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Please help me ID our goldfish!

6K views 35 replies 7 participants last post by  thekoimaiden 
#1 ·
So we've had these guys since they were eggs. They live in what I believe to be a 50gal - please note that this is a pond. When the water used to be clearer, we've had all but two vanish, which we believe to be the work of our local kingfishers. The onset of winter has sent our water lilies into dormancy. algal blooms and green water have since taken over

So can anyone tell me, is this fellow some other type of goldfish or just a very fat comet? It doesn't have a fancy tail.



If it is just fat, I have no idea how it happened. My mom is feeding them sparingly every second day. We also added 4 tiny fantails. I'm thinking of selling a couple when they outgrow the pond.

Any suggestions and tips on goldfish for this goldfish noob is welcome!
 
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#4 ·
I'm pretty sure it's not a fantail :/ it doesn't have the fantail tail. I haven't seen such a fat coment before either, but the two are pretty active and doesn't seem to be fazed by their apparent obesity. Oh. It's also winter, do they perhaps... store up fat?

Oh and I don't think I mentioned. The fish above is ALIVE, lol, not dead. I just took him out for a photo.
 
#5 ·
The best way to tell if he is a fantail is to get a picture of him while swimming. From above fantails have a very distinctive profile.

If you really don't think he is a fantail, you might have a comet with either severe stunting (organs continued to grow), severe bloat, or just a comet with a really round belly. I'm honestly not too sure which was bred first into goldfish, the round bellies or the double tails.
 
#6 ·
I hope they're not stunted :( they've always been in a pond... Sydney weather is also pretty mild compare to other places. But then again they've been pretty much left to fend for themselves. :/

Here's one of our fantails who is about half the size of the other one. I also have two calico fantails who seem to be more klutzy and bumbling than the red ones, is that normal?

 
#13 ·
All breeds of goldfish can breed with each other. Goldfish are egg-scatters, so even though they may look different the males can still scatter their sperm on the females eggs. But a male common might beat up a female fancy pretty badly. Goldfish get rough during spawning.

Two comets in a 50 gallon pond would probably be stunted. In a pond that small regular water changes should be done. Without those, there is probably some stunting due to an excess of hormones and nitrate.

It appears there can be single-tail fancy goldfish. I asked my goldfish breeder friends and they told me about a very rare breed from Japan called Sabao (or sometimes tamasaba). They basically appear to be single-tail ryukin goldfish.

 
#16 ·
My mom said she changed some of the water every two weeks. but the fish is largely unfed. just did a real measurement of the tank it's a 100cmx80cmx40cm. which worked out to be roughly 75 gallons. minus a few gallons for plants gravel and what not, I'd say it's maybe around 65-70g @_@

for now I'm going to call it a single tail fantail. My grandma's tank is about a 200+ gallon giant pot with 6 fish in it about twice the size of our largest one. I'll take a closer look at them the next time I visit since ours are her fish's offsprings.
 
#20 ·
Hmmm ur right about the second one lookin small :/ they should be around 3 years old and I just read that they should be anle to reach 4 inches in 1 year, so this one probably should be tripe its current size by now. My grandma loves her goldfish, The top fellow might be the food hogger. When I showed my grandma that photo she was like " oh my goodness, why's she so fat?". lol
 
#21 ·
Unless the first fish also has a double-tail, I'm thinking some kind of deformed comet. Like I said, I don't know if the double-tail mutation came first or the rounded body mutation came first. It could be that you have a comet with one of those mutations. The second one does looks small. A comet that old should be around 10 inches long.

I don't think you can actually put a breed name on any of them aside from the comet. It's really hard to tell breeds from generic pet store goldfish. They'll sell commons as comets and comets as shubunkins (in a very similar manner as pet store bettas seem to be sold under whatever name the store decides; I recently bought a marble HM giant labled as a HMPK).
 
#24 ·
Haha, that reminds me of this video on youtube where a lady has a goldfish called chubby, with a chronic swim bladder problem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEwx5ASbyvM

Despite his obvious predicament, it's quite funny.

Another question is, one of my fantails seems to have injured it's head. there's a chunk of scales that has been scraped away and I can see his/her brains through a layer of transparent skin :/ should I qt with salt?
 
#25 ·
Actually a friend of mine commented on that video! She got the diagnosis right. Floaty as a result of bad quality food. That happened to my first ryukin named "Chubby" and it happened to my current ryukin until I figured out what was wrong and corrected it.

Uhhh. I don't think I would add salt as the scales act as a protective barrier, but if you have a spare cycled 10 gal it might not be a bad idea to move the fish. Did you see the fish injure him/herself? What I would be most worried about is another fish picking on the injured fish. And at the risk of sounding morbid, I'd be interested in seeing a picture if you can get one.
 
#26 · (Edited)
:( I didn't see him scrape herself, but it seems like a pretty bad scrape. I dont have a spare 10 gal unfortunately. but I did put it in a colander like container of it's own in the pond, just incase it is being picked on. this one doesn't seem to have acclimated as well as the rest from the LFS. Even at the store, it seem to be clumsier than the other fantails. but my mom like the patterning so we bought it. I thought at first it was fungus/ bacteria. but the likelihoods of that occurring in 40F-50F.... I don't know. It looked like scales to me upon closer inspection. I'll take a photo tomorrow.
 
#29 ·
I'm glad that you have the fish separated. That was the next thing I was going to suggest if you didn't have a spare tank. At least that way no other fish can pick on the sick fish. And the others will if they get a chance. I once saw a ryukin take a chunk off of my sick calico fantail's fins. :shock: I kinda freaked when I saw that.

That is a bit on the cold side for fancy goldfish. Most goldfish keepers recommend no lower than 60F for fancies because they are much more sensitive than the commons. Some of the more primitive fancy goldfish like plain old fantails might be able to survive lower than that, but I wouldn't want to risk it. Lower temps mean slower immune system. But are you sure the water is that cold? The east coast has been having 80F+ temps for the past month. If it's an outdoor pond, it's not likely to be that cold.

If the fish seemed clumsier at the store, then there could be some other problems with it you can't see. Buying a fish that seems "off" is never good on the wallet as most likely that fish is sick. I'm really interested to see this picture.
 
#30 ·
I believe the goldfish are in Australia where it is winter. We've just had a few very cold mornings so I could imagine the water would be pretty cold.

I used to have a fancy goldfish in with my shubunkin downstairs in our non-heated, non-insulated rumpus and the water in that tank would get down below 10 degrees celsius some mornings. Don't know if it was coincidence or not but one morning in winter I came down and my fancy goldfish looked very distressed and I euthanised it the next day.

Also if the friend's pond is bigger than yours it may not be getting as cold as your pond. Or their goldfish could just be hardier. How long has the fish been in the pond? It is usually a good idea to introduce fish to pond life during milder weather as even for goldies it can get pretty nippy, particularly if they are used to living in an aquarium.
 
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