46 Bowfront, Goldfish Grazing Project

[anshuman]

very nice. Even i am carrying my own experiment of keeping a planted tank with Goldies running in it .

My male 'popeye' is almost 9 inches long (with tail) and girl 'orangina' is around 6 inches. third goldfish (temporary, will be giving it back to friend) is 4 inches. popeye and orangina are with me for past 2-3 years, they were tiny 2 inch babies in 2.5gallon fish-bowl(i know) , i finally moved them to this new 30 Gallon tank 2 months ago ( i know i know, i waited tooo long to get big tank ) and now trying to keep plants too with them , lets see .


BTW i have to tell you , you seemed to have missed reading how goldfish like to eat vegetables etc. I know that no one actually recommends/documents/wiki's goldfish will eat vegetables, but i learned about it after getting this new tank and was astonished to see goldies devouring the blanched stuff, I give them blanched Spinach(or small lettuce) , Cucumber , Brocolli etc, all blanched enough that the stuff feels soupy/gooey etc goldies love this soft stuff and its good for their digestive system, doesnt stress it out and also prevent them from malnutrition (i.e only one type of food). try it, the goldies learn not to harm live/hard leaves in tank and wait for the blanched stuff which they know is treat.

[anshuman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKp3fUGdA38

[Church]

I really like this journal, and the way it was written narratively. Great job crossbow! And the tank is also looking very nice as well. You've made a lot of progress in a short amount of time! The big honking driftwood that you put in there to distract from the intake pipe actually ended up distracting me from the whole aquarium, but that's literally the only criticism I have. This is a very well done journal, and I like how you demonstrate all your mistakes and the lessons you learned.

Oh yeah, and it's Cabomba.

[crossbow]

Haha thanks guys.

And ya my friends call the new piece of fake petsmart decoration, "The Elephant Trunk." So ya, that's getting yanked out of there soon and replaced with that wicked cool looking actual driftwood...which I'm sure will end up covered in some sort of algae I'll have to fight! First though, it's going to be soaked for a few weeks!

To cover the inlet pipe of the XP3, I purchased a few feet of cheap black 1 inch silicon tubing. My plan is to cut it to length, slice it down the side, and slip it over top of the blue intake piping. This should really help cut down on it's visibility, as well as being relatively easy to remove, if I need to just the intake piping for some reason.

But ya, I'm learning a lot and having fun. The second tank is really helping reduce the goldfish losses from grazing, as long as teaching me about DIY CO2, diffusion, and super cheap DIY Lighting...oh and keeping my cat out of a 20L. That's a challenge in itself!

Next stages are...

1) GLA Regulator and 10 lb CO2 Tank.
2) Rex reactor
3) 80 lbs of Eco-complete replacing 50 lbs of Great Blue Mistake Petco Gravel.
4) Actual driftwood replacing elephant trunk.
5) First attempt at actually placing something in the tank so that it looks a bit nicer.

anshuman,
I did find a page about feeding the goldfish veggies. I just haven't tried it yet. Thanks for the link and info!

dj,
I picked up some cuttlebones at petco for a few dollars. I'm going to rinse a chunk, and drop it in the tank . I don't have the ability to test for calcium, and I'm tired of buying kits! I'll just provide in case they need it. Here's hoping the goldfish don't eat it. They eat EVERYTHING. Well except pond snails...gosh I wish they'd eat pond snails.

Church,
I try to check my spelling but sometimes I get lazy after typing what seems to be pages of info...all which is usually myself admitting tons of mistakes and lost money .

zavikan,
Your tank looks GREAT. I wish I could get some ground cover in mine. Right now the only ground cover I get is from val's growing so fast, the moors can't keep up with uprooting it.

[crossbow]

Here's some photo updates of the main tank.

Tank as a whole


This shows the latest placement of the spray bar, and some various misc new plants. Mainly some ferns (I got 2 for 4 dollars which was a steal), and some dwarf rush. I'm probably going to keep one of the ferns in this tank, I can't figure out where to place one of them right now.


This is Rena the Nerite Snail. He loves to spend all day making sure I can see that bright blue intake.



This is a photo showing how thick the Val's have grown in. They've got to be about 4-6x thicker then they were originally. Fish in the foreground is ember.




This is a shot of the ever growing Cabomba, with Darth the moor in foreground. I still need to figure out the flow from the spray bar, to help keep this plant more vertical in the tank.

[seds]

Lookin pretty cool! I like the cabomba and vals. But it looks as though the E. densa is just plopped in there in a random clump. Those ferns are a real deal. I got one for 7.50 and it was smaller and had wrinkled leaves.

What kind of rush is that? I don't know what kinds of rushes live 100% submerged. Maybe it's a ...ZERG RUSH. (Sorry. Had to be done.)

[crossbow]

seds,

The Anacharis is just basically placed there in a random clump. At one time, it was in a nice planted bunch...but the goldfish uproot it, tear it apart, decimate it...I eventually gave up and kinda of corralled it into sort of a planted bed/bunch. At it's current location, it is maintaining a level of growth which allows the goldfish to snack on it continuously, but not die off. I've decided to leave well enough alone for now .

I could try replanting it with the rescaping, but they love it so much, I'm absolutely sure they'd just tear it all up again. One day I'll have a tank where the fish generally leave the plants alone...one day!

Oh man, can't wait for starcraft 2! I hope it doesn't get too messed up with that odd triple pack...

The rush was picked up from petsmart. They had a plant sale recently. I believe it's this rush.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...795&pcatid=795

So far the goldies are leaving it alone. If they continue to do so, I'll probably pick up another bunch and use it in the future noobscape.

[sewingalot]

I can't believe I am saying this - but the blue gravel is growing on me. I am normally not a fan of blue gravel with plants, but for some reason, it works for the goldfish planted tank. I might miss it once you put in the Eco. Do you have names for your fish? If I had those guys, they would definitely be named. They have so much character. I love that you are keeping a journal of the plants that are compatible. This will be invaluable for others that decide to setup a goldfish tank (something I want to do in the future).

[crossbow]

Ha! I think I might miss it a little bit. But I could always add it later if I had to had some...maybe I'll so something silly like make a little gravel ring around a plant with blue gravel...hahaha.

The goldies names are...

Black Moors
Darth and Vader (though I renamed the larger one to Chomper)

Red and White Oranda's
Fin
Koi

Telescopic Calico
Ember

My gf also really really wants to get a ranchu/lionhead that is ridiculously adorable at our local LFS, and it's taking quite some persuasion to avoid getting him. (We are already overstocked!). These little guys are going to be nearly 10-12 inches in a few years! Hopefully by then we'll have our own place, and can see about getting a 125 wide. (72x24x17). I think that would be perfect for 6 super happy goldfish.

[Chrisinator]

That's an awesome looking goldfish tank!

Does have the spray bar near the intake give 100% circulation? I'm trying to find a way to circulate my tanks water.

[crossbow]

Chris, yes it does...but I'm still fiddling with it. Right now there is too much bounce back current. You can see it in the vals. They are angles over instead of vertical. I'm planning on trying to extend the spraybar length and #of holes and then place it across the rear pointing to the front. Haven't done that yet.

[sewingalot]

Great names. All goldfish deserve names in my opinion. They are so adorable, it's hard not to. How is the little guy doing with the split fin?

[crossbow]

I think that's chomper/Darth. He's great. I actually didn't even notice this, but his fin is completely healed. No split, doesn't even look like he damaged it in the first place...he is growing CRAZY fast. His activity is aggravating. He somehow ripped a java fern out of the center rock. Not only was it wedged in there, but it was tied in place too!!! LOL. At least they are hilarious. Makes up for the constant maintenance. .

The two goldfish, fin and koi (oranda's), are definitely the fastest in terms of snagging food...but the moors are growing the quickest. I use sinking pellets, and the oranda's give up after the food sinks about 75% of the way down...then the moors just go nuts scavenging all the dropped pellets.

I do worry about the calico. He's the least aggressive when it's feeding time, and appears to eat the least. He's not sick, but probably isn't getting as much food as the other four.

I wish they ate the nerite snail EGGS...nerites seem to produce a dozen eggs for every foot of algae they eat!

[problemman]

i think your goldfish are cute

[dj2005]

Originally Posted by crossbow

I wish they ate the nerite snails...nerites seem to produce a dozen eggs for every foot of algae they eat!

With glass tanks, one can use a utility knife blade to scrape the eggs away. Not sure about acrylic tanks.