12 fancies in 150 gallons ok?

kelly82

kelly82

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Jun 1, 2007
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Lincolnshire, UK
my friend has a large tank she thinks is 150 gallons, i dont have the exact dimensions but i would say its maybe slightly more than that as it looks to be almost if not the same size as my 6 x 2 x 2 but she said it may only be 18 inches front to back. in there she has 12 fancies, and has 3 more on hold until they pass quarantine in a weeks time at the lfs. will this be grossly overstocked or will it be ok to house the fish for life? the fish are a mix of orandas and fantails from what i have briefly seen. what do you guys think, should i put her off the new 3 or leave her to it? shes fully cycled by the way, seeded from my main tank, and has a few live plants and some plastic ones. i think she will stop at 15 in total, thats if i dont manage to sway her to leave the 3 and stick at 12 altogether depending on what i find out through you guys.
 
oh and she will listen to me i think as i already explained to her that the 3 comets she had in there with the fancies were a bad idea :goldfish: they now have a pond to live their lives out in :goldfish:
 
That seems a bit overstocked IMO.

I do not know what the goldfish experts here recommend but I would say 20-30 gallons for the first and 10-15 for every fancy over that.

I'd say 9-10 max...but I may just be playing it safe.
 
The tank is a bit narrow, at only 18" - that would be a big concern, as well as filtration. I would only do 15 if she is VERY committed to 3X weekly water changes, and has at least 3X the volume of the tank in filtration (a filter or combination of filters rated for at least 450 gallons.)

Personally, I would leave it at 12, and it is still going to take a lot of work and commitment to keep up with the bioload.

Kristina
 
Kris is right but it depends on how big they are right now. I do not see the issue with 15 if these goldfish are still very young especially if size ranges from three to eight inches including tail. As long as she is doing a lot of maintenance, then there is no reason to stop her from doing it. Since we are talking about orandas and fantails, the average size usually hits 8-10 inches, the maximum range I would go for in the end is 10-12 assuming all goldfish are already adults. My tanks are barebottom so I really never have issues with my own maintenance done very frequently.
 
well ive emailed her and asked her to measure her tank, and after a long while triing to find a tape measure she ended up using one of her kids rulers and set about noting down every 6 inches as she went then adding them up! one way of doing it i suppose, no doubt she will find the tape measure later on today now :D

anyway, shes managed to measure all dimensions and it is the same as mine, its 72 inches x 24 inches x 24 inches,we werent sure as she has hers in an alcove which really throws off how big the tank is,so ye, its 150 uk gallons, or 180 us gallons. not 100 % sure on her filtration, she has a external filter, not sure what make, its about the same size as my rena but not same make so doubtful same flow. not sure what make it is either. she also has an eheim ball thing, its a round ball with a green tube of different medias, it seems to really push some flow around the tank. she also has a fluval 4+, and 2 airstones in the tank. the water moves a lot, the airbubbles really motor around in the current and you cant see any poop on her gravel so im guessing its doing a good job on mechanical filtration.

i have said she may be pushing it with 15 goldies as she only carries out water changes once a fortnight, she does gravel vac (well she does since i gave her my spare vac and showed her what was hidden in her substrate!) and replaces around 50% of the water. at the moment her fish are between 1.5 inches inc tail and maybe 5 inches inc tail. i think thats why she wants to buy more as at the moment they dont really fill the tank. does anyone know how fast these fancies may grow, they do have a very varied diet of sinking pellets (not sure what brand) mysis shrimp, peas, orange segments, and they are devouring all her plants too :evil_lol:

i will show her this thread if she disagrees with me as you all really sound like you know what you are doing :worthy: thanks for the replies so far
 
Ahhh..This is a 180g then. 15 fancies wouldn't be pushing it if maintenance was adequate but dang, a fortnight is too much. With 15 goldies and goodness knows how often young goldfish should be fed, she should be doing at least 40-50% water changes 3-4 times a week if schedule could at least permit that but it also depends on how well her water parameters go.

In my experience, I feed my young goldfish 3-4 times a day but they also get water changes by as much as 80% 2-3 times a week. It takes me only about 1.5-2 hours to finish water changes on the tanks.:)

As far as growth rate is concerned, it really depends on your maintenance, genetics, foods, etc. My black ranchu Loco was 2 inches when I bought him. I was not even expecting him to be that small when I arrived to the door of a LFS upon receiving a note the owner stocked some black ranchus. After a month, he has gained at least 1.5 inch and continues getting bulkier.
 
yes ive told her to up the water changes, but she isnt up for that :thumbsdown: i have told her 15 is too many and stick to the 12 you have, and she has agreed to ring the lfs first thing and cancel her 3 she has on hold (which i found out today are 2 huge fantails and 1 huge oranda, all 5 inches+ in body alone)so she can really pay attention to the ones she has.

she has mentioned that she sometimes wonders why she bothers with them at all, but then still goes out and buys more when she finds pretty ones:headshake2: she does everything kind of properly, dechlorinator,gravel vac, water changes, even though they arent often enough, and the one thing i tell her not to do which is salt her tanks permanently. the lfs guy told her its a good idea and i havent managed to persuade her to leave it out yet. the fish seem fine and healthy, though occassionally they do gasp at the surface for a few seconds then dive down again.

i guess her fish live a better life than most goldfish these days, at least they have space to swim and live out their lives.

on a totally different note, she has really turned me back into a goldfish lover, i forgot how wonderful they are. today i sold my angelfish, rainbow, platies, danios and have put the money aside (took a lot not to go straight to the lfs for goldies!). i have someone coming to buy my cories on wednesday and my bristlenose on sunday. i want fish with character again :D its all well and good having a couple of comets in my 250 gallon pond outside, but i dont see them much. im so excited! even hubby is showing an interest, he did enjoy having the goldfish.
 
:D i knew id end up falling for the gorgeous wobbly butts sooner or later, tropicals just dont have the same...personalities :huh: goldfish are amazing characters, i was handfeeding my friends ones and they are so lovely, like little wobbly slimy puppies :laugh: i knew as soon as i did that it was those i really wanted. im hoping to go with live plants, should be fun, most of my friends are plastic plants as her fish chew all her live plants to bits :nono:

gota love goldies :goldfish:
 
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