how many goldfish

I would say three. That is just my personal guestimate. I am only familiar with comets and common GF. There MAY be some fancy GF that could live 4 to that tank, but I really don't know. While some fancy GF might Look like they have more room, they may produce just as much waste etc.
I have read 20 gallons minimum /1st GF and 10 gals /ea thereafter. That would say 4/50Gal. BUT Looking at my 55G, I can see that 4 fullgrown GF would not live well in there.
The more I think of it, Imagining full grown GF of any type, I realy wouldn't try more than 3
If You had 3 GF in there You could use plants and decor to make the tank look fuller. anacharis is very easy to grow IME and the GF eat it.
You could put some white cloud minnows in there if you don't mind them being eaten. A small colony of white clouds would be less bioload than one more GF, make the tank more interesting And provide the GF with some live food.(because they have a lot of babies) With good maintenence I bet you could have the GF for many years, and that will more than make up for the tank looking a little empty to you when they are small.
good luck!

just me again

check out the coldwater forum, if you haven't already.
I was wonderring, how deep,(wide?) front to back is a 50 Gallon tank?
Keep in mind the fullgrown Length of the type of GHF you are thinking of. They will need room to turn around, eh?

Two or three.

I asked this question before and don't remember the answer, (maybe someone will chime in ), but you should be able to go with 3 or 4 if you get the g.f that stay smaller, like around 8 inches, which is still big, but alot smaller than 2 feet!! Just know what kind you are getting before you come home with koi or something (they're the ones that get HUGE, right?)

koi r not GF. they are Koi.
they get large, yes.
Common gf( the feeders, and most won at the fair GF) can grow to 2'
comets similarly.

zazz said:

koi r not GF. they are Koi.

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Sorry!! When they are at the store and are small, I could see why they are easily mistaken for a "type" of goldfish so I just thought I would mention the size Just in case!!

What goldfish stay the smallest? Lionheads?

Holly , no apology necesary *S
re smallest, i dunno, need to find good goldfish profiles

Here is a site that gives some sizes for various types of goldfish.

Goldfish