How many goldfish for a 37g?

[SANDYBOTTOM]

i agree about the canister filter.the sun sun filters for your tank size are only a little more than the penguin and the internal filter combined.i got the 303b with built in uv for 80 bucks (290 gph or so).they hold tons of media.i use lava rock instead of biomax. to diffuse the spraybar simply point it back toward the glass.if you want to keep 2 goldies in a 37 you do not want to take up swimming room with an internal filter. and want to overfilter it as much as possible.these are large filters and the best performance for the price.you will be happier in the long run.i would suggest going either barebottom or fine sand at 1 inch deep. gravel and goldfish are not the best together.choking problems and too many places for feces to get stuck.sand and bare bottom are much easier to maintain. the only way i could see a sponge filter working is if you plan on doing 80-100% water changes every 5 days.this is what professional gf breeders do.and in a37 they take up too much swimming room. the other way to go would be a sump of atleast 10 gallons with a pump rated to about 300 gal per hr.

 

[ktrom13]

Ive never dealt with goldfish but from reading up on them a bit and going through a few threads, i think a sandy bottom would be best. They do get messy and sometimes they can choke on gravel. With the sand or bare bottom at least you can find the poop and get rid of it with a simple water change or even scooping it out daily or every other day with a net. Also goldfish need to be fed 2-3 times a day so there is also a greater risk of having left over food and if the fish doesnt eat it by the time you notice it at least you can just scoop it out with a net. Overfilteration is a must with these messy fish. Im sure if you go about things correctly the first time itll pay off in the long run as golfish are known to live quite a while.

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[Kaosu]

Ive never dealt with goldfish but from reading up on them a bit and going through a few threads, i think a sandy bottom would be best. They do get messy and sometimes they can choke on gravel. With the sand or bare bottom at least you can find the poop and get rid of it with a simple water change or even scooping it out daily or every other day with a net. Also goldfish need to be fed 2-3 times a day so there is also a greater risk of having left over food and if the fish doesnt eat it by the time you notice it at least you can just scoop it out with a net. Overfilteration is a must with these messy fish. Im sure if you go about things correctly the first time itll pay off in the long run as golfish are known to live quite a while.

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......why do they have to be fed 2-3 times a day?, I have been keeping goldfish and breed them for years and never have run across the need to do this.

 

[Vincenia]

Think I better off selling the 37g or just keeping it as is... goldfish seem to much of a hassle for me :[

 

[val]

......why do they have to be fed 2-3 times a day?, I have been keeping goldfish and breed them for years and never have run across the need to do this.

That's a common thought since goldfish are typically vegetarian/omnivores, and being grazers, it's thought to be be better to feed them small amounts throughout the day as opposed to one large feeding. If you've got a system that works for you....

As to the original poster, I have 4 goldfish in my 29 gallon tank with just an AC 50 on it. I've come around to doing 2 gallon water changes 4-5 times a week, each cleaning takes about 5 minutes, so I'm turning over a lot of water. I've had them for 4 years now and they're still only about 1.25 inches long, not counting the tail. Don't know why my goldies don't grow any bigger... My last 5 I had in a 37g and they maybe topped out a little under 2 inches. And I had them for a decade.

I've never had a goldfish choke on gravel, so I might be lucky, but sand seems to get way dirtier (I've never tried it personally) and bare tanks are ugly. IMHO.

 

[SANDYBOTTOM]

your goldies probably did not get to their potential of 8" long because they were in an overstocked tank.they put off growth hormones that will stunt their growth.you were not doing big enough water changes to get rid of the hormones produced. a fish of 4 years should be fully grown and be between 6-8 in long.

 

[val]

your goldies probably did not get to their potential of 8" long because they were in an overstocked tank.they put off growth hormones that will stunt their growth.you were not doing big enough water changes to get rid of the hormones produced. a fish of 4 years should be fully grown and be between 6-8 in long.

Yeah, that's interesting. I've seen other people with more overstocked tanks and yet their goldfish kept growing. The woman who introduced me to my wife had a 9 inch long comet in a 10 gallon tank.

So, here's the question... If my fish don't grow to that size, and I have just 5 GF in a 29g, are they really being hurt? Seems like this is a potentially fine ultimate solution. For me, at least. I love GF. After 15 years of almost 175 gallons of tanks, I've come back to GF. I love the fish. But, let's face it, two GF in a 29g tank is a little bit boring....

 

[Kaosu]

Yeah, that's interesting. I've seen other people with more overstocked tanks and yet their goldfish kept growing. The woman who introduced me to my wife had a 9 inch long comet in a 10 gallon tank.

So, here's the question... If my fish don't grow to that size, and I have just 5 GF in a 29g, are they really being hurt? Seems like this is a potentially fine ultimate solution. For me, at least. I love GF. After 15 years of almost 175 gallons of tanks, I've come back to GF. I love the fish. But, let's face it, two GF in a 29g tank is a little bit boring....

Think its boring all you like, purposely stunting fish cuz you find to few of them "boring" is disgusting.

my 3 year old fantail is well over 6 inches and was breeding this summer...to go that long and still be that small....you are torchering them, keeping in unhealthy conditions that purposely stunts them/ few in this hobby find that OK.

 

[SANDYBOTTOM]

yes,they are being hurt internally, read up on stunting.if you really love goldfish you would look out for their well being instead of your own entertainment. if the original poster wants more than 2 fish,they have the option of either going with different fish or getting a larger tank.a 9 inch fish in a 10 gallon tank is cruel.comets have the potential of growing over 12". how did the fish even turn around?just because you can do something, does not mean you should do it. keeping goldfish alive for a decade is not really saying much. they are supposed to live 20+ years.i am not pulling this information out of the air. this is basic goldfish care from the brain trust of thousands of goldfish breeders, that have learned from generations of the best asian keepers.i am not really interested in how or why you managed to keep those poor fish alive. i am interested on giving good sound advice to the original poster,so they can experience a good degree of success with their pet.this is a pretty conservative forum,and it frowns on animal cruelty.

 

[val]

yes,they are being hurt internally, read up on stunting.if you really love goldfish you would look out for their well being instead of your own entertainment. if the original poster wants more than 2 fish,they have the option of either going with different fish or getting a larger tank.a 9 inch fish in a 10 gallon tank is cruel.comets have the potential of growing over 12". how did the fish even turn around?just because you can do something, does not mean you should do it. keeping goldfish alive for a decade is not really saying much. they are supposed to live 20+ years.i am not pulling this information out of the air. this is basic goldfish care from the brain trust of thousands of goldfish breeders, that have learned from generations of the best asian keepers.i am not really interested in how or why you managed to keep those poor fish alive. i am interested on giving good sound advice to the original poster,so they can experience a good degree of success with their pet.this is a pretty conservative forum,and it frowns on animal cruelty.

Do you have any links on stunting? Just doing a cursory search (I'm not very good at google, it appears) I didn't find anything that said they were being hurt. None of my print resources mentioned anything...

I dunno, they seem pretty fine to me: they are active, inquisitive, eat well, swim at all levels of the tank and I've never had a bacteria outbreak. Doesn't seem like animal cruelty to me. To use a different fish, the betta, you can find lots of posters on here that have said that they keep their bettas just fine at room temperature when we all know that bettas do better at 78-82 degrees. Is that cruelty?