Biorbs are bad for goldfish I
Truly it is not good to keep goldfish in a Biorb in the long term, and if you have a Biorb it's much better to keep tetras, siamese fighting fish or bettas, i.e. low waste producing fish. The goldfish really produce a lot of waste so you need to be diligent with your weekly water changes. But those other fish just not as personable as goldfish, so I figure then they'll get boring then I'll lose interest and change water less often, then they'll die anyway. My water changes take me only 10 minutes a week though, hence so far it's manageable.
The other thing is to not overfeed. Sometimes you can let them go without food for a day once a week, and if you are away on holiday for a weekend or a week, it's best to just not feed them rather than the water getting dirty.
And get a siphon with wide opening at the sucking end so you can agitate the ceramic media to get rid of any waste in there, and a suction valve at the outlet end so it's easy to just squeeze to start off the siphon. Put your plants in little terracotta pots so they don't float up when you agitate the ceramic media.
Make it as easy as possible to change water then you'll do it more often. Do make sure the water is a same temperature, or if not then slightly cooler fresh water is much better than slightly warmer. Too warm an increase with the new water and they can just die almost immediately.
And the plants once the goldfish eat them, you just replace them with new ones. The Elodea is best since as well as being quite tasty, it also grows quite fast. Make sure when you put in new ones there are no parasites on them - so rinse and immerse for a week in chlorinated water in sunlight if possible to kill off as much of the parasites you can, then dechlorinate and put in with your fish.
The goldfish will eventually get bigger so you will definitely have to rehouse them in future. But it does take them 2-3 years to get bigger so provided you stick to 3 (or 2 if you prefer) you'll be able to enjoy your Biorb for a couple of years, then after you rehouse to a bigger tank in future you can still keep it as a isolation tank for new fish, or when your fish are breeding, your fry. One goldfish is a bit boring for the goldfish and you, then the other danger is that you lose interest and stop changing water.... and the poor fish might die anyway. 2 is also good and will be less work water-wise, I like 3 (whether 30L or 60L Biorb) though because if you're lucky enough to get 1 female and 2 males (also the best combination for good fry), the males start doing little circular chases with each other during breeding time when they try to breed with the female, then they'll both chase after the female.
The other thing is to not overfeed. Sometimes you can let them go without food for a day once a week, and if you are away on holiday for a weekend or a week, it's best to just not feed them rather than the water getting dirty.
And get a siphon with wide opening at the sucking end so you can agitate the ceramic media to get rid of any waste in there, and a suction valve at the outlet end so it's easy to just squeeze to start off the siphon. Put your plants in little terracotta pots so they don't float up when you agitate the ceramic media.
Make it as easy as possible to change water then you'll do it more often. Do make sure the water is a same temperature, or if not then slightly cooler fresh water is much better than slightly warmer. Too warm an increase with the new water and they can just die almost immediately.
And the plants once the goldfish eat them, you just replace them with new ones. The Elodea is best since as well as being quite tasty, it also grows quite fast. Make sure when you put in new ones there are no parasites on them - so rinse and immerse for a week in chlorinated water in sunlight if possible to kill off as much of the parasites you can, then dechlorinate and put in with your fish.
The goldfish will eventually get bigger so you will definitely have to rehouse them in future. But it does take them 2-3 years to get bigger so provided you stick to 3 (or 2 if you prefer) you'll be able to enjoy your Biorb for a couple of years, then after you rehouse to a bigger tank in future you can still keep it as a isolation tank for new fish, or when your fish are breeding, your fry. One goldfish is a bit boring for the goldfish and you, then the other danger is that you lose interest and stop changing water.... and the poor fish might die anyway. 2 is also good and will be less work water-wise, I like 3 (whether 30L or 60L Biorb) though because if you're lucky enough to get 1 female and 2 males (also the best combination for good fry), the males start doing little circular chases with each other during breeding time when they try to breed with the female, then they'll both chase after the female.
posted by cylche at 1:58 pm
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