goldfish that stay small

[Incaico]

Are there any small "gold" goldfish that stay rather small other than feeders?

[Typical Tony]

Feeders do not stay small at all haha my gf's dad has one he has kept for like 5 years, its about 14" now

[poel_19]

goldfish are carp, they do not stay small

[Phonetic Diabetic]

I've heard Lall goldfish get big but Id love to hear otherwise.

[poel_19]

i think comets max out AT 6-7 INCHES

[Michael]

Feeders are common goldfish and they get big--12" isn't unusual.

Comets and Shubunkins are single tail goldfish, and get almost as large as commons.

Double tail goldfish, a.k.a. fantails, generally do not get as large, maybe 6" to 8", although there are exceptions.

"Fancy" goldfish are almost all double tail. This includes many varieties, such as orandas, telescopes, black moors, lionheads, bubble eye, pearlscale to name a few. The more highly bred (deformed) the fish, the smaller they tend to stay. But most of these will eventually get 6" long.

So, by tropical fish standards, there are no small goldfish.

[Incaico]

I'm trying a feng shui aquarium at my office. According to the article I'm reading it is best to keep 8 or 9 goldfish with one being black. I don't want to keep a large tank and I don't want to keep replacing them. Any advice?

[Michael]

Goldfish have a really high bio-load. They produce lots of ammonia and need massive biofiltration to keep the water quality tolerable. For their size they need extra large tanks.

How about something else?

[Incaico]

It is either goldfish or an arowona. Both require large tanks. :confused: I was hoping something 40 gallons or smaller.

[FisHobbyist]

yeah comets get huge. i have them in my pond and the biggest one is 11" with its super long tail! i know someone who started a feng shui aquarium a couple months ago. It was a 36 gallon aquarium. I believe one of their gold colored fish was the golden dojo loach. The black one was the black moor, of course. The rest were small fancy goldfish. They introduced a couple fish each week until the bacteria could compensate for the large amounts of ammonia. I'm not too sure what they will do when they get larger though.

[NursePlaty]

Only small goldfish I can think of are fancy goldfish. I think they only get 5"-6". Also my favorite type of goldfish. :)

[Incaico]

Heck I may go with those.

[FlamandalayBay]

8 or 9 5-6"goldfish is really pushing it...you'd have to have really good filtration to handle that and even still...I used to tell my customers 1" per 2-3 gallons of water minimum. imho

[Incaico]

Well, what I'll probably do is buy them small and if I notice some good feng shui energy then I'll buy a larger tank for them. If I don't see any positive results I'll feed them to my snow flake and picasso trigger. :D

[JMatthew]

Don't tell them that. With all that stress they are BOUND to have performance issues!

[FlamandalayBay]

@will: :(
@JM LMAOroflmao

[rbradbury]

The fancy goldfish will grow out to be more bulbous shape compared to the elongated shape of comets or shubunkins. I have five large goldfish in a 29gallon tank. My filtration is eheim 2236 canister filter and 1 liter of K1 Kaldnes bio media circulating within the tank. Between the two, my water stays crystal clear. I only do a water change every 2-3 weeks and that is only because the pigment has turned the water red/orange color.

Now if someone wants to experiment with giving juvinal goldfish Ritalin. It's has caused height retardation in some children. Maybe it could cause a goldfish to stay small.

[Mwil3]

Lol! Put you a big filter on it and you should be fine for a few years. Then you can sell 'em off and get some new ones. The $.13 feeders at petsmart grow up to be really pretty fish. I've got several rescues in my pond.

[Squirrel]

My collection of info has been that fancy goldfish grow more slowly and stay smaller, but I have seen them around 9" at my LFS, but these can be somewhat easily stunted in smaller tanks. Comets are close to natural body type and will grow longer more quickly. However, it seems that genetics has alot to do with it too. Bigger fish have bigger babies, smaller have smaller. You probably should just start small and fancy in a nicely sized tank and hope for the best, but be ready to get them to a bigger tank in several years if they "max out." Goldfish can live for DECADES so they theorhetically don't grow that fast (I think), though I have not done well with them personally. :P If you get several and clean tank 2x a week you should be fine.
If any of my info is flat out wrong please correct me! :D

[Squirrel]

Also, I just read in a book that celestials don't grow as large as some others. But that is the first I have heard of it. :/

[hungdang]

goldfish are carp, they do not stay small
gold fish are not carp, but they do related to carp!

hungdang added 4 Minutes and 16 Seconds later...

Feeders are common goldfish and they get big--12" isn't unusual.

Comets and Shubunkins are single tail goldfish, and get almost as large as commons.

Double tail goldfish, a.k.a. fantails, generally do not get as large, maybe 6" to 8", although there are exceptions.

"Fancy" goldfish are almost all double tail. This includes many varieties, such as orandas, telescopes, black moors, lionheads, bubble eye, pearlscale to name a few. The more highly bred (deformed) the fish, the smaller they tend to stay. But most of these will eventually get 6" long.

So, by tropical fish standards, there are no small goldfish.
fedder are comet goldfish, not common goldfish!

hungdang added 8 Minutes and 7 Seconds later...

It is either goldfish or an arowona. Both require large tanks. :confused: I was hoping something 40 gallons or smaller.
9 goldfish can be keep in a tank about 100 gallon with good filtration for a long time! an arowana will need at least 180 for a jardini and 300G for silver! and 9 gold still a lot cheaper to feed than an arowana!

[rbradbury]

Now here is an idea, talk with an lfs about growing out some fancies for them. When they get medium size, swap out for new batch. Lfs is getting larger healthy fancies for the price of small. You might need to buy the first batch to grow out. It doesn't hurt to ask.

[Allen5]

gold fish are so boreing

[jlcoop277]

I had a comet and when I got rid of it, it was about 14". I had a Ryukin that lived 5 years and stopped growing at around 6". Coolest fish i've ever had, it would sleep upside down. I thought everyday it was dead. LOL But both make a big bio load.

[rbradbury]

both make a big bio load.

That is very true. I run K1 Kaldness in my goldfish tank and have a large filter that is strictly mechanical & biological filtration.

[hungdang]

gold fish are so boreing
it's not boring when you like it!