Goldfish Eating Other Fish

[abnrmlisme]

Will goldfish eat other fish that are small ? We have 2 large golds, about 6-8 inches in length who (not my idea) live in our 55g community tank. We are moving them to a friends pond in about a week (thank God!!). Anywho we acquired some fish over a month ago & we finally put them in the 55g. Well a few went missing only days later. They were real young cardinal tetras, a couple of the tiny guppies, (no big deal there since he had about 50 to begin with when I moved in), & a few of our zebra danios who were also real young & small. I was just wondering if gold's will eat other fish. I can't wait to get rid of them though.

Thanks!

[Sprite42]

I don't know about the eating the other fish, I would imagine so. But, cardinal tetras and guppies are tropicals whereas goldies are not. They have very different requirements and should not be housed together, even for a short period of time. Unless your goldies are kept at tropical temperatures, your little fish probably succumbed to too cold water.

[emc7]

goldfish are omnivores, if they can catch it and it fits in their mouth they will eat it.

[hogan7]

they most definatly will eat small tetras, ive seen it happen usually done at night when the tetra basically swims into the fishes mouth

[|V|][{|-|/\[-|_]

A basic law of keeping fish. If a fish will fit in another fish's mouth, that fish will eventually become dinner. Of course there are exceptions to this, but they are VERY rare.

[Niki2105]

Like the others said, if it fits in their mouths fish will eat it, be it food or other fish.
I would like to disagree with Sprite42 with the Goldfish cant live in warm water. Goldfish are called Cold water fish because they CAN live in freezing water not because they have to. They can live perfectly normal healthy lives in warm tropical water, mind you I wouldnt let their temp go above 80 degrees but then again I probally wouldnt have any other fish have that warm of water either. Im just getting tired of people saying that Goldfish cannot live in a tropical tank because they are cold water fish. My Goldfish tank is kept at room temperature of about 75-78 degrees like my 2 tropical tanks and they do fine in it. Sorry for the rant and im sorry if it sounds rude but I just want people to know that goldfish do not have to live in cold water.
Niki.

[Sprite42]

I understand your rant...But, I never said that goldfish could not be kept at tropical temps. I stated that they are not 'tropical' fish. Very big difference.

You may want to re-read that again.

[abnrmlisme]

The temp in the tank is kept at a degree comfortable for my tropical fish, usually btwn 75 or 80 degrees..We're getting rid of the golds tomorrow..

[Durbkat]

Originally Posted by Niki2105

Like the others said, if it fits in their mouths fish will eat it, be it food or other fish.
I would like to disagree with Sprite42 with the Goldfish cant live in warm water. Goldfish are called Cold water fish because they CAN live in freezing water not because they have to. They can live perfectly normal healthy lives in warm tropical water, mind you I wouldnt let their temp go above 80 degrees but then again I probally wouldnt have any other fish have that warm of water either. Im just getting tired of people saying that Goldfish cannot live in a tropical tank because they are cold water fish. My Goldfish tank is kept at room temperature of about 75-78 degrees like my 2 tropical tanks and they do fine in it. Sorry for the rant and im sorry if it sounds rude but I just want people to know that goldfish do not have to live in cold water.
Niki.

Actually when they are in tropical temp waters they become sluggish.

[CyberSpike]

My buddy had a massive goldfish kept with his bala shark, then one day he looked to see the sharks tail sticking out of the goldie...

[Durbkat]

Ewwww!!! When I was younger (like 8 years old or younger) I had 2 goldfish in what I think was a 2g bowl that had a airstone in it and the pump was to strong for the bowl and one time when I got back from out of town one of the goldfish had eaten the other one and then it died as I guess it choked on the goldfish as its the other goldfish's tail was sticking out of its mouth.

[betta_love]

DurbKat...that's pretty nasty and sad lost 2 goldfish at the same time

[mayastarocker]

I would not have any fish that can fit into their mouth. I was afraid that some of the minnows that I had the 2 goldfish would eat them. In the end, they never did. Mine were about 4-4.5 inches long. They got that big in three months in my 100+ gal pond.