Anyone know anything about goldfish?

yes, i am just the same, i have to buy all the prettiest plants and rocks, but they are ALOT cheeper at smaller pet stores, i got 9 plants all for just £5 (i dont know what that is in your money) but that is really cheap, also, you will find the rocks are alot cheaper, you will be surprised what nice things you can find at the smaller pet stores.
i think mine is a 55 gallon, but ill let you know for sure later when bf comes home

Well then that settles it. I am going to wait until the weekend and drag my bf along shopping at a smaller fish store for new rocks and plants. I think I need more gravel too, actually I know I need more gravel. It's $13.00 for a 25-lb bag at Petsmart so hopefully I can find a deal on that too

yes you should be able to, also, just thought id let you know, another good fish you may want to consider buying is a "coolie loach" they look like mini eals, and are so funny to watch, they wont get bullied buy other fish, and are really pleasant to keep

Never heard of them...I am writing the name down. I do want to add something else, those sound perfect. Thanks for all of your help I can't wait to shop now this weekend!

also i forgot to ask before, have your cichlids shown any sign of breeding yet? ive had mine now for ages and there is no sign i want them to have babies

Hmmmm, no signs. I just got them 2 weekends ago. But from what I hear these fish have moved from family to family when someone has moved in my apartment complex they have passed them on to a friend and so forth. We are actually the 4th people to have owned them. (I personally would not give my fish away when moving, so they will be with us permanently). I need to read up on cichlids, as I don't know much about them and wouldn't know how to tell if they were breeding. I was planning on checking into it more this weekend, the last 2 weeks have been hectic with finals and a new class starting, oh and then there's work... what I am supposed to be doing now

yep i know the feelin, when i find out more info i post it here.

Sounds great thank you again for all the help!

i just got a pikky of a "khuli loach" i spelt it wrong before
u can get them in other colours than this aswell

LOL! When I first scrolled down to read your post (the screen was loading) I just saw part of the picture and it looked like you were posting a snake.... it does look neat though. Do they come in bright colors?

yer they come in all different colours, mine are 2 black ones, and 1 the same colour as the one in the picture, but i dont know all the colours they come in, ill have a scoop round and try and find out

All single-tailed varieties of goldfish will, if properly cared for, live at least 20 years and grow to about 10 - 12 inches in length. If you keep them in too small a container, their growth will be stunted. I'd never use any bowls for 3 reasons:

1) inadequate surface area (particularly in the standard shapes)--at worst, they'll suffocate to death, at best, they'll be stressed and uncomfortable
2) not enough space for swimming or for adequate filtration, plants, etc
3) distortion of light--the curved surface makes the fish confused and unhappy

The algae eater is a pleco? How large? When plecos grow to about a foot or so, cichlids usually ignore them. Some plecos grow to several feet, but hopefully yours isn't one of those species Watch out, because cichlids will even pick on or eat loaches and other bottom-dwellers. Plecos are good because they are armored well and grow large. And khulis are usually patterned a yellowish lighter color and a blackish darker color.

About how many inches are the cichlids, measured from the nose to the base of their tail? There are many different types of cichlids, but the African lake cichlids that are usually kept together are very aggressive. It's recommended that you either keep them separately or get a large tank and stock it with several different individuals, which will keep them all going at each other, rather than a bully or two constantly picking on a single target. If necessary, you might want to get a tank divider, which will keep the larger cichlid from attacking other fishes.

And remember that to give fishes enough oxygen, the smallest freshwater tropical fish (up to 2 inches) will need 24 square inches of surface area per inch of body length; the smallest coldwater fish will need 48 square inches of surface area per inch of body length; and the larger the fish, the more surface area they need (ie one 10" fish will need much more surface area than five 2" fish or ten 1" fish).

my algae eater is a pleco, but only babies, i have two of these, they are dark brown/black, and the cichlids leave them alone.i know that the plecs grow huge i ant wait till theyre bigger, but i know this takes years.
As for the cichlids, im not exactly sure what type they are, but ill find out. My tank is really big as it is a 4ft, so theyres loads of hiding spaces for them the cichlids leave the loaches alone, as i have rocks, they tend to just hide out there most of the time

this is really weird, because my khulis have been really healthy since i got them, but last night one died..... RIP squidgy, i dont know what was wrong with him

We have a koi that's 1 foot, a plecos that's slightly shorter, and a goldfish that's about 6 inches long. It's a huge tank (God help us when we have to move). We keep Chinese algae eaters, albino sharks (catfish), bloodfins, and goldfish in our smaller tank too. If anyone grows big enough they get to go in the big tank.

i also have 2 of the albino cat-fish, they are only very small at the moment though

Originally Posted by cazx01

this is really weird, because my khulis have been really healthy since i got them, but last night one died..... RIP squidgy, i dont know what was wrong with him

Click to expand...

Awww sorry to hear that Tell you what, I needed a name for my fish so I will name one Squidgy in honor of your fishy. (I liked the name )

As far as my goldfish goes, he seems to be doing better this morning. He is controlling his swimming instead of just floating up to the top upside down. Hopefully he will continue to improve

As far as the cichlids go, one of them is approx. 6 inches long, the other one a bit smaller. The algae eater is larger than the cichlid, I would guess about 7 inches. They all 3 live in a 55 gallon tank.

awwwww thankyou, im sure squidgy will be honoured
im glad the goldfish is ok now, wonder what was wrong with him

Something with his swim bladder He has only been eating the peas and they helped.

Thanks for the links to www.goldfish-care.com It is intended for total newbies and really only covers the basic of goldfish care. Like Mary Anne said, there are some useful links there if you want to keep exploring.

Sorry about Squidgy Funny how you can get attached to the little ones... We lost a goldfish last week - Frodo our ring bearer RIP. Sam, Merry and Pippin are swimming happily in the tank though, so I guess there was something specially wrong with Frodo as it didn't effect the other fish. We have done 20% water changes every two days since he dies though - just to make sure.

Just a note about gravel - you don't need a lot of gravel in a goldfish tank. In fact you don't need any - it's purely decorative.