World's Longest Goldfish

A recent article on PFK, http://www.PracticalFishKeeping.com, about a "Monster Goldfish Hooked By Angler" misled many folks into thinking that this 16" Common Goldfish was a "Monster" when in fact, 16" is a normal size that all properly kept Common Goldfish should reach... with many growing to 18", 20" or more. You can read my short comment and other comments at the bottom of the PFK article and then my much longer reply to the Gold-Fish Yahoo Group below.

This article led to a couple of posts on some of the fish and pond Yahoo Groups which then led to a discussion about the World's Longest Goldfish according to Guinness. Here is one of the emails and then my LONG reply.

-----Original Message-----
From: Gold-Fish@yahoogroups.com
On Behalf Of josepha48
Sent: Monday, July 19, 2010 10:44 PM
To: Gold-Fish@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Gold-Fish] Worlds Longest Goldfish

I found this link on the worlds longest goldfish. Over at Guinness Book of World Records. It's the longest. At 18 inches I'm guessing that 12 inches is probably about average.

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records/natural_world/fantastic_pets/longest_goldfish.aspx


And now, my reply:


-----Original Message-----
From: Lenny V. aka GoldLenny
Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2010 11:18 AM
To: 'Gold-Fish@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [Gold-Fish] Worlds Longest Goldfish

That Guinness record is for a "pet" goldfish, since Guinness started up that category.

I would venture to say that 99.9% of goldfish kept as pets are stunted to some degree... a large percentage of them are grossly stunted due to being kept in undersized aquariums... or God-forbid, bowls and being underfed as so many stores tell people to only feed them once or twice a day and while that's OK for adults, baby goldfish have a much higher metabolism and should be fed many times a day... just like a human baby. This is why I so strongly recommend at least a 55G, 4' long tank for two fancy goldfish or a tank twice that length for long-bodied goldfish. Even those minimum recommendations will need weekly tank maintenance to keep the pollution levels down.

Try putting some baby common goldfish (leaving at least 100G per goldfish) in a pond (or big aquarium) and properly feed them from birth, meaning 5-6 times a day for the first few months, then cut back to 3-4 times a day for the next few months, then twice a day thereafter. Do proper filter maintenance, bottom cleaning and PWC's and they will be 12" long after a year and 16" by the two year mark.

Many people have these kinds of results even when buying 1" feeder goldfish at a pet store, even though those fish are partially stunted already but they are still young enough to recover if properly taken care of once removed from the overstocked feeder fish tanks.

http://www.Fishbase.org, which is THE best scientific resource that hobbyists have for information, says that goldfish grow to a maximum normal length of 59cm (23") in nature. http://fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?ID=271

This 1992-1995 Alabama study (see below link or TinyURL if link breaks) of over 250,000 common goldfish measured their length and weight from 1.5cm (.59") to 40.6 cm (16") to come up with a calculator for determining the weight of a goldfish based on it's length. NOTE - There's likely a reason they studied goldfish up to 16" as that is a normally expected/attainable size. The reason that folks would want to know their fish's body weight is to determine the proper amount of food to feed each day... usually 1% to 3% a day, depending on the water temperatures with less food being fed at lower water temps, down in the 60'sF and then no food fed when the water temps get down into the low 50'sF.

http://fishbase.org/PopDyn/FishLWSummary.php?ID=271&id2=954&Genus=Carassius&Species=auratus+auratus&variable_Length=40&variable_Length_required=Edit+box+can+not+be+blank.

TinyURL - http://tinyurl.com/24fhpd6

You can enter your own fish's length (in cm) to find out it's likely weight (in gm).

You can't really use the word "average" when dealing with pet fish length's as the "average" would be severely below what the fish *should* grow to because there is STILL a severe overstocking problem in the hobby due to the bad info given by many pet stores and even many websites still give bad info about goldfish.

Just like with "average" lifespan versus how long a fish *should* live. The "average" lifespan of a pet goldfish is probably a year or two but they should live for 20+ years for long-bodied and 10+ years for fancy goldfish. Here's my "Lifespan" article/list that I've been working on for many years and the REAL *expected* lifespan of pet fish would shock many folks. So many of the most common BIG pet fish (goldfish, common pleco's, oscar cichlids, etc.) should live for a decade AND more, but so many don't make it that long due to being kept in undersized tanks or being overstocked so the stunting causes them many health issues and a much shorter lifespan.

http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/2007/02/how-long-should-aquarium-fish-live.html

http://tinyurl.com/preview.php?num=Fish-Lifespans

HTH!

NOTE - Be careful of the 2.5 meter long goldfish *reported* out of Thailand, that is circulating the net.. it's an April Fool's blog. LOL Unfortunately, some legitimate sites are picking it up as a real story. http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/news/lib/687  I expect we'll be countering this story for years to come. Here's Guinness' report about the April Fool's blog. http://community.guinnessworldrecords.com/_Were-you-April-Fooled/blog/2276498/7691.html

Lenny Vasbinder

----------

Please feel free to leave your comments below.

Pond Information and DIY Pond Information

Here is a recent post I did to a forum. I need to "clean" it up for this blog but I'm just getting it out here for now. :D

Go to my Blog Post about a DIY pump pre-filter/bio-filter that you can make for around $10.00 (not including the pump and fountain that you will need regardless, to keep your pond aerated).

You will also need a good liner... probably the most important thing since I've read horror stories of ponds leaking.

Also be careful of fountains and water falls as they have led to draining a small pond as well if they start spraying the water out of the pond for some reason... heavy wind day or they get moved for some reason.

I've read about using a plastic water trough for farm animals as a pre-fabbed pond which is more sturdier and deeper so they take advantage of the earths geothermal heating/cooling... or they can be used above ground as well but then you wouldn't get the geothermal assistance. http://www.rubbermaidproducts.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=RCP+4247+GRA&Category_Code=Farm+Tough%99+Stock+Tanks. You might be able to find these used for around $50.00 or less at farm auctions. The downside is they don't have the different levels like you could get with a pond liner but they are much cheaper than a good pond liner. I think they have different sizes with a 300G containers that is oval shaped and three feet deep. With a liner, you can make your design however you want but the cost would be more.

Using the dimensions you provided, your pond will be around 187 gallons (using this site http://www.fishpondinfo.com/calc.htm ) but will probably be less once you add the liner so if you get long bodied goldfish, you will only be able to have a few. With round bodied, you could have about 6 but YOU CANNOT GET THEM ALL AT ONCE. Just one or two at a time and you will have to cycle the pond and test your water just like a tank but it's not as bad since it's a bigger volume of water and outdoors which allows for rain, more plants, etc.

My Blog pre-filter/bio-filter relies on Anacharis as part of the system so that will help you keep your water crystal clear along with the filter system. I'm sure you will have other water plants too.. like lilies to cover about 1/2 of the pond to help give it shade and protect the fish from bird predators. You'll find out if you have raccoons or other land predators after you build the pond.

Here's one of my previous blog posts to start you off about the DIY pre-filter. http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/2007/03/pond-maintenance-q-about-algae-bloom.html

These next two articles are VERY GOOD about keeping a pond and keeping it clean and clear.
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/ClearPond.html
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/PondAlgae.html

This guy left a comment on my Blog and his site is pretty good and he has a free e-Book download on his filter system and pond.
http://leisure.prior-it.co.uk/pond.shtml

His eBook download link:
http://www.jpgo.co.uk/trk/Download_DIY_Bio-Filter_Ebook.php

This eBook is readable online at http://www.skippysstuff.com/pondbook.htm and covers everything from building the pond to keeping it running and stresses proper ecology and biology instead of chemical additives for every minor problem.

This is a pretty good site too... Robyn's Pond Site and there is a Yahoo Group thing to sign up for to get her Yahoo Group distributed newsletter but it's not a forum to ask questions, although there may be forums associated with her site... I haven't been there in a while:
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/pond.htm
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pondnews

There's quite a few Yahoo Groups for ponds but most of them aren't moderated and get tons of spam. This next few are OK but they do not get a lot of activity but at least they're not filled with spam.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gold-fish - A moderately busy group but NO spam.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ponds_and_plants/ - A slow group but NO spam.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pondkeepers - A busy group that is moderated.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ponds-Koi - A busy group but gets some spam on rare occasions.

This site has some pictures and diagrams and instructions.
http://www.watergarden.com/pages/build_wg.html

As does this one... but this site overall recommends too many chemical fixes but the instructions will probably help. http://www.macarthurwatergardens.com/BuildPond/buildpond.htm

This is another eBook type site but you have to send them your email info... I use a secondary email addy for these types of sites.. just in case of spam.
http://clearwaterlandscapes.com/pondebook.htm

Here is a PDF e-book called "101 Pond Tips and Tricks", put out by a pond liner product company but it has some good info and things to think about when building a pond.
http://www.pondarmor.com/ebooks/101tips.pdf

Here's a new site I recently found that has a weekly newsletter with a new article each week. http://www.practical-water-gardens.com/form/subscribe070209.htm
Or there FREE book download in .pdf format - The Pond Keeper's 10 Steps To Successful Koi Keeping - http://www.practical-water-gardens.com/10stepskoi.pdf

Here's a page of articles on various topics for pond care.
http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/ponds/index.html

Here's a page of FAQ's about pondkeeping that is pretty good.
http://www.geocities.com/justinm090/faq.html

A very good site about Pond Water Chemistry.
http://www.vcnet.com/koi_net/H2Oquality.html

Following are some online and regular subscription magazines. Most of these are FREE.

Here's one where you can read or download the current edition which comes out every two months. http://www.pondkeeper.com/ On the right side, a little down, you'll see the link to "Read the Current Edition" where it will open a .pdf document. It's a big file since it's the entire magazine but you can save a copy on your computer and read it at your leisure and print any pages you like.

http://www.pondowner.com/ is an online magazine where you can also read the past issues online. At the bottom, there is a link to "Subscribe" to their mailing list so you will be notified when each issue comes out.

http://www.victoria-adventure.org/water_gardening/png.html has the archives of previous "Pond & Garden" magazines and you can download the multi-part .pdf files. It's best to download the multiple parts into separate folders for each volume.

http://www.pondboss.com/ is more for BIG ponds or small lakes and you can subscribe to this one, but there is a free issue you can download to look over to see if you think you will like it.

http://www.watergardennews.com/wgn/magazine.aspx is a free subscription that will be mailed to you. If you are not involved in the "business" end of ponds, then you may have to fudge the info a little to make it look like you are. It's mailed to USA/Canada but if you are out of those areas, they have a .pdf subscription for "Foreign Subscribers".

I used to have a ton more links and other downloadable eBooks but I lost my "Favorites" folder when my hard drive froze up on my laptop and I didn't have the Favorites backed up. You can Google for lots of other pond sites but use caution about the sites that are pushing their chemicals or recommend chemical fixes for everything. Just like with tanks, if you have a proper biology/ecology, your pond will function reasonably well.

Hope this helps.

GoldLenny

Pond Maintenance - Q & A about an Algae Bloom and How-To make an inexpensive Filter system

Following is a post to a Yahoo Group forum that I belong to, and my reply to their questions/problems.

Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 14:15:29 EDT

From: cfit421@
Subject: gross water

Hi,

A friend of mine has a small pond. I'd say it's about 200 gallons. It is stocked with 12 (I think) Wal-mart goldfish, there's only a trickle of water falling from a rock to aerate the water, and the filter and pump are at the bottom of the pond.

The water is disgusting. It's FULL of stringy and blanket type algae and there's a rusty color to the water. She said she got a hold on it just a few weeks ago, then it rains, and it gets all gross again.

She said if there's any expense involved in making it right, it won't be able to happen. So, is there anything she can do to fix the water, even if it involves a LITTLE work and a LITTLE money?

Thanks!

AND NOW MY REPLY:

The algae bloom is usually caused by several factors. Too high of Nitrates and Phosphates in the water and too much Sunlight are the main two reasons for algae. The high nitrates are caused by over-feeding and poor water and filter maintenance. The biggest cause of all of these problems is TOO MANY goldfish. A 200G pond might be OK for 12 baby goldfish but as the grow, they simply create too much waste for that small of a pond. Long-bodied goldfish need at least 50G per goldfish so that pond is 300% overstocked.

Too much sunlight is a little tougher to handle but can be helped a little by water lilies and hyacinths in a wide open pond. You should let them grow till they cover over 50% of your pond. I don't know what the layout of the pond is and if there are any trees providing shade, etc.

Test the water for Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates and also pH if a test kit is available. The Ammonia and Nitrites are usually more of a worry when a pond is new or too much of a bio-filter change has been done. Some people "clean" their ponds and disrupt the bio-filtration too much when they do this.

The high Nitrates can be lowered by PWC's (partial water changes) (if Mother Nature does not provide sufficient rainfall)... no more than 25% at a time unless it's an emergency such as an illness (or contamination)... just pump some of the pond water into the gardens and replace it with properly conditioned tap water but be careful about using the garden hose unless the hose has been running for a while to get any plastifiers out of it first. I just read about this recently after someone had a pond fish kill. I have a 30 gallon clean garbage can that I only use for the pond water. Then I add the conditioner and then pour the water into the pond. Set up the garbage can near the edge of the pond first so after it is full and conditioned, you can just slowly pour it into the pond.

The other reason for high Nitrates is OVER-FEEDING of the Goldfish. Goldfish are great actors and act like they are starving all of the time. Any time you walk near the pond, they will come to the surface and beg for food. Resist the temptation and ONLY feed them once or twice a day per the instructions on the food. Some times, it is good to skip a day just to let them scavenge around for any food that sank to the bottom and to give the bio-filter a chance to catch up with the goldfish waste. Many website articles recommend this. Some even say you can leave for a 3-day weekend without worrying about the Goldfish eating. They eat just about anything and if they are really "starving", they would munch on the greens in the pond but they won't really be starving... just acting! I take this back in advance if you come home from your 3-day weekend and all of your pond plants have disappeared. At least the Goldfish ate well! :P

Neither of the above items cost you anything.

Now, another low-cost or free long term solution.

I'll assume they have a pump that is pumping the water up to the rock and presuming that the pump is OK, then the pump and/or lines are just clogged up with algae growth. Take the tubing off from the Pump to the Rock and clean it out. I used the garden hose to force water through it. Take the tubing all the way out of the pond when you do this and let the junk and water that comes out of the tubing flow into a garden. It will be great for that purpose. Prepare to get a little messy during this job.

Next, make a pre-filter for the pump (assuming it's a small 3-4 inch cube type) to keep all of the junk out of it and the lines. I can't find the link now but I found a diagram on a website years ago where you take a 12" plastic basket, like the kind used for pond plants (get it at the local home improvement or pond store). Buy some "natural" filter material (it was a blue color and used for furnaces and was inorganic and will not harm the water and lasts forever). Buy enough so that you can cut it up to fit all four sides, the bottom and top of the plastic basket between the four side pieces. Put the bottom piece in and then put the four sides in. Put some pea gravel in as weight and for the pump to sit on top of. Then put the top piece on after cutting small slits for the tubing and electrical wiring. All of the pieces should be cut to fit snuggly inside of the basket and the top piece should fit snuggly on top. Optional - put a few bunches of weighted anacharis plants on top of the basket to finish off the system or you can tuck the ends of individual strands between the seams of the blue filter material.

Here is a link to a website http://www.mvwgs.org/filter.htm that shows a similar, but larger DIY pre-filter so depending on the size of your pond, you could use the one I describe with 12" plant basket or the larger one using a milk crate.

EDIT added 07/27/05 - Someone recently found the original website for my pre-filter in the wayback web archives... at this link, but the last time I checked, it was not working - http://web.archive.org/web/20001210043100/theplantplace.com/ourfilter.htm

Now you have a pre-filter for the pump and a GREAT bio-filter as well. Around $10.00... and maybe even free if you have these materials around your home already. The Blue filter material will turn greenish soon, as it filters out the junk and will blend in with the bottom of the pond or you can put it behind a plant or something which is probably where the pump was at in the first place. I also saw someone do this with a plastic milk crate but it required more of the filter material which most people do not have handy. Do not use Fiberglass filter material. I wish I could find the website that explained the exact material but it was the only Blue filter material that you could buy at Home Depot. It is about 1" thick and sturdy... like the material in a kitchen or floor scrub pad... but inexpensive and came in a 24" x 36" piece in one package. It was enough for one filter kit.

The gravel and filter material will become a phenomenal bio-filter after a couple of weeks. When cleaning, if necessary, never clean more than one or two pieces of the filter material at a time and never clean the gravel or bottom piece. When you take the assembly out of the pond, put it in a tub of pond water so you do not kill the good bacteria in the bio-filter. The best thing to do if the filter material is getting clogged up is to just swish it around in the tub of pond water to remove the big debris without removing all of the bio-filter bacteria. Put the piece of filter material back into the basket and use that water in the tub for watering your plants or garden. It's packed with nutrients!

Run this new pre-filter assembly for a week and then do another 25% water change and clean two of the pre-filter panels and repeat until your pond is crystal clear.

When you do maintenance on your pre-filter, always unplug the pump first and any other electrical items in the pond and then put a larger bucket in the pond and put the pre-filter in the bucket (with water) so the pre-filter stays submerged when you remove it and do your filter and pump maintenance.Continue this until the pond is crystal clear... which will happen as long as the over-feeding is cut out and partial water changes are made. Eventually, the partial water changes can be cut back on once the natural bio-filter is doing its job and the algae does not have all of the extra food/nitrates to feed on.

For even more GREAT information, check out these two articles.
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/ClearPond.html
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/PondAlgae.html

Hope this helps.

GoldLenny

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Comments:

Jim Prior said...

Hi Lenny, thats a very good description of working a pre-filter and bio-filter setup. I too have created my own setup incorporating a Skippy style fish pond bio-filter and aeration venturi to make my pond water much cleaner. It has plenty of photos for building such a filter. I hope this will be useful to you and your visitors.

Best wishes Jim.

Friday, September 30, 2005 9:23:00 AM