i consider myself a master goldfish keeper, and there really doesn’t seem to be a lot of people who i can talk with/exchange knowlege about goldfish. i would like to help as much as i can at the dope, and goldfish just happens to be my area of expertise…
so question me…have fish, but are having problems? anything…ask away!
um…
We’ve all heard that goldfish “have a memory span of 3 seconds.” Or sometimes “attention span of 3 seconds.” Is this true? If so, goldfish must be pretty happy most of the time, huh? If not, do you know when and how this rumor started?
Since the sum of all my previous experiences was with goldfish won at the fairground and placed in a goldfish bowl (under which conditions they had an everage lifespan of two weeks or so), I am surprised to find that my fantail goldfish has survived for 18 months. Is it unusual for goldfish to live this long, or is it a combination of the species of goldfish and the fact that is lives in a filtered tank? How much longer is this thing going to live (F Y I: it’s increased in size quite a bit, so I assume when I got it it was very young)?
ahh good, some things.
Rune, i totally forgot about that thread. I would feed my own semen to a fish. you don’t exactly know what is in there (i’m sure somebody will link to an exact ingredient list of semen), and some things might not be that great.
TJdude825, yes goldfish have a memory of more than 3 seconds. my fish recognize me, and know when it is time to eat almost to the minute. if they don’t know someone, they will try to stay away from them.
**Rufus Xavier **, if you keep one fantail goldfish in a 30 gallon tank with good filtration, there is no reason (except for disease, and most of them can be cured) that a goldfish cannot live to be twenty years old, and grow to a length of 10 inches. by the time they get this big, they are going to need a lot of space
oh, i mean i wouldn’t feed my own semen to my fish. haha, a little slip 
I have 5 goldfish in an outside pond. They’re still all little - how can I make them grow big and fat? Do I need to feed them extra or can they live of the pond scum?
How much/little plants should I have in my pond?
I have a pump that circulates the water over a waterfall thingy, do I need a filter as well?
Should I change the water in my pond, or is green slime good for my fish?
Am I going to get baby fish? When?
All of my fish are orange - one has white lips and another a tiny black spot on its tail, if I get baby fish, will I get colourful ones or should I buy colourful ones to begin with?
Is there anything else a novice pond and fish owner should know?
Why do my fish hate me? They run away every time they see me coming. I try to sneak up on them, but they see me first.
How can you tell whether a goldfish is a boy or a girl?
Do you have a cite for the oldest goldfish?
Wow. This is timely for me. Thanks. Yesterday one of my goldfish expired and I’m trying hard to figure out what happened to him in case I need to take some action to protect my other fish.
I have an outdoor cement pond that holds approximately 400 gallons of water. I have good filtration and a nice waterfall. Until yesterday I had 14 happy goldfish living there. All of the fish are several years old and range from 4" to 6".
Yesterday we found one of our fish dead. His eyes still looked bright and clear and we couldn’t see any fungus or obvious signs of sickness. What we could see were two areas roughly the size of a quarter, one on each side of his body, where all the scales were missing. Those spots were about 1/3 of the way down his body from the head, even with one another. We could find no other injury… no scratches, punctures, or teeth marks.
The sides of the pond are very steep and it would be difficult for a raccoon or other animal to reach the water although I assume that wouldn’t be totally impossible. The pond water is very clear and we don’t see any snakes or turtles.
So what do you think happened to our poor fishy? Does that sound like an injury from another critter? At least so far all the other fishies look as healthy and happy as ever.
Thanks for your opinion! This was definitely a thread worth de-lurking for.
oh, i am kind of late on all of the replies, i am terribly sorry, i have been in a moving mess, so i have had no chance to get on here to answer things.
so here we go.
Robinc308,
The best way to make fish grow really big really fast is to feed them good food. The best food for your money is called Pro-gold. It has had many great reviews. but you can only order it off of the web… www.goldfishconnection.com
As to how much you feed them, actually you should feed them less if you want them to grow big faster, not a lot less but less than you probably think. You don’t really need plants in there at all, they will probably eat them.
a filter would be a good thing to have, but there are two sides to goldfish keeping. Some people think that you should use a filter, because it protects your fish, and other people think you shouldn’t because it is more natural. This is a decision you should make by yourself. but if you do decide to use a filter, there are plans on the net for homemade filters that are very simple and cheap.
As to are you going to get baby fish? maybe. it depends on how cool your pond is. To be able to produce fry (baby fish) the water must be at around 65 degrees F for about a week for your fish to “get it on” fish style. as to what your fish will look like, there are going to be a lot of differences, and you can’t exactly tell what a fish is going to look like down the road when it is a baby.
Don’t worry about your fish being shy, once they figure out who is feeding them, they won’t be shy anymore.
**Abbie Carmichael **,
It is sometimes hard to tell whether you have a boy or a girl. On male fish when they become old enough to spawn, they will grow little white nodules on their gills and on the base of their fins, this is the easiest way. another way to tell, which i use the most is “the chasing”. usually the males will chase the females around constantly bothering them all day. Yet another way is to look at their fish assholes. The female has a very tiny dangly thing down there that the male does not have. i hope this helps.
**carnivorousplant **,
[http://www.goldfishinfo.com/goldlife.htm](http://www.goldfishinfo.com/goldlife.htm)
**CowPatty **,
Sorry to hear about your fish.
my first guess was that he got stuck to the intake to the pump, but if that happened he would have only had his scales ripped off on one side. hmmm strange. The only other thing i can think of is that he scraped off his scales himself, and that maybe he had some sort of infection which made him itchy and he was rubbing against the side of or the bottom of your pond, and in the end the infection took his life, and since you didn’t see any signs of illness it could have been an internal infection. research this because there is too much info, that it would take very long to type it here. If it is a parasite or something else, you need to treat your other fish for this, because it is infectious.
I’ve seen a claim to over a hundred, but I’m unable to find it.
Thanks.