Goldfish

[puddin]

I have the prime. I lost the purple guppy to drospy. Its had it for a couple of weeks now. I was dumb and didn't recoginzed it.
I went to a garage sale and got 2 boxes of fish stuff (after sorting I have one box now) and 3 aquariums. One is a 5 gallon and the other 2 are 10 gallon. One is cracked. I didn't see it when I buy it. Got it all for $17. I got a betta for the 5 gallon! Give me a couple of days and I'll have a picture of him. He's mostly white. I was told these things are VERY hardy. The man who helped me said you have to really work hard to kill one of them. That's a fish I need. I don't know what I'm going to do with the 10 gallon tank that I have.
Well, keep you updated!

[puddin]

Sorry I haven't posted in several weeks. Been to busy.
OK, I have a problem. The molly that I have is being picked on by the guppies. The swordfish isn't doing it. If anything it looks like he is trying to protect her. I believe it's a her. The molly's fins are different from all of the other fish in my tank. I put her in a breeding tank last night so they couldn't get to her. I put her back in this morning and watched; they are at it again. They don't bite her or anything, they just chase her. What do I need to do? They have been together for 2 weeks now and she's bigger than some of them. I hate to have to start up another tank. I will have to find room and everything all over again. Not to mention the money. Everything was going great until this.
Thanks!

[camille1585]

Hi Puddin,
I had the same problem back when I had my first tank about 10-12 years ago. I had a 10 gallon tank with 3 male guppies, a female black molly and another fish (can't remember...possibly a catfish of some sort) The guppies would chase the molly. A friend who was a fish freak told me that it was possible that they were chasing her because they wanted to mate (apparently they do, even though it's 2 different species) I installed some really tall bushy plants in the tank for the molly to hide. Unfortunately I can't tell you what happened after that. It's too long ago, and I was only in 5th or 6th grade!!

Since 1999 I have a 29 gallon tropical tank with a group of lemon tetras (unkillable and very long lived) and a clown loach (I know it's too big for the tank, but the petshop who sold it to us knew nothing about them , and neither did I )

[puddin]

That's what it looked like to me. When the swordfish started to chase her, I put her in a makeshift tank. I was afraid they would chase her to death, and I hated watching them chase her. I have some bushy plants, but they would find her anyway. I'm luck I have extra stuff to put her in. I'm going to take a 10 gallon and put her in it. Maybe sometime later I will get another female molly to keep her company.

[sunhair]

Gold fish can grow huge and I've seen so many people run and out and get goldies and be misinformed on the proper set up at petstores just so the clerk can make a sale. I've had all types from Lionhead,Oranda,Pearl Scales,Ranchu they need lots of room a 10 ga won't cut it for them as they can get really big.

Saltwater is very expensive and very time consuming totally different ball game with reef tanks you have to make sure everything is pristine and that the tank is properly set up everything from curing your rock and sand to making sure there aren't any nasty type of critters in your live rock such as a mantis shrimp that can really do some damage to your tank, and its inhabitants. Making sure the levels are right to selecting the right types of fish and corals as each type of coral require different types of lighting and feeding and current. R/O system etc. Different types of reef fish can also consume your corals I could go on and on totally different animal to freshwater.

[Paul]

Originally Posted by sunhair

Gold fish can grow huge and I've seen so many people run and out and get goldies and be misinformed on the proper set up at petstores just so the clerk can make a sale.

A lot of times, it has to do with ignorance -- not with trying to get a sale.

The moronic myth that fish and reptiles only grow to a certain size based on the size of their tank is a load of rubbish that continues to persist. I have even run into snake breeders who insist this is true. Really have to fight the urge to smack them when they spout such idiotic nonsense.

A well cared for animal is going to reach its natural genetically determined potential size -- period. Forcing an animal to remain in a tank that is too small for it is both irresponsible on the owners part and unhealthy for the animal.