# 20g goldfish tank?



## jewelqueen17 (Dec 18, 2014)

Bought a 20g to go with my new 10g yesterday, for the two common goldfish, who definitely needed a bigger tank than the 2.5g they'd been in before. Surprise- my sister, who apparently decided that two goldfish in a 20g was too little, comes home with three new goldfish, a black one, a orange grizzled one, and a white-orange one, I'm going to look what kind they are. So I don't know if it's too much, or too little: 2 common goldfish, one of which is very young; 3 fancy goldfish, the black one about an inch and a half long and the other two 3 inches including tail. Will they overpoop the tank? Should I return them? I heard they need like 60g tanks with 10g added for each fish but I don't have the space/money right now. 

They have a Tetra Whisper EX30 or something of the sort. Bare bottom tank with a pair of clamshell decors and gravel vacuum for easy clean. My sister said she didn't want gravel though since it stank in the old tank she had them in, even though I told her it was probably because of the size of what we'd had for the two. Don't know what kind of water changes I'll need to do with goldfish. Please advise. 

Just wanted to get that out there and ask a few questions... here's the list that I need answered: 

--> What water changes for five goldfish, 2 common 3 fancy?
--> Are five goldfish too much for a 20g? 
--> Do I need to add anything to the tank?

Thank you in advance, Jewel


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

Your tank is massively overstocked, even with just the two common goldfish. They really need a pond or a tank that is larger than the average hobbyist can afford/keep/maintain. 

Do you have a water test kit? Ammonia and nitrite are going to be your biggest enemies with a tank this heavily stocked and I assume ammonia is going to skyrocket in a fairly short order unless your tank is cycled and you keep right on top of water changes. 

Personally, based on the questions you ask, I would try and rehome the goldfish or take them back to a pet/fish store. You don't have the necessary facilities for them, and with their lifespan, they are a more of a commitment than most people realise.


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## Olympia (Aug 25, 2011)

I agree with the above...
It's great that you were able to upgrade your common goldfish, but the fancies are a whole 'nother story. Not only is it overstocked with just two, but you shouldn't mix fancies with common goldfish... 
Goldfish are quite difficult to maintain properly.  I'd be doing 100% changes in that tank every other day, even if you can return the other three fish.


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## kjg1029 (Jun 14, 2014)

just keep the fancy and give the commons away, technically youd want a 40-50g for that many fancys, but you can upgrade in the future. pluss if you can over filter and feed less youll be fine. keep in mind at their full size they can be softball-ish size (not including fins), and oh man their messy.

you can look up Solid gold on youtube, thats a great goldfish page. very helpful.


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## Olympia (Aug 25, 2011)

Honestly my fancy goldfish have been the most time consuming and cash consuming fish I've known. I'd hate to scare you completely off but those pet shop fancies can be such a pain. They are just so prone to diseases of every sort. If you don't want to be investing a lot of time/money into them in the future it's best to just let them go now.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

The only goldies you can keep in that size tank are the fancies. Technically, you really should only be keeping two fancies at most in that tank, but you might be able to manage three if you're really attached.

Best to return the others.


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## jewelqueen17 (Dec 18, 2014)

I'll try and see what I can do. Really sorry for all the trouble guys, I didn't expect the fancies to come into play. I've got a water test kit, yeah, I'll try to do like daily water changes.

Would it be a good idea to go get a 20g tank before the 1 dollar/ gal sale thing ends to get a place for the commons? I'm pretty sure sis won't react well to me telling her to give her goldfish away. (They're really her goldfish, not mine, but I'm seriously worried about how much she's going to deal with the goldfish problem.) I have room, I have time (sort of), and I have twenty dollars.


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## Olympia (Aug 25, 2011)

If your sister wants her goldfish she should be more than willing to spit out ~$250 for a proper set up for them. Why get a pet if you aren't going to take care of it?

Even for the commons you should get a 40 gallon breeder at least to grow them out, alongside a canister filter, something like a Fluval 406 or an Eheim 2215-37... 


Yep goldfish are expensive, I sure you get that now... Please try to explain to your sister the cash/time commitment that these animals require, they are so messy and sickly that they really aren't for the faint of heart. Improper care at a young age will leave them with permanent physiological damage, including stunted bodies. :/

Anyways..
At the very bare minimum in this situation you DEFINITELY want to get an airstone and pump for the fish. The tetra whisper pumps are amazing, I have the model sized for 20 gallon tanks in my 90 gallon and it's quite enough for them.


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## jewelqueen17 (Dec 18, 2014)

0_0 the 20g whisper works for a 90g? amazing! I have a 2.5 g that worked perfectly fine except for the current produced by the air bubbles which pushed around my betta. 

I'll see what I can do, but my sis is the stubborn kind (who always thinks she's right). I'll try to sneak in some extra care and an airstone and pump, because it will help pump oxygen into the water, right? helping the ammonia situation. Thank you so much for your reply.


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## hgual22 (Jul 18, 2014)

Commons cannot be kept in tanks unless its like 100 gallons. They need a large pond. And a 20gal could only hold 1 fancy goldfish. I would definitely get rid of all the goldfish honestly. That tank is going to need massive water changes multiple times a week. Maybe make your sister do the water changes for a while so she realizes how much work it is.


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## jewelqueen17 (Dec 18, 2014)

Update: Sad to say that one of the commons, one of the fancies, and the blackmoor (that I mistakenly called a fancy) are dead. Blackmoor = sucked into filter and squished to mush (sad and sickening). Common = crushed by a falling ornament and died a few minutes later. Fancy = ammonia poisoning. After the fancy, who was first, my sister started doing more water changes (the message started to sink in) after I reminded her about the ammonia levels. 

So now we have two fancies and a little baby common in the 20g. I feel bad for saying it, but it's significantly lessened the load. My sister is doing 90% water changes every three to four days now, I couldn't get her to do more and I don't know what kind of wcs to be doing for them to be honest. I hope all goes well for the remaining fish.


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## Olympia (Aug 25, 2011)

A healthy fish won't be sucked into a filter, so something was up.

All will not go well for the remaining fish. You will have problems until there is nothing left. No way around it.


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## jewelqueen17 (Dec 18, 2014)

Kind of figured. What I'm going to do is try to rehome the remaining fish. My main problem with that is that I'm guessing most people will stuff them in 1gs and treat them worse than I've been doing. I'll see if I can return them...


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## Olympia (Aug 25, 2011)

Pond season is only a couple of months away (well, depending on where you are exactly) as far as the regular one goes.


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## cindygao0217 (Jul 3, 2014)

So fancy and other goldfish like butterfly and other fat body goldfish need 20 gallon per fish and like common there adult size is 14 so you need need 40 per fish and but I recommend to under stock then over stock you have to full water change twice a week and you have to feed sinking pellet and not flake food which is bad for them and more information you can watch solid gold on YouTube she has very good understand on the goldfish


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## SplashyBetta (Jul 28, 2014)

Where do you live? I have three fancies right now and this coming spring I'm building a 150 gallon pond. I could take the fancy goldfish.


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## fishtankwatcher (Feb 5, 2015)

jewelqueen17 said:


> Blackmoor = sucked into filter and squished to mush (sad and sickening).


Once you guys get these goldfish into proper homes (I'm happy to see good pet owners!!), PLEASE get a pre-filter on that intake!! Before you put (appropriate) tropical fish in that tank.

I hope you can get the last 3 into (decorative) ponds or returned before they perish, it sucks to loose fish (


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