Giant danios are also acceptable, but not for the poor swimming fancy goldfish varieties.

You should pair your goldfish only with medium-sized, placid, cold water tankmates such as rosy barb, platys and zebra danio. Other factors you will need to consider is the goldfish’s tendency to attempt to swallow whatever fits in its mouth and their need for lower temperatures. Fancy varieties can easily become stressed when paired with fast-moving, boisterous fish, and should not be paired with the standard goldfish varieties like the comet and wakin goldfish. Firstly, goldfish (particularly the fancy varieties) are incapable of defending themselves and are highly susceptible to bullying, fin-nipping behaviours. However, finding a suitable tankmate can be quite difficult for several reasons. They are a great community fish that will get along well with their own kind and rarely cause a problem for suitable tankmates. They are known to interact with their owners and have been shown to retain learned behaviours for up to three months. Goldfish are a placid, confident fish and are (despite common belief) actually quite intelligent. They prefer slow-moving freshwater in cooler climates but can tolerate even muddy low oxygen waters. Originally hailing from East Asia, goldfish are now found all over Asia, Europe and North America, where they are considered an invasive pest species. If you treat your fish pet with the same basic care an aquarist would for any other fish, you should enjoy many years of companionship with these stunning and surprisingly intelligent fish. They are a low maintenance fish, but this does of course not mean ‘no maintenance’. They are a very hardy fish that can tolerate the kind of mistakes one could expect from a novice, but this hardiness has likely led to the belief that they naturally have very short lifespans, as they may show few signs of stress until conditions become deadly. Usually believed to require only a small bowl and expected to live for a year or two, goldfish are actually very large fish that can live for decades if properly cared for. For simplicity’s sake, Goldfish may be divided into the ‘standard’ and ‘fancy’ varieties, with both potentially reaching 20-30 cm in length (8-12”) and living up to 20 years if properly cared for.Īlthough they are one of the most popular fish in the aquarist’s trade, goldfish are sadly often mistreated by those that simply don’t understand the aquarist hobby.

Butterfly telescope goldfish max size