Hi!

[Blakes]

Hello everybody! I was searching the net and stumbled upon this website/forum and started to read a few threads. I was reading the 'something strange in my tank' thread and wanted to see the picture of what it was, so I had to register!
I am being given a 60cm L, 30cm W, 30cm H fish tank with a pump and two Goldfish that are believed to be about 5cm in length. The current owner is fed up with them and I have been offered the setup free of charge:ezpi_wink1: I would like to add one or two more fish to this setup, if I have enough room?? Do I?? I would like to have a Catfish of some description in there, does anybody know of any that would be suitable? All your help and advice would be much welcomed. Oh, and what sort of temperature should the fish be kept at?
Cheers, Blakes

[Lady Hobbs]

Welcome to AC. Hope you like the site as much as all here do.

My first bit of advice is that goldfish are cold water fish and do not mix with warm water fish. They are also very dirty fish so they should be kept in their own tank.

[Cichlid_Man]

Welcome to AC.

Ask any questions or concerns you may have.

[Blakes]

Yeah I understand that Goldfish are coldwater fish. So you would advise not to add anymore fish to the tank? I have read that Goldfish are 'dirty', but surely if I replace 25%-50% of the water weekly it should keep the nitrate levels down. The tank does have a filter aswell. I would like to at least add one more fish to the tank, just so there is something in there that I have chosen as I am finding it quite interesting looking at different fish and seeing what would be suitable! I realise that the tank is not especially big (14 gallon) and I would not put anything in there that should not be in there!

[Lady Hobbs]

Fish have their own water requirements to survive and gold fish and warm water fish need different temps. Goldfish do not even require a heater in the tank. I don't know what type of goldfish you have, but some can get pretty large.

[Blakes]

Ok, thanks for your help. I will just keep to the two Goldfish then, maybe change the decor!

[Slinky_Bass]

Hi there Blakes, welcome to the forum. With regards to your goldfish tank mate question, there are a couple of options available depending on what kind of goldfish you have (ie single tailed or fancy twin tailed).

At 5cm your fish are still quite small, and if they are not going to grow any bigger you could keep a small school of White Cloud Mountain Minnows with them or perhaps a Hillstream/Butterfly loach. Hillstream loaches only reach a maximum size of 10cm so maybe one or two could be quite interesting. Check out this link for more info:

[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

Weather loaches and some plecos can also be kept in coldwater but will quickly outgrow your tanks, but if you're thinking of upgrading...

[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

pic credits Hillstream loach - arizonaaquaticgardens.com, white cloud minnow - Robyn on fishinfo.com

[KneeKickLou]

Welcome to the board

[Abbeys_Mom]

Welcome to the forum :)

[Lindsay_D]

howdy yall! there wasn't anything left to say that you guys didn't take LOL

[jeffs99dime]

welcome to a.c.

[Drumachine09]

The only time i kept goldfish in a tank, was in an empty 10 gallon with an airstone. i had 6 of them, and they all had the same name. Bait.

[Severus]

Welcome to AC

[Blakes]

Nice one Drumachine, that is quite amusing! I think I would feel a bit guilty keeping fish just to feed to another! I aquired the tank and fish today and I am very pleased with them, They are obviously two different varieties of Goldfish (one of them can't think for itself because it just copies the other one!) and I will post a picture of them some time soon. One question, I was wondering if the filter should be completely submersed, or whether the spout that spews the filtered water back into the tank should be above the water thus acting like a bit of a waterfall kind of thing (if you know what I mean!)?

[jeffs99dime]

Nice one Drumachine, that is quite amusing! I think I would feel a bit guilty keeping fish just to feed to another! I aquired the tank and fish today and I am very pleased with them, They are obviously two different varieties of Goldfish (one of them can't think for itself because it just copies the other one!) and I will post a picture of them some time soon. One question, I was wondering if the filter should be completely submersed, or whether the spout that spews the filtered water back into the tank should be above the water thus acting like a bit of a waterfall kind of thing (if you know what I mean!)?

keep the lip of the outflow of the filter about 1/2 inch off the water line. this will create surface agitation (creating oxygen in the water column and preventing stagnation. it's really a preference though. you can let the water fall from higher off the water line too. this will create noise, it's up you.

[Blakes]

Right then, I have just been trying the filter at different depths and when I had the spout above the water line it was not drawing any water through it. When I had it completely submerged it only spewed out water and did not really agitate the surface. The spout is now is about 1 1/2 inch below the water leaving the top of the filter out of the water and it is spewing out air bubbles and the surface is being agitated. I am just wondering though if the filter is just sucking up air and not water. It does say on the box that the filter came in that it does airate the water, unfortunatly the instructions are nowhere to be seen! The filter is an Interpet IPF 2 Duo if that means anything to anybody! I do actually have two of the said filters although the one that is not in use has a bit of a sorry looking sponge inside it. Would it be beneficial if I had both filters working in the tank? I THINK they are adjustable in terms of volume per hour, maybe I can have one completely submerged spewing out water and the other spewing out air bubbles. Any ideas guys?

[jeffs99dime]

Right then, I have just been trying the filter at different depths and when I had the spout above the water line it was not drawing any water through it. When I had it completely submerged it only spewed out water and did not really agitate the surface. The spout is now is about 1 1/2 inch below the water leaving the top of the filter out of the water and it is spewing out air bubbles and the surface is being agitated. I am just wondering though if the filter is just sucking up air and not water. It does say on the box that the filter came in that it does airate the water, unfortunatly the instructions are nowhere to be seen! The filter is an Interpet IPF 2 Duo if that means anything to anybody! I do actually have two of the said filters although the one that is not in use has a bit of a sorry looking sponge inside it. Would it be beneficial if I had both filters working in the tank? I THINK they are adjustable in terms of volume per hour, maybe I can have one completely submerged spewing out water and the other spewing out air bubbles. Any ideas guys?

well if there is water coming out the outake of the filter then you are "sucking up" water in the intake strainer. what size tank is it?

[Blakes]

The tank is 60cm long, 30 wide and 30 high. I believe its about 14-15 gallon (54 litres). The box of the filter states that the filter is suitable for tanks up to 61cm long, however it does not mention anything about width or height (maybe it is common for the width and height of a rectangular tank to be half its length, I don't know?). It does however, state that if you are keeping Goldfish (or something else that I can't remember, maybe a lot of fish) then it would be best to opt for the next model up from the recommended size for the tank. As for the outake issue, I can not really tell if water is coming out because the outake is under the surface and there is a fair amount of bubbles being blown out. I think I might put the other filter in aswell and turn them down a touch. What do you think Jeff/jeffs99dime?

[jman]

welcome to the forum mate!