so big that a pond is always the more economical option.

Regardless, if I were to build a tank to keep Common Goldfish in, I would dimension it no less than as such; L: 10ft W: 8ft 4ft

 

would you recommend staying true to the 75 gallons per common goldfish rule? or trying to make a tank like a pond?
we can make a 2500mm*500mm*680mm tank max, giving them over a 100 gallons each if there's something wrong with these dimensions it won't be possible for us, so we'll shift to a pond or giving them away

 

I don't, no. However, i'm on the conservative side of stocking aquariums to say the least. One Dwarf Apistogramma in a 55 gallon tank conservative, and i'd go bigger if I had the space.

How you do it is up to you, but just bare in mind these fish will get big, and live around 30 years. It's YOUR responsibility - no-one else - to keep them as comfortable as you possibly can for those 30 years.

A piece of advice as you move forward as an Aquarist; minimum tank size does not equal best tank size. Cheapest? Yes. Space economical? Yes. You could live with minimal space/interaction/freedom/food/so on, would it be the best life possible? No. These fish had no say in coming into your care; the least you can do is give them the life they deserve.

 

we are giving them as much space as we can afford too, is 90-100+ gallons each still too less?

 

That's not a question I can answer - I can only tell you what I would do, which I have. That's a question you have to answer yourself.

Research the average adult size of a Common Goldfish. See if you can find photos of them in different sized aquariums so you can see for yourself the space each one affords them. From there it will be on you to decide a reasonable size for them to be able to swim freely, and grow correctly.

 

would you recommend staying true to the 75 gallons per common goldfish rule? or trying to make a tank like a pond?
we can make a 2500mm*500mm*680mm tank max, giving them over a 100 gallons each if there's something wrong with these dimensions it won't be possible for us, so we'll shift to a pond or giving them away

I think that would be ok but you'll have to use your judgement as they grow and be responsible. I have young single tail goldfish in a 200 gallon pond but this summer they're moving to the new 1600 gallon pond we built because they look cramped in the 200 gallon.

 

Haha, I also like to understock but sometimes is hard to! 3 could work with good filtration, weekly big water changes and Pothos, or at least I think so, I have never kept goldfish.
Housing only 2 sounds like a good idea for someone who is just starting, 2 Orandas in a 60 gal will be more forgiving than 3 Orandas.
So yeah, welcome to the hobby, now you see what I meant with research research research!

Oh, and really I would just get a pond for the common goldfish. You would need 150 gal for the 2 common goldfish at least and once you get that big you really have to think twice before doing it.
Really, ask yourself, will you care for the goldfish till you are 36? Will that be their permanent location? Because those tanks are not cheap and not easy to move around at all.
Ponds look great and I think if you like fishkeeping and will take care of the fish until they die that it will be rewarding but when you go this big you really have to be honest with yourself.
If whatever you are getting them will need time you should consider either getting a cheap plastic pool or big plastic tubs so the fish have more space, I like the plastic pool idea but really it is up to you.

 

Is building a bond out of the question OP?

 

I would recommend if it is possible to get rid of those common gold fish keeping them in a 5 gal is just in humane and I would say if you wanted to keep them no less than a 50gallons per common gold fish and fancy no less than 25gallons to be on the safe side but always air on the side of caution when buying goldfish