I've been looking into goldfish varities for an outdoor pond I'm considering.
I've been looking them up on the net and am having a hard time finding a decent picture gallery.

The only ones I've found that I don't consider physically demented (boggly eyes or no dorsal fins) are comets, moores, shubukins, fantials and commons. Has anyone heard of any problems with any of these species? My pond is not going to be awfully large - are any of these small enough to be happy in a 'reasonable sized' but not enormous pond?

I want to keep white cloud minnows with them. Is this possible?

This is the average temperatures in my town (Adelaide) - but sometimes it gets much hotter (up to 45C). The pond wouldn't be in direct sunlight. What would be the recommended course of action on a hot day? Cover the pond over and hope for the best? Do you think I need a heater 'just to be safe'?

I've heard that goldfish can live at tropical temperatures. Is this the case?
If so, could I get a sailfin or common pleco? :woo: (Always wanted a pleco but never had the space...)

Hopefully I'm not sounding too dumb... But I've never been into goldfish.

10 days no reply.
*bump*

I don't know anything about goldfish but this place seems to have alot of info. :drunk: http://www.goldfishparadise.com/

How big is your pond? I have a medium sized pond that came with my house. I'm new to the whole pond thing so I'm trying to learn as much as possible before spring.

White Cloud Mountain minnows would be fine with goldfish- they can get eaten but most of the time they don't.

Temp wise goldfish can live between 60- 82 F but most feel comfortable between 68-78 F.

A common goldfish can grow upto 18 inches long and live for 43 years they are quite social and peaceful but will need alot of room.

You shouldn't mix Commons/comets in with the fancy goldfish as the fancy ones don't swim as fast and may get bullied.

A moor is a black telescope eye which is what you was probably refering to as "boggly eyes".

You will need to provide shade in the form of plants etc as this will keep the pond cool enough and in the winter you can use a heater to warm the water up but this would be quite expensive.

If you have enough space you could try koi.

So how big will your pond be?

I don't own the pond yet, but the one I like the most is 2mx1mx1m ISH... It may be a little smaller. So the pond will be less than 2000 litres... :?: I think I did something wrong?

Thanks for the info philonous.
Are there any goldfish species that stay small?


Thanks for the link, JGoslee. :)

I work that out to be about: 1968 liters (Or 520 US Gallons) which isn't bad.

You could try Shubunkins- They normally get to about 6 inches and are quite hardy. Not too far away from being the common goldfish either. They swim top, middle and bottom and would love your new pond when it comes.

I went and looked at it again today (still in the shop... :lol: ) and it's about half as deep as I invisioned it. So it's really only about half the volume of water - about 1000 litres.

Thanks for the suggestion of a Shubunkins - I'll do some research on them!

Do goldfish prefer the company of each other or are they content on their own?

Now I've got it, I'm thinking about 600 litres. It's not very deep but has a large surface area.

Still sounds ok! Large surface area is ideal as Goldfish like alot of oxygen.

They do prefer the company of others and are quite social.

They also love eating plants so provide some for shade and food.

They'll be happy fishies then.

Awesome! I was planning on plants anyway, so that's no problem. :D I would probably get 5 or less Shubunkins (but more than 3!), a small group of white clouds (or at least move the ones I've got now out there) and I'm going to try my luck with hillstream loaches, too.

I've work out that I'm just going to be doing a temporary filter for the time being, but the current is going to be very strong (I hope...). Do goldfish mind a bit of current? Provided they have plants to 'get away' from the current in?

When I had my fantails and black moor they loved bubbles, they would swim back and forth through a wall of bubbles from a 6inch bubble stone. They also had awesomn personalities, if I was late feeding them they would spit gravel at the side of the tank to get my attention :laugh: . Two of them would fight over which got to eat out of my hand first, they loved romaine lettuce.

They love current and bubbles. It all sounds good so far.

Yay. :D Well, I think I'm happy about everything right now and have no more questions!

:jaw:

Oh, maybe - how do I say shubunkins? Shoe-bun-kins?
I don't want to sound like an idiot when I get them... :shy:

That's how I would say it but I never had said it out loud so...?

When I move house I might get a pond like yours- it seems good value for money but I'll have it indoors if I can and put my turtle in it.

I wanted mine nice and long so I can have a good current for the hillstream loaches - hopefully they like current! I'm very happy with it - my BF's mother got it for me for my upcoming birthday - $155. Was the best deal around. :D We looked EVERYWHERE.