Is bigger better?

A recent question I felt was useful to share:

Question:

Hello! I'm looking into getting a biOrb and have found your blog very helpful! I was curious, do you think bigger is better? We are looking into getting the 16gal. biOrb (as we have restrictions, and can't go much wider or bigger, gallon size, in the place we're currently living in -gotta love landlords-). Just curious on your views. Also, for growing plants in the biOrb, do you need a different type of light? Or is the light that it comes with efficient enough to grow plants?

Thank you!


Answer:

Hi there, I've decided I will go with a Biorb 60 as my poor fishes have very much outgrown the 30.... and the B60 is easier to clean than a proper tank. If you are keeping goldfish though the B60 would only take about 2 max (Ideally you should keep only 1 goldfish in a B30). A bigger tank will mean that there's more water, so there's less risk of spikes in temperature / nitrates etc. Though the number of fish you can keep in a tank is ultimately determined by the water surface area (and hence more oxygen), more water does tend to relate to more oxygen being available to the fish.

The light that the Biorb comes with is not sufficient to grow plants well. The plants will survive a while but after a few weeks/months will start becoming yellow / stunted. OK though, if you plan to replace the plants every couple of months.

A goldfish haiku

Plump goldfish
mate in the spring sun -
A heron watches.

More pics...

These pictures don't show the scale of the fish. They are huge. Would love to have these in my pond if I had one!

Pictures from Hayling Island Goldfish show

A bit belated :) but I've finally downloaded my pics off my camera. These jikins and tosakins are amazing. There are even breeders here in the UK but they're not cheap. About £10 for a tiny baby the size of your thumb print. My objective is to get some once I ever get round to buying a large tank and giving up my biorb.










This orange fantail caught my eye - love the colouring and shape.

And this silvery moor.

A friendly jikin.















And a panda....

Some forthcoming goldfish shows to go to...

29^th September 2007 GSGB Open Show and Auction Sale

@ St. Paul’s Church Hall, Chigwell Road, Woodford Bridge, Essex Woodford Bridge

The largest Goldfish Show in the UK and, with 59 different classes for Goldfish varieties, the most comprehensive competitive Goldfish Show in the World! Hundreds of pounds worth of aquatic prizes, provided by our sponsors: Chiltern Aquatics and Aquarian. Refreshments will be available throughout the afternoon. NB The Auction Sale is a closed auction, that is only paid-up Members of the GSGB may buy and/or sell Goldfish.

Saturday, 13^th and Sunday 14^th October 2007

The Festival of Fishkeeping @ Hayling Island, Hampshire.

Hayling Update

The ‘Festival’ is an aquarists’ extravaganza with competitions, competitive shows, exhibitions and trade stalls covering interests such as Goldfish, Koi, freshwater and marine tropical, Discus, catfish, reptiles and amphibians. There is a programme of presentations and talks throughout the weekend The Festival is open to both residents and day visitors.

Saturday, 13^th October – GSGB Open Show @ The Festival of Fishkeeping

Sunday, 14th October – GSGB Exhibition of Goldfish varieties

GSGB - Goldfish Society of Great Britain. Non-members may attend the shows to view the goldfish but not buy/sell.

Thinking of getting a larger home for my fishies

I've been toying with the idea of getting a larger aquarium now for nearly a year. It's way overdue at any rate. And what with my 2 house moves this past 12 months, we haven't been able to upgrade. Now that we're in our larger house, the fishies deserve a large space too! A Biorb 30 is far too small for my fishies now. The question is whether I should upgrade to a Biorb 60 and stick with the same procedures or go the whole hog and choose a really large one - the Juwel Vision range comes to mind and are very tempting. Having to change all that water for a Juwel Vision 260 is a bit daunting, plus there's the question of where to put it. At the moment, my Biorb 30 is in an ideal position far away from windows and drafts, while still getting some sunlight in the mornings and evenings. But with the Juwel, I can get more fish!

Then there's the Biorb 60, it's supposedly twice the size of the Biorb 30 but it isn't really. The number of fish can can be contained in an aquarium is determined not only by the size of the aquarium but also the surface area of the water. In a Biorb 60 or 30 by the time you fill it with water there's not much difference in the surface area, and what's more the filter system is identical - that means more water so the flow rate of the aquarium is effectively halved!

Considering that for thousands of years people managed to keep goldfish in just urns and ceramic bowls, maybe I'll stick with the Biorb 30 a bit longer while I think about it a bit more and just be more diligent in my water changes...!

What's the deal with gravel cleaners?

The ones in the shops cost a fortune - sometimes £16 or more - for something that is just essentially a plastic tube.

Here's how to make your own, and with whatever length hose you want.

Take a plastic bottle and cut it in half, or just a little bit closer to the mouth end (so slightly less than half).


Cut a length of garden hose to a desired length. Use duct tape and tape the bottle to the hose, and tape the cut end of the bottle. Taping the cut end of the bottle is so that the sharp edges don't hurt the fish when you use the wider end to clean out the gravel.

If you want to, you can buy a pump to start off the pumping process. This is available from any large fish shop.

This pump is not strictly necessary - this rubber one I got cost about £3. You could just get around it by filling the hose with water then closing off both ends. When you bring the gravel cleaner to the Biorb put the bottle end in the Biorb (this needs to be higher), and the other end in a bucket (this needs to be lower), and the water should automatically start flowing out of the Biorb into the bucket.

If you had the pump, you won't need to play around with filling the hose with water so it just makes it a bit more convenient.

Here we go, the finished product....

....and should you switch to a larger aquarium in future or need a longer hose, you just cut a longer piece of hose and attach the bottle and pump to that longer hose.

A much more environmentally friendly approach.

Dakar... in memoriam

On the last day of 2006, it's appropriate to publish an entry on our late goldfish Dakar who died out of gluttony in mid-December. He finally expired due to overeating. We knew he would one day die either out of a burst intestine or constipation - he was that greedy - but when it finally happened it was still unexpected - we think it was a burst intestine, we didn't have the heart to do an autopsy. He was no doubt born without a gene that told him when he was full, and with a large mouth, well, that was a recipe for disaster.

For a long while he kept us very occupied - preventing him from eating, de-constipating him but greed finally got him in the end. The Biorb seems a much emptier and less entertaining place without him.

I don't have much problems with my goldfish, other than just the normal feeding them and changing their water, and the occasional breeding, so Dakar was the majority of the work - keeping him away from the food while finding ways for Arithon to feed despite himself - Arithon is our telescope eye who usually lost out to Dakar in the food grabbing stakes. The ideal situation for Dakar would have been to not be given any food for a few weeks, but Arithon would have just wasted away in that situation. If we had space for another Biorb, we could have separated them. Funny thing is that now that Dakar has gone, Arithon and Lysaer have suddenly grown out to fill the void (or rather they have finally got enough food).

Dakar has a very cute huge mouth that curves down so he always looked somewhat grumpy, and a broken dorsal fin, which added to the grumpy look. It is rare that a goldfish has that much personality - Lysaer and Arithon though also with personalities of their own don't quite have Dakar's charisma somehow.

Some pictures of Dakar's antics...

Camping out over the food bowl - he must have been a mud-skipper in a previous life


Recovering after a bout of over-eating but still staking out that food bowl

Begging for more food




Stoned out on the log after yet another session of bingeing.

Slumped in the bowl... Dakar was usually struck severe constipation that was only periodically relieved when we starved him for 3 days then fed him peas for 3 days. As soon as we put in proper goldfish food of an amount that was sufficient for all 3 goldfish, he would just eat everything, not allowing Arithon nor Lysaer anywhere close where able.
Recovered slightly.


He will be sorely missed.