Do I need to cycle a goldfish aquraium?

**james20** · 01-16-2010, 01:40 AM

Wouldn't they just cycle it themselves? They sometimes are used for that purpose. I have a spare 10 gallon and am thinking about one fancy goldfish. I have had past experience with these fish, just no in a "professional" way(4 gf crammed into 10 gallons, will never make that mistake again) so do they need a cycled tank prior to putting one in. ThaNKS.

**Oscar_freak12321** · 01-16-2010, 01:49 AM

A) Any ONE goldfish should not be put in a 10 gallon. B) Common goldfish ARE known to be used as cycling fish, but if you are actually looking to keeping a goldfish I would not start with a 10 gallon. I would start on a 30 at least for just ONE goldfish. Goldfish are huge waste producers and I wouldn't recommend anything smaller.

**james20** · 01-16-2010, 01:52 AM

Originally Posted by Oscar_freak12321

A) Any ONE goldfish should not be put in a 10 gallon. B) Common goldfish ARE known to be used as cycling fish, but if you are actually looking to keeping a goldfish I would not start with a 10 gallon. I would start on a 30 at least for just ONE goldfish. Goldfish are huge waste producers and I wouldn't recommend anything smaller.

Even if I upgrade later?

**rich311k** · 01-16-2010, 01:53 AM

Yes a goldfish tank needs cycled. A ten gallon is not going to be large enough. You could keep a fancy in a 29 gallon.

**Oscar_freak12321** · 01-16-2010, 01:54 AM

If you upgrade later, that would be great. However, I would never even put a little goldy as a fry in a 10 gallon. Just too much waste.

**EmmanuelJB** · 01-16-2010, 01:56 AM

Yes you need to cycle a gold fish aquarium!!! A ten gallon is to small for a goldfish. If the gold fish is young and you upgraded to at least a 25 gallon later it would be ok. But why not just get the bigger aquarium right now??

**Oscar_freak12321** · 01-16-2010, 02:01 AM

^^ When he says later, he basically means almost immediately. I would upgrade now and save you a bunch of money if you are really set in the direction of keeping goldfish.

**VoidParadigm** · 01-16-2010, 05:16 AM

Fancy goldfish shouldn't be used to cycle tanks, as their internal organs are disfigured, meaning they can be extremely fragile to ammonia build-up.

Yeah, sure, common goldfish are used to cycle tanks, but that doesn't nessicarily mean it's good practice. How would you feel if someone put you in a room and said "Alright, you're going to feel some burning for about a month, and if you survive that I'll give you a great home." Every fish needs a cycled tank.

The ideal tank for a goldfish is three gallons per inch of fish. Most fancy varieties reach an average of 8'', with that sometimes going much higher due to breeding. That's at least 24 gallons for a fancy to reach it's full potential.

As Oscar said, it's best to just buy that big tank now.

A fully grown fancy in an enviroment it's grown up in most of it's life is both much more beautiful, and friendly. The older a goldfish gets, the more trusting of it's owner it becomes. My biggest male at the moment tries to swim into my hand whenever I put it in the pond, for example.