OK to put tiny goldfish in with 1 four-inch one?

I have had larger GF go after smaller ones. GF are quite predatory. If they arent
GF then the likelihood is that the small ones will be lunch.
10 gallons per GF, 20 gallon smallest due to GF sensitive to rapid temp changes. 5
gf of same size in a 50 is good. HOWEVER, I am now a believer in the "closed
aquarium (or pond)" concept, meaning never ever add new fish to an existing tank or
pond because inevitably fish are going to pick up something from each other, get
sick, and die. Now if all 5 fish came from same pet store within 6 months and the
newer ones were quarantined for a couple weeks before putting them in, well fine.

I have had the same 22 koi in my pond for years now, no new additions and there wont
be a new addition either. people who get new fish, even those who quarantine their
new fish for a month or so always seem to end up with dead and dying fish. the
longer you have a fish that is HEALTHY, I think their immunity to cooties just drops
away until they are quite susceptible to all kinds of disease.

So get that 1 goldfish a 20 gallon+ tank all for itself (long fins need more water
anyway) and that one GF will be much friendlier to people. Ingrid


wrote:

Hi:
My uncle just gave me 2 small aquariums. The first has a single
3-4 inch (body length only) goldfish in it that has always been alone.
(At least 1 year old.) Its just a plain orange one, with very long
tail fins.
The second has two very small goldfish, each about 1/2 to 3/4
inch long (body length only.) I'm not sure how old they are. They
look like they are a different species of goldfish. Just a little
orange, with small fins.

I would like to buy one large 50 gallon aquarium and put all 3 of
them together.
My question is, is the big goldfish apt to go after/attack/kill
the two small fish? Like I said, he/she has always been alone, and is
much bigger than the 2 small ones.

If I can't keep them together, I was thinking about getting another
3-4 inch goldfish to put in with the big one.
But again, my question would be, would the current fish attack
the new one, even though it was about the same size?

I know very little about goldfish, but I've learned a lot in the
past 3-4 days about the care and feeding.
What I don't know about is the social patterns of goldfish,
especially one that has always been alone most/all of its life.

Thanks a lot.
Dave



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On Sat, 03 Mar 2007 15:45:51 GMT, wrote:

I have had larger GF go after smaller ones. GF are quite predatory. If they arent
GF then the likelihood is that the small ones will be lunch.
10 gallons per GF, 20 gallon smallest due to GF sensitive to rapid temp changes. 5
gf of same size in a 50 is good. HOWEVER, I am now a believer in the "closed
aquarium (or pond)" concept, meaning never ever add new fish to an existing tank or
pond because inevitably fish are going to pick up something from each other, get
sick, and die. Now if all 5 fish came from same pet store within 6 months and the
newer ones were quarantined for a couple weeks before putting them in, well fine.

I have had the same 22 koi in my pond for years now, no new additions and there wont
be a new addition either. people who get new fish, even those who quarantine their
new fish for a month or so always seem to end up with dead and dying fish. the
longer you have a fish that is HEALTHY, I think their immunity to cooties just drops
away until they are quite susceptible to all kinds of disease.

So get that 1 goldfish a 20 gallon+ tank all for itself (long fins need more water
anyway) and that one GF will be much friendlier to people. Ingrid

Crossed this over into rec.ponds, good discussion, in regards to not adding
new fish. the koi pond.

We've had this discussion at meetings, had speakers come, etc. And the
points I've gotten from the meeting is either do like you're doing, don't
add, or swap out after long quarantine times, thus keeping the immunity up
to new things in the older fish. I've been doing the later as I'm trying to
get more variety of color. Once I get to that point, I'll stop. ~ jan