lilstar
Fry
The bettas: Fighter, Splendrick, & Rupert 2
Posts: 53
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Post by lilstar on Aug 8, 2003 7:04:25 GMT -5
Just last night I was at a little mini party in one of my coworker's rooms, and I noticed that she had 2 bettas and 1 goldfish. Her bettas were in a container that I originally had my first betta in, which is slightly smaller than a gallon, with a filter and without much decoration.
Her goldfish was in a glass bowl, I'm guessing around a gallon, with no filter and also not much decoration. It was really cute though (a calico), and I was thinking that if a goldfish could be kept in a smaller bowl without filtration, like a betta, I would maybe like to get one. I would give it a bigger bowl than a gallon, though, and wouldn't mind changing the water frequently.
But I didn't want to assume that this was the proper way to keep a goldfish, and was wondering if anyone at this site had any input on that?
Thanks!
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lilstar
Fry
The bettas: Fighter, Splendrick, & Rupert 2
Posts: 53
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Post by lilstar on Aug 8, 2003 7:23:24 GMT -5
I just looked at some goldfish care sites and it looks like a bowl is not the ideal home for a goldfish, and they also need filtration.
Guppies looked like another possibility, but I'm not sure of that either. The thing is, it's hard for me to keep a large tank with a filter and everything, since I'm living at school and will need to move back and forth fairly often. That's one of the reasons I like bettas so much - mine are kept in 3 gallon bowls with no filter and frequent water changes.
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ana
Egg
Posts: 2
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Post by ana on Aug 8, 2003 7:59:21 GMT -5
goldfish need filtration, i believe that guppies do too
as far as i know, bettas are the only fish who dont require it
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Post by bettabrat on Aug 8, 2003 11:57:47 GMT -5
Good for you for checking around for info before getting another type of fish. I have goldfish, and I can tell you the first rule is 1 goldfish per 10 gallons! I've probably said this before on this board, but... the average life of a goldfish is 10 years, the oldest documented one lived 43!! They can easily grow to 8+ inches! Those that are kept in a bowl will usually die within a year. Some people will think they lived a healthy long life at a year! They are very messy fish (little piggies, really), producing a lot of waste and fouling their water quickly. They must be kept with a filter. I'm not sure about mollies or other small tropicals. But I believe that the betta is the only fish that can truely live happily in a bowl, because of the labyrinth and because of its origins. I am a goldfish lover, and I would urge you to try to talk your friend into getting more information on how to properly keep her goldfish. If you're interested, the best place that I've found for solid information on gf is goldfishparadise.com Good luck! Edited: There is a 'flyer' that you can print out from the home page of that site. You could give it to your friend...
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Post by Doofusmom on Aug 11, 2003 4:08:10 GMT -5
If you are looking for a fish that doesn't require a large aquarium you could try zebra danios I have had 3 in my Eclipse Explorer 2 gallon for about 2 years and they are still going strong...They are very adaptable and they don't need a heater in their aquarium just like goldfish. Goldfish are very high waste poroducers. Not good for a aquarium without a filter. And they get BIG!
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Post by *~labxing790~* on Aug 17, 2003 12:13:32 GMT -5
umm.. goldies don't need a heater. In fact, they are cold water fish. Also, I saw the post about Zebra Danios. I have the same aquarium, but I also have a Betta in there. Would these fish get along, and would that be overcrowding?
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Post by RainbowBetta on Sept 21, 2003 4:10:42 GMT -5
There are other types of labyrinth fish than just bettas, any of these would be ok without a filter. You would just need to keep the water clean with periodic changes, just like bettas. What readily comes to mind are gouramis. They are labyrinth breathers just like bettas. They normally could get bigger than you want, but a dwarf guarami (just about any pet store I have seen has had a few) would stay around the 1-2 inch range.
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Post by mickey85 on Sept 21, 2003 15:35:34 GMT -5
Goldfish are very easy to care for. WE've had 2 for 7 years or so now and they don't care what their conditions are like. We usually clean out their 20 gallon hex tank 2 or 3 times a year. It's kinda funny actually, we had a bunch of fancy pet store fish and tehy all died, so my dad got sick and tired of buying these $10 fish that were gonna die, so he went to the bait shop and got 2 $25 cent goldfish and they are the best fish we've ever had. They're easily the oldest and they're about 4 inches long now.
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Post by mickey on Sept 27, 2003 6:24:28 GMT -5
gold fish can live without a filter yes but they have to have a rather large area per goldfish .... back when i lived in houston the main downtown park had them in a very large pond and they got to over 18" and these were plain gold fish not koi ..... they are a carp and can get very large ...i have had and also seen many "feeder goldfish" that got over a foot long in 55 gallon tanks ..... ... as far as gourimi they are as are bettas tropical fish and really need water temps in the 70-80's so unless you keep the house in that range plus 2-3 degrees then i wouldnt keep them in a "bowl" either .... really ALL fish need larger tanks than a gallon or so .... my sugestion if you want to keep fish in a small area then id go to walmart and get a 2 gallon or bigger tank and heater and get something like either bettas or tetras(neons) and use a filter if not bettas...... for bettas if its an undergravel filter or large water changes every 3 days would be ok ....for goldies id only have 1-2 in a 2-5 gallon with plans to move them in a year at most and always with goldies have a filter they are "nasty fish " that produce lots of waste ... a live plant would also help alot with goldies and plan of replaceing the plants regulary as the goldfish will eat them .... this is only a suggestion as i have kept alot of fish types and tho the goldies dont need heat they still need fresh clean water of very good filtering .... MIckey
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Post by mickey on Sept 27, 2003 6:30:03 GMT -5
forgot some replies here ..... ALL FISH CARE ABOUT THEIR CONDITIONS goldies can tolerate bad conditions longer as their motabolisum isnt the same as bettas but in bad water they wont live ...i am not saying that the conditions that Mickey85 keeps theirs in is bad ... mater of fact if they stayed alive that long then the conditions were really good compared to others i have seen .... they still need good water no matter what .... as far as the danios ... they are a tropical fish and need the watermer water tho not as high as most tropicals from what i ahve read .... they will live in cooler water ...( 60 -80F) but really do better in the 70-75 range ... this is just my experaence with these fish to me there is a difference between liveing and being happy and in 60F and - water they dont do to good they live but not really happy .... Mickey
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Post by mickey85 on Oct 1, 2003 23:46:21 GMT -5
The tank is cycled and the water is filtered well (2 charcoal undergravel filters, and 1 Penguin power filter). All of the filters are changed religiously, they aren't overfed, any algae is quickly removed and all in all, they're very well cared for. I dare say my dad cares more for those fish than for me, but that's a bit of exaggeration. You see what I'm meaning. It's a very clean tank (well, for having goldfish)
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lilstar
Fry
The bettas: Fighter, Splendrick, & Rupert 2
Posts: 53
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Post by lilstar on Oct 2, 2003 21:28:57 GMT -5
I just looked at some websites about the dwarf gouramis, and I saw that they are best kept in pairs or threes, with one male. What I don't understand is- how can you keep males and females together without ending up with fishy little babies?
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Post by mickey on Oct 5, 2003 2:23:46 GMT -5
sorry Mickey i wasnt saying that yours were not being tanken care of ... matter of fact i even said that they ahd to be taken care of weel to live that long ...i have jsut seen other take and plop a goldie in a gallon bowl and just change the water when it gets cloudy ... the poor fish dont live well in that kind of conditions ..... and i agree back when i had pirrina i had to buy feeder goldfish and (i know feeding one fish to another is frowned on) anyway when i gave the pirrina away (no big tanks at the time ) i had 4 of the feeders left and i had them for 4 years afterwards ... then i finally hound someone that wanted them and would take care of them and gave them away ... they are still alive with the new person and that was 5 years ago so they are atleast 9 years old now ....lol oh and they are about 12" long and fat as heck ....lol Mickey
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Post by RainbowBetta on Oct 5, 2003 5:59:13 GMT -5
I certainly don't frown on feeding fish to other fish. If you have a carnivorous fish, there are things you have to do.
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Post by mickey85 on Oct 5, 2003 11:57:15 GMT -5
I understand mickey, I was simply saying in my first post that, while their conditions are good, they sure as heck aren't as good as my bettas that get a new tankful of water weekly (and george every other day at this point).
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