Coldwater Fish

Coldwater fish can divided into three basic categories:-

Normal bodied Goldfish. As well as the standard "gold" goldfish, over the years breeders have developed a number of different goldfish varieties, these include Canary - yellow, Sarasa - red or red & white, Shubunkin - multicoloured

It's worth remembering that all these goldfish types can grow to as much as 10" long, and can often live for 15 or 20 years, the record is 43 years old!

"Fancy" Goldfish. As well as producing many different colour varieties of goldfish, breeders have also managed to fix a wide range of mutations and in so doing have produced a number of remarkable different varieties of "fancy goldfish".

These "fancy goldfish" all have one thing in common - a shorter, fatter, body shape when compared with a normal goldfish. In addition these varieties of goldfish may sport any number of other unusual features including, double tails, elongated or missing fins, protruding eyes, etc. etc. Varieties of fancy goldfish include, Orandas, Moors, lionheads, celestials, fantails, veiltails & bubble eyes.

In our experience these fancy goldfish are not as hardy as the "normal goldfish types". For this reason we do not recommend keeping fancy goldfish in outdoor ponds in the UK. The key to the successful maintenance of these goldfish varieties are

1. Good water quality - Do not over stock, and do ensure you have an efficient filter.

2. A substantial sized tank - The smaller the aquarium, the greater and more rapid the temperature fluctuations can be. Although the minimum size tank we recommend is 5 gallons, a 3' x 12" x 15" tank (approx. 20 gallons) would be far better.

3. Diet - Fancy goldfish seem very prone to buoyancy problems, related to their unnatural body shape. We strongly recommend the use of high quality sinking foods such as "Hikari Lionhead" in conjunction with regular feeds of frozen foods such as bloodworm, brineshrimp & mysis. Floating foods, & particularly flake foods can lead to serious buoyancy problems.

Other Coldwater Fish. As well as goldfish varieties, there are a number of other fish ideally suited to an unheated, indoor aquarium. These include White Cloud Mountain Minnows, Rice Fish , Paradise Fish , Weather Loach , American Flags and many others. Many of these species attain a much smaller maximum size than is the case for goldfish. This makes them ideally suited to smaller coldwater tanks.

Unfortunately there are increasing legal restrictions on the range of coldwater fish that can be kept and sold. These restrictions are largely as a result of concerns about the potential for these non-native species to become established in the wild. Please do not add to these concerns, remember aquarium fish belong in an aquarium, on no account should fish alive or dead be disposed of down the lavatory.