The longer I'm in the fish hobby the more and more, even as I come up with a tank wish list longer than my arm, I keep going back to goldies. Maybe its something about the fact that it was my first fish as a kid or just because they are so incredibly cute and unique apart from most tropical fish. MTS aside, I find myself longing for goldfish.
I remember when I was a kid and we won a goldfish at the school fair in one of those ping pong ball toss games - all anybody knew about them then (minus some dedicated hobbyists I'm sure) was that you put them in a bowl and did water changes frequently. No common (nonhobby) person knew anything about stunting or the need for large large tanks... no one knew they were hurting their goldfish. I know that our first fish lived 6 years - which a lot of people said at the time wasn't even possible for a goldie (and now we know 15yrs+ depending) because of my grandma's diligent daily or even twice daily whole bowl water changes.
Now of course that most people know better - no one wants to return to hurting their goldies - but they've gone from being the most kept to being the hardest to keep just about... when you consider the tank size and extra filtration which can be out of budget or even room space for many people.
Still, its hard not to be wistful and contemplate getting goldies again somehow. However, the biggest tank I've got right now is a 38g hex. :wall:
Some questions for you lucky goldie people out there...
what goldfish type stays the smallest?
what is the tanksize I'd need to house 2 of them? (without overdoing it and yet without badly stunting them either - extra filtration is a given)
lastly, I saw a gorgeous 'red and white fantail' the other day - what would just one of those require?
Thanks!
I remember when I was a kid and we won a goldfish at the school fair in one of those ping pong ball toss games - all anybody knew about them then (minus some dedicated hobbyists I'm sure) was that you put them in a bowl and did water changes frequently. No common (nonhobby) person knew anything about stunting or the need for large large tanks... no one knew they were hurting their goldfish. I know that our first fish lived 6 years - which a lot of people said at the time wasn't even possible for a goldie (and now we know 15yrs+ depending) because of my grandma's diligent daily or even twice daily whole bowl water changes.
Now of course that most people know better - no one wants to return to hurting their goldies - but they've gone from being the most kept to being the hardest to keep just about... when you consider the tank size and extra filtration which can be out of budget or even room space for many people.
Still, its hard not to be wistful and contemplate getting goldies again somehow. However, the biggest tank I've got right now is a 38g hex. :wall:
Some questions for you lucky goldie people out there...
what goldfish type stays the smallest?
what is the tanksize I'd need to house 2 of them? (without overdoing it and yet without badly stunting them either - extra filtration is a given)
lastly, I saw a gorgeous 'red and white fantail' the other day - what would just one of those require?
Thanks!
