comet goldfish space ?

Question

i have one comet goldfish in a 5 gallon tank will that be enough for atleast 2 years?

Answer 1

Not even close. They need company. They also need about 20 gallons each by the time they are 2. Keep it in the 5 and it will be dead within a month.

Answer 2

Definitely not. Comet goldfish can grow up to 6" a year, but usually grow 3-4" in a year. That means at minimum your fish will be about 7" long in 2 years. He would barely be able to turn around in the tank.

On top of that goldfish are one of the dirtiest fish there is. They produce more ammonia ounce for ounce than pretty much anything else. In that size tank he will probably end up poisoning himself in a pretty short time.

You are better off finding someone who has a pond to take him where he has plenty of space. There are many fish that are easy to care for that stay small that could live in your 5 gallon tank. If you got small fish like danios or guppies or certain tetras you could even have about 5 fish in there instead of just the one comet.

If you do decide to keep him in that tank, you are going to want to change about 1/2 the water once a week. More if you don't have a good filter. Fish don't stop growing just because the tank is small though, so keeping him in there could seriously stunt his lifespan. In the tank he might live a year or two, in the pond he could live a MINIMUM of twenty years, possibly more. Hope that helps you out.

Answer 3

In short, no. Goldfish grow quickly, especially when properly cared for, and even a year-old fish should have at minimum 30 gallons of space to himself - in 5 gallons, you probably won't get a goldfish to live for two years. They're really not the low-maintenance, small-tank fish that people have somehow made them out to be over the years. Goldfish are messy, demanding, large fish and are not suited to tank life unless you have a very, very large tank (by which I mean large by aquarist standards, in excess of a few hundred gallons). The hands-down best place for a goldfish is a pond.

My advice, if you want to keep the 5 gallon, is to get a small heater and a pair of guppies. They're much more suited to small tanks. Either take the comet back to the pet store, or release him in a pond that already contains goldfish (never put a goldfish in a pond that doesn't have any; they're an invasive species).

Answer 4

Your tank is too small for even one goldfish. Where I work, it is against company policy to sell a goldfish to live in a tank that small, even when only a baby.

More suitable fish for that size tank would be some of the hardy coldwater fish such as danios or white cloud mountain minnows. However, neither of these fish should be kept with goldfish as the goldfish will eat them as soon as they are able to fit them in their mouth.

If possible I would put your fish into a pond or buy a larger tank. Maybe take it back to a suitable retailer and swap it for smaller fish if neither of these are options.

Comet goldfish are the more traditional shape for goldfish. Contrary to popular belief and the advice of some greedy retailers, these goldfish require at least a 3ft tank to start with and ideally an external filter. All goldfish grow to 25-30cm and comets (along with other 'normal' as opposed to 'fancy' goldfish) grow fairly rapidly and can double in size within a year. These fish need length to swim in, not depth and very good filtration as they are quite messy fish. Ideally, I would keep more than one as they like company, but only if you have a big enough tank.

They should also not be mixed with the more 'fancy' varieties as the 'normal' shape have a tendency to bully the slower fancy varieties.

Hope you can work it out. Good Luck! :-)

Answer 5

No. You got a big fish for a small tank.

Answer 6

Not 2, but it may be ok for one year if the fish is really small now.

MM

Answer 7

plenty of room for its entire lifespan