Goldfish Beginner Help

[SusanN]

I have a Goldfish my daughter actually won him at the fair. It's been 1 week shy of 1 year now. He is now just under 8 inches long and 5 inches tall. And boy is he FUN! He interacts with us almost like playing. We have upgraded his tank several times. We now have him in a 55 gallon tank. Up until the 10 gallon we had a little hideout and he LOVED IT! We put one in the 20 gallon, but around 6 inches or so he was just too big and was scraping scales off. I am having ZERO luck finding anything we can use as a little hideout. We have a few little artificial plants, air stone, a little decor. We have recently added live plants. I plan on adding more of the live plants. Also, the algae is getting really bad, so we want to get snails. What is the best kind and how many? Lastly, my daughter really ants to get him a friend. What should we get that would be a good tank mate? We will take any tips we can get. This is our 1st fish. We have overcome a couple illnesses and has fought so hard and have grown pretty attached

Thank You

Here are some pictures of our guy. 

[Tony s]

On 9/12/2024 at 9:58 PM, SusanN said:

have a Goldfish my daughter actually won him at the fair

That’s exactly how we started keeping fish. Only ours died that night. So we went out and got a couple of cheap bettas and tanks. Your fish is what they call a common goldfish. He has the potential to grow up to 14 inches. So you could need another tank for him eventually.

 

On 9/12/2024 at 9:58 PM, SusanN said:

We have recently added live plants. I plan on adding more of the live plants

Goldfish love to eat plants. Some plants they may not devour include annubias and bolbitis. Others that might grow faster than they can eat include duckweed. If you have the ability to hang plants into the tank, pothos vine works really well. Keep the roots wet and let the vines grow outside the tank, everywhere. 
 

for tank mates… the best tank mates are other goldfish. Not the fancy ones with the big tails. They’re too slow and awkward. You’ll want something that can keep up with yours. Possibly including comet, shubunkin, and black moors. A few different types of fish that can go with him include dojo loach, bristle nose plecos, possibly rosy barbs. You need something big enough that it doesn’t get eaten. And that can live in a cold goldfish tank. You do know your goldfish is very comfortable in cold temperatures? Room temp temperatures to 50 degrees. 
 

for the algae, yeah, that’s going to be a constant fight. The pothos vine will definitely help. The key is going to be keeping the amount of nitrates down below 20. And limiting the amount of light in the tank. To probably less than 8 hours a day. And if you have hair algae, well, the goldfish will probably eat it. Surface algae you might just have to manually scrub it. 

Edited September 13 by Tony s

[Tony s]

For a few other fish. Zebra danios and whitecloud mountain minnows can work. They’re small but very fast. They should be able to get away if the goldfish wants a snack.

[SusanN]

Oh no! 14in! That's insane! I was hoping he was close to done growing! Lol.

For the cold water anytime we take the water below 70 he starts acting really funny. That started after he got whatni think was ICK. The treatment I did called for rasing the temp to 77-80 degrees.  It cured him, but he doesn't like cold water anymore.  

The plants we have are annibuis. But I was wondering about the hanging ones.  He doesn't eat the plants but he plays with them. So he keeps pulling them up. 

 

I was afraid the nitrates might be part of our problem.  Man, we struggle so bad with that. We are doing a 50% water change once a week and  25% once or twice  a week. We also clean the filter cartridges daily

 This tank filter has 2. 

Your advice is very helpful Thank you!

 

[Tony s]

On 9/13/2024 at 12:45 AM, SusanN said:

was afraid the nitrates might be part of our problem.  Man, we struggle so bad with that

Everybody does. Including me. To help with water changes, you can get what’s called a Python system. Basically hooks directly to your sink. Turn the valve, it sucks water out. Turn it the other way and it fills the tank. Be careful to use the same temperature as the tank  and always add dechlorinator  if the water changes get easier using something like the python, everything gets more enjoyable 

I wouldn’t worry too much about changing cleaning the filters. As long as they collect the gunk they’re working fine. That’s where a lot of the beneficial bacteria live so a little gunk is fine. mine looks terrible all black and full of junk when I clean it. I usually do a quick rinse using tap water. Doing it quickly this way doesn’t kill much bacteria.
 

If he doesn’t like colder water anymore, all of those tank mates will still work. He does have the potential to grow that large. But he may never get there. Cross your fingers. For the cold water thing. You might be able to get him back down there. But do it slowly. Reduce the heater over time. Sudden temperature changes can cause shock. If you can convince him he wants to live there, he becomes a bit cheaper. 
 

for the extra large cave, you can try Etsy or wayfair. Look under large aquarium cave. I saw a couple that would work. I think. Just be careful of the construction from there because you never know  

 I’m so happy you’re having a lot of fun with him. We went from the fair fish directly into tropical fish. But I think I’m going to convince my daughter she wants to try goldfish again. Such big personalities. as you’re seeing with your guy, sometimes a playful pet is worth a lot. Kinda your own water puppy 😁

[mynameisnobody]

You’re definitely going to need a much larger tank and as much pothos as you can stuff into the top. They’ll eat almost anything so you can try other plants, but it’s at your own risk. They don’t need hides, and definitely wouldn’t put any sharp plastic decor (I wouldn’t put any fake or sharp decor at all). If you have a backyard or patio, a stock tank might be your best/cheapest option. Everyone wins. 

[AtomicSunfish]

On 9/12/2024 at 11:45 PM, SusanN said:

I was afraid the nitrates might be part of our problem.  Man, we struggle so bad with that. We are doing a 50% water change once a week and  25% once or twice  a week. We also clean the filter cartridges daily.

Yep, common goldfish get really big! Good on you for getting him where you have; most fair goldfish fare much worse.

Yes, goldfish are a cold- to cool water species. As has been said, they prefer to live in groups, but if you don’t have space for more (and a 55g isn’t really big enough for a single, full-sized goldfish), there are other cool water species that are big enough to not get eaten, and not too aggressive. A dojo loach would be a good choice. Why do you think your goldfish doesn’t like cool water?

Re: filtration 

It takes about 2 months for a new aquarium to cycle, and build up mature populations of beneficial bacteria that break down fish waste (ammonia) to nitrite, and then nitrite to nitrate. Then the nitrate have to either be consumed by plants, or else removed with water changes. You don’t want to disturb the filter media, because then you lose bacteria. Only if it’s so clogged that water can’t flow through it anymore, then you’d want to rinse it out, or occasionally replace it. And even then, a nice, mature filter medium without the best flow is still better than new or cleaned media without enough bacteria.

Weekly to monthly water changes with gravel vac should be enough; I agree that adding plants like Pothos will definitely consume fertilizer (fish waste) and bring down the nitrogen levels in your tank. However, did you say you clean your filter everyday? That’s much too frequent. You shouldn’t be rinsing your filter media very often at all. Depending on what you have, it should at most be cleaned monthly, and if at all possible, never. The less you mess with it, the better. Simply put, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it; if water is flowing through the filter, then leave it alone. Otherwise, you lose beneficial bacteria every time you clean it, until you have very few left to do the actual biological filtration you need them to do.

Edited September 13 by AtomicSunfish

[Lonkley]

For a cave I would just stack rocks. You could even glue them together first to keep them stable

[Flumpweesel]

My Fair won goldfish lived well over 20 years and was by far the best fish I have ever kept. 

The largest tank it got was a long 60 US gal tank 220liters 

Tank mates are limited mainly due to temp but I had Garra Rufa and another goldfish. You can slow the rate of growth by maybe not feeding quite as much they are greedy and it is fun to feed them so that isn't that easy But it will also reduce your maintenance.  I had most success adding goldfish tank mates when I got very young fish (tiny) so they wouldn't be boisterous when introduced. 

Hiding places I used to build them out of pebbles but the thugs would destroy them so I just used a huge long that they couldn't move and fake plants.  Live plants are great but they pulled them up constantly so depending on your set up maybe consider floating.