goldfish tank mates

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kdrun76

Piranha
MFK Member
Mar 4, 2009
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CT
I am pondering putting some friends in to my gold fish tank.

Tank is 70 gallons, been running for 3 years. It sits on an insulated but unheated porch right now, but will probably move into the house and stay in the house shortly. On the coldest nights of winter I get a skim coat of ice on the surface that melts during the day, so it does get cold in the winter.

I have 1 black moore, 1 fantail and 1 shebunkin. The shebunkin is severely stunted from living 6 years in a 20 gallon heated tank at my in-laws house. All three are about 2.5 inches SL (no fins).

I am thinking of adding a school of white cloud minnows (10ish) and a trio of hill stream loach. Anyone think that might be a bad idea?

The loaches require fast water which could give me troubles with the goldies, but I have had 2 power heads sitting on the bottom of that tank now for 2 of the 3 years with no obvious issues. White clouds are pretty small, anyone think the goldfish might eat them?
 
anyone?
 
if you upgrade tanksize try a chinese topsail. the other tankmates you've got listed should be fine.
 
Goldfish are capable of eating white clouds. Whether or not they do seems to depend on the personality of the individual goldfish. Hillstreams are better suited to a dedicated tank.

Larger minnows such as rosy reds, fathead minnows, or golden shiners would be better choices. All are available from petshops or bait stores, but be sure to quarantine first.

There are various other NA natives that work well with goldfish, but I don't know what the regs are on them in CT. I have kept large goldfish with sunfish, bullheads, pickerel (not recommended), even turtles. However, you would eventually need a bigger tank if you wanted other large fish with your three goldies.
 
Hillstreams should be fine. So should white clouds, but like Noto said, there's a possibility that the goldfish may try to eat them.

Also, the 'fancy' goldfish varieties are poor swimmers and ill suited to being kept with other fast swimming fish. Your goldfish should be fine, but if you plan on keeping the fancier goldies, make sure the fish you decide to keep with them aren't fin nippers and that you can keep them fed.
 
i think the white clouds will work out fine, and looks good too, in a large school of small fish in contrast to the larger goldfish
 
Noto is right. I would never consider hillstream loaches as one of the few tankmates possible for goldfish, whether singletail or fancy. If you insist keeping loaches, then switch to dojo loaches and spare the hillies their own dedicated tank to provide them the best conditions possible IMO. Fancies are intolerant to fast flowing waters so it obviously is not an option when you compromise it for the hillies' sake.
 
Weather loaches (dojos) will work out for this set with three goldfish, try the golden type ones. You can mix Red Rosy, WWCM, fatheads, redbellied daces, zebra danios and bitterlings with the goldfish. Avoid gambusia which can sometimes mixed in the red rosies tank.
 
The responses on here add up to 2 votes in each direction for the hillstream loachs and 3:1 in favor of the white clouds.

I have no interest in Dojo loaches, a lack of loaches doesn't bother me. I am just thinking of ways to add some personality to the tank. Its going to get moved to my kitchen in another moth or so, so its time to put anyone new I want added into QT.

I think I will try the white clouds, how many? 15?
 
You can do 20 or more WWCM. Maybe you can do both gold, longfin and standard types? Maybe 5 or 6 red rosies to just add excitement to your tank.
 
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