A couple of questions for a new member

L

laser33

New Fish
#1
Apr 7, 2013
5
0
0
New Braunfels, TX
#1
Hello everyone, for asked my questions let me just say hi and thanks for your help before hand.

Do goldfish thrive being the only goldfish in a tank with other Coldwater fishes or do they need to be in pairs such as two black moors or possibly one black moor goldfish and one red bubble eye goldfish.

I am looking into buying a 55 gallon aquarium and this will be my first aquarium, so I was looking for some hardy beginner fish. I was originally planning two black moor goldfish and two red bubble eye goldfish and about six Cory cats. I found an online aquarium stocking calculator tool at aqadvisor.com which told me that I would have over stocked my aquarium by 26% so I have to either go to a larger tank or cut down on the goldfish so I guess my main question is if I did one black moor goldfish and one red bubble eye goldfish will they thrive or be lonely causing health issues down the road.

I have done Google searches and look at other forums but most just talk about goldfish being social by interacting with us or other fish and not if they need to be paired with their own species.

Thanks again,

Kevin
 

exhumed07

exhumed07

Superstar Fish
#2
Apr 30, 2006
1,774
0
36
Illinois
#2
as for goldfish being social i'm not sure if they will be stressed being alone. most people on here including myself will warn against goldfish in general. typical rule of thumb is 20 gallons for one goldfish and an additional 10 gallons for every subsiquent goldfish. and for tropical fish generally it's one inch of fish per gallon. so say 30 guppies should be in a 30 gallon tank and so forth. some of the rules are based on bioload such as the case for the gold fish. they are very dirty fish. they produce alot of ammonia and other waste products which quickly fowl the water. another reason for the rule is space. i'm sure u would not want to live in your bedroom for the rest of your life. u want to move around and have space. same with fish. allow them space to run away if picked on, allow them space to be able to swim. it's jsut as unhealthy for a fish to just sit in one place and not move as it is for us. thats my thought on the goldfish thing. personally i would suggest african cichlids or a standard tropical tank with neons and rasboras and the like.

BUT the first thing you should do is read up on the nitrogen cycle and decide to do a fish in or a fishless cycle. that is by far the first and most important step when starting a tank. alot of times people are new and know nothing of it and have fish die because they don't know about it and get discouraged. once a cycle is complete a fish tank is smooth sailing after that and only gets as complicated as you want it to be.
 

exhumed07

exhumed07

Superstar Fish
#5
Apr 30, 2006
1,774
0
36
Illinois
#5
there are some cory cats that can tolerate colder water. it's best to keep them warm though. alot of times u can induce spawning cory cats by lowering the temp.
 

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