The Puffer Forum

royalrose wrote:I have had one of the goldfish for 3 1/2 years and the others i have had for almost a year now. I have also kept many goldfish before this so i am not worried toomuch about them. To be exact i have one that is 5-6 inches and 3 that are 2-3 inches in a 5 gallon. i am not too worried about them because i had kept 12 goldfish in a 10 gallon for 3 years with none of them dieing. ( the reason they finally died was because i put a new fish that my sister had gotten me into the tank and it turned out to have dropsy which all but one of the fishes got.)


as for the puffer tank, i am doing 30-50% water changes daily and he is now swimming around the tank and ate a small amount of bloodworms this morning.

erm... Goldfish can love 10-20years (and some have been reported to live 40+years). 3 years is a very short life for a goldfish. Definitely get them into a pond or something as soon as you can. That tank is extremely overstocked and I can guarantee you the fish are suffering. Just because they're surviving doesn't mean they're healthy, keeping goldfish in a small tank for any amount of time can result in stunting, and loads of other health problems.

http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/4468/

zombiefetus wrote:erm... Goldfish can love 10-20years (and some have been reported to live 40+years). 3 years is a very short life for a goldfish. Definitely get them into a pond or something as soon as you can. That tank is extremely overstocked and I can guarantee you the fish are suffering. Just because they're surviving doesn't mean they're healthy, keeping goldfish in a small tank for any amount of time can result in stunting, and loads of other health problems.

http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/4468/

Hear hear! We have 2 6+"goldfish in a ~50 gallon tank, and we're worried that it's overstocked. Goldfish are the most domesticated pet fish. They rely on humans for their care more than any other fish species, as most modern types could no longer survive in the wild. Keeping 4 goldfish, let alone 1 5-6" goldfish, in a 5 gallon tank is inhumane. When we put 2 5-6" goldfish in a 10 gallon tank for treatment, we ended up with unnacceptible ammonia levels in less than 12 hours; how could it be avoided with 4 goldfish in a 5 gallon, or 12 in a 10 gallon? With such severe overcrowding and 1 sick fish, we could see how diseases could spread like wildfire (although we've never seen more than 1 fish with dropsy in a tank). Only two Goldfish have developed dropsy in our care (one of which was my fault; while cleaning the tank, I turned my head to talk to the dh, and ploop! Pearlscale in the siphon tube; I still feel bad about it and have not repeated the mistake- fortunately he made a full recovery; the cause of the second remains a mystery). In both cases no other fish caught the disease.

But it sounds like you're off to a better start with your puffer, if he's got his own 10 gallon. Be careful with puffers and meds; our understanding is that meds with dyes like malachite green, like Quick Cure, are toxic to puffers if used at full strength.

~ Anne

Edit: speelingz

Oh my.. not to pick on you but yes, please do your research and provide your fish with the proper homes or don't keep them, its just cruel to keep them this way.

Puffers are very, very sensitive fish and won't survive not being kept properly. Goldies are very tough and can survive a ton of abuse, but that doesn't mean they are healthy or happy. Regular goldifsh should grow up to a foot long and live 30+ years, there's no way multiple, healthy, happy 3yr old goldies would fit in a 5 gallon tank, much less be able to turn around. I understand you are moving them to your pond soon, but will you be bringing them back in come next winter? If so, please plan on using a big tub or soemthing else, the 5 gallon tank won't do.

And be ready, your fish might also disappear out of your pond. My friend has a pond in her backyard and she has a heron that shows up daily to eat her goldies. Not to mention racoons..

Racoons are why I finally tore down my outdoor turtle habitat & tore it down.

Please be sure to give your puffer more room than those GF. A singleton will need a minimum of 30g as an adult.