Koi Fish Information Centre

Many of the PetsMart fish are the bottom of the barrel fish from breeders since PetsMart wants the best/lowest prices on what they buy. Most breeders will keep the best fish for themselves, the next best would go to their closest friends who are also breeders, then to their local customers, aquarium societies, LFS and lastly to the big box pet stores and other pet departments like Wal-Mart. They are still fine as pets (that’s where I got my goldfish at)… just like the American Mutt is still one of the best dogs… but they’ll not likely win any “Best Of Show” prizes at a society show.
All that said, no two wens grow the same and some fish will grow a big wen and then it shrinks, other fish will have a small wen that all of a sudden decides to start growing like crazy until wen surgery is needed.
If you want to be able to pick out a high quality goldfish, you should look at buying from one of the online sources for goldfish…. but these goldfish usually sell for a minimum of $25.00 and up… with the best of the best selling in the hundreds of dollars range.
Places like GoldfishUtopia.com, GoldfishConnection.com, Goldfishnet.com and a regular poster in the Yahoo Gold-Fish groups is guy who I think imports goldfish and sells them out of his garage… at least that’s the name of his website… GoldfishGarage.com There’s always Aquabid.com also. With most of these, you can actually see photos or video and possibly even live streaming video of the fish you will be bidding on and/or buying. Of course, shipping is always a factor when buying online. The first three sites actually have weekly auctions for their goldfish. Aquabid is like the eBay for fish selling.
All of this probably leads you back to PetsMart where you can get a decent pet at a much lower price. Look at buying one of the middle sizes instead of the smallest ones. The middle sizes will cost you a couple of dollars more but they are more likely to have been culled better.. whether physically culled by the breeder or simply where the weaker or more likely to be sick babies died off before growing to mid-size so the ones you see are likelier to be the more healthier specimens. It’s better to spend $4.99 each for two bigger fish that are more likely to be healthy, than $1.99 each on two smaller fish that might have more health problems as they mature and then you’ll be spending $20.00 on medications in the first few months.
Look for fish that swim well and are swimming around all areas of the tank… not just hanging out at the top or bottom… and fish that do not swim too erratically or spin or go in circles when trying to swim fast. Have the employee feed them while you are there so you can observe that they are eating and you’ll also see their swimming abilities while they are chasing the food around. If they can’t compete for food properly, they’ll likely be more prone to stress and health issues.
Another reason I mention this is that fancy goldfish are prone to having swim bladder issues which will affect their swimming abilities and it seems to escalate when they are excited.. like during feeding times. Swim bladder issues raises the stress level on the fish which then raises the likelihood of immune system issues and health issues.
Last but not least, have hubby help you pick out the two fancy goldfish which might help him accept them better and quash his want for a long-bodied goldfish… since the 55G isn’t really suitable for them.
As far as cycling, it doesn’t matter if it’s a 1G bowl or a 1,000G tank, the nitrogen cycle takes roughly the same amount of time… 6 - 8 weeks. I have articles about Fishless Cycling on my “A to Z of Fishkeeping” page. If you have access to a piece of healthy filter media or a handful of gravel from a fellow hobbyist, you can seed your filter system with this which could make the fishless cycle happen in as little as 7 - 10 days.
Of course, if you’ve been reading all of the posts recently, you will have read about Dr. Tim’s One And Only which will instantly cycle a tank.. well almost instantly. You would add the One And Only one day and the fish on the next day. A 2 oz. bottle will prepare a 30G tank so you would need a 4 oz. bottle. DrsFosterSmith.com http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=18986 has the 4 oz. bottle for $28.49. A Yahoo Shopping search found the lowest price on Amazon.com for as low as $18.49 from SeaCoral-com @ Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0018CJUDM/ref=nosim/?tag=yahoo-pet-20&creative=380333&creativeASIN=B0018CJUDM&linkCode=asn
Ask your local PetsMart to start carrying this product or check with your LFS. So far, PetsMart.com isn’t carrying Dr. Tim’s products so we consumers need to put some pressure on the local store managers so it will happen.
Lenny Vasbinder Fish Blog - http://GoldLenny.blogspot.com (Links to any articles referenced in above reply are listed on the right side, alphabetically under Labels and also under Archives by Year, Month)

Category: Philippines Internet Koi Society