A quick update on my latest descent into madness. 
I'll even attempt a pic.
The 21 goldies from the pond have been doing their thing in the basement tank for 4 months now, and I have come to realize that we...the fish and I...are caught in some kind of weird love/hate menage a trois.
I love the goldfish...the goldfish love the plants...forcing me to use plastic plants (ugh!)...which makes me think that the goldies hate me...a feeling which I in turn begin to reciprocate. It's confusing.
The 25 or so live goldfish fry in the other basement tank are also doing well, although only about a quarter of them are showing any golden colouration. The largest fry are now maybe 1.5 inches in length.
The 250+ fry in the freezer are nicely blended into my DIY gel cubes and are by far the least troublesome of the bunch.
So, here's the good stuff about goldfish:
They exhibit that stunning colouration that still floors me when I walk into the fishroom. They never fight with each other or anybody else. They are always alert, active and on the move. They use all areas and levels of the tank. They did great in the pond with temps in the high 70's for awhile, and are just as happy in the unheated basement tank at 55F. They seem almost cichlid-like in their apparent awareness and observation of what's going on around them. They are tame and unafraid and trust me completely...the idiots...
And now, of course, the bad stuff:
They're goldfish, so lots of people don't think they are "cool" enough to keep. I've never understood this attitude; any animal that lives in such an alien environment is pretty cool in my books. But if you care about how they make you look to other aquarists...meh...
They grow pretty fast and get pretty big, a trait they share with tons of other fish, but worth keeping in mind.
Plants grow very slowly in the cool water they prefer...but they eat the plants almost as fast in the cool temps as in the warm temps. I haven't completely given up on plants but I'm close...and I detest plastic plants.
Probably my biggest beef with them is the fact that they are so trusting, so tame and so hungry that as soon as I step into the room they are all right there at the front waiting for chow. 21 fairly good-sized goldfish swimming casually around the tank makes a very calm, relaxing and pretty picture; the same 21 fish all puppy-dogging at the front, right wherever I happen to stand, looks a little like the feeder tank at PetSmart. I don't like crowded tanks, or even tanks that look crowded. When the tank is three feet from front to back, but all the fish are going crazy in the front three inches...nope, just...nope.
I decided to try to get a tank pic; took ten minutes of sitting quietly in my armchair before the hopeful feeding frenzy dispersed. When it did, I took out my phone...uncrossed my legs and leaned forward to snap the pic...BANG! PetSmart again.
Here's the thing that caught me off guard: my tank overflows into a Rubbermaid garbage can right next to it; the first stage of mechanical filtration is a smaller bucket inside the big can, filled with a couple layers of increasingly finer Poret sponge. As the sponge clogs up, water begins to back up above it, creating a "head pressure" that forces the water through the increasingly-clogged sponge. Normally, I clean the top layer every day or two, so the backlog of water standing on top of it never occurs, but when I was away from home for three weeks at a time for work, my wife fed the fish but didn't touch the sponge. When I came home after three weeks the water was always backed up right up to the top of small bucket, and occasionally even overflowing it and bypassing the sponge altogether. That was with a community of Geos, Goodeids, Garras, Barbs, Catfish, etc., kept at temperatures around 70F and well fed; live plants too.
With the goldies, I left the primary sponge untouched to see how long it would take to clog and overflow. Holy crap! By day 5, the water was backed up right to the top of the bucket; on day 6 it began to overflow and bypass the mech filter. This is with the tank around 15F degrees cooler, and a commensurately lower level of feeding. I "knew" this the same way we "know" lots of things, i.e. by hearing other people say it...but now, I know from actual personal experience: goldfish are absolute pigs.
Tried to get a full-tank pic, now that I've sorta figured out the mysteries of cropping out all the extraneous junk in my fishroom:
Once again, I apologize...I detest plastic plants...but at the moment it's my only option.
I'll even attempt a pic.The 21 goldies from the pond have been doing their thing in the basement tank for 4 months now, and I have come to realize that we...the fish and I...are caught in some kind of weird love/hate menage a trois.
I love the goldfish...the goldfish love the plants...forcing me to use plastic plants (ugh!)...which makes me think that the goldies hate me...a feeling which I in turn begin to reciprocate. It's confusing.
The 25 or so live goldfish fry in the other basement tank are also doing well, although only about a quarter of them are showing any golden colouration. The largest fry are now maybe 1.5 inches in length.
The 250+ fry in the freezer are nicely blended into my DIY gel cubes and are by far the least troublesome of the bunch.
So, here's the good stuff about goldfish:
They exhibit that stunning colouration that still floors me when I walk into the fishroom. They never fight with each other or anybody else. They are always alert, active and on the move. They use all areas and levels of the tank. They did great in the pond with temps in the high 70's for awhile, and are just as happy in the unheated basement tank at 55F. They seem almost cichlid-like in their apparent awareness and observation of what's going on around them. They are tame and unafraid and trust me completely...the idiots...
And now, of course, the bad stuff:
They're goldfish, so lots of people don't think they are "cool" enough to keep. I've never understood this attitude; any animal that lives in such an alien environment is pretty cool in my books. But if you care about how they make you look to other aquarists...meh...
They grow pretty fast and get pretty big, a trait they share with tons of other fish, but worth keeping in mind.
Plants grow very slowly in the cool water they prefer...but they eat the plants almost as fast in the cool temps as in the warm temps. I haven't completely given up on plants but I'm close...and I detest plastic plants.
Probably my biggest beef with them is the fact that they are so trusting, so tame and so hungry that as soon as I step into the room they are all right there at the front waiting for chow. 21 fairly good-sized goldfish swimming casually around the tank makes a very calm, relaxing and pretty picture; the same 21 fish all puppy-dogging at the front, right wherever I happen to stand, looks a little like the feeder tank at PetSmart. I don't like crowded tanks, or even tanks that look crowded. When the tank is three feet from front to back, but all the fish are going crazy in the front three inches...nope, just...nope.
I decided to try to get a tank pic; took ten minutes of sitting quietly in my armchair before the hopeful feeding frenzy dispersed. When it did, I took out my phone...uncrossed my legs and leaned forward to snap the pic...BANG! PetSmart again.
Here's the thing that caught me off guard: my tank overflows into a Rubbermaid garbage can right next to it; the first stage of mechanical filtration is a smaller bucket inside the big can, filled with a couple layers of increasingly finer Poret sponge. As the sponge clogs up, water begins to back up above it, creating a "head pressure" that forces the water through the increasingly-clogged sponge. Normally, I clean the top layer every day or two, so the backlog of water standing on top of it never occurs, but when I was away from home for three weeks at a time for work, my wife fed the fish but didn't touch the sponge. When I came home after three weeks the water was always backed up right up to the top of small bucket, and occasionally even overflowing it and bypassing the sponge altogether. That was with a community of Geos, Goodeids, Garras, Barbs, Catfish, etc., kept at temperatures around 70F and well fed; live plants too.
With the goldies, I left the primary sponge untouched to see how long it would take to clog and overflow. Holy crap! By day 5, the water was backed up right to the top of the bucket; on day 6 it began to overflow and bypass the mech filter. This is with the tank around 15F degrees cooler, and a commensurately lower level of feeding. I "knew" this the same way we "know" lots of things, i.e. by hearing other people say it...but now, I know from actual personal experience: goldfish are absolute pigs.
Tried to get a full-tank pic, now that I've sorta figured out the mysteries of cropping out all the extraneous junk in my fishroom:
Once again, I apologize...I detest plastic plants...but at the moment it's my only option.
