Black Moors

[cuticom]

Sigh, I'm in a spot of trouble LOL, I've been fooling around with a planted tank mainly out of curiousity over how well plants really remove nitrates etc from the water. Anyway one of my "subjects" died, I only had three fish in the tank, two dwarf gouramis and a Molly, so to continue the month long 'experiment' I needed another fish, the gourami didnt die cos of a problem with the tank, it was just kinda ill from the start.

Anyway I wasnt able to get to the fish store so I asked Mum to get me a cheapish tropical livebearer or gourami, she turned up with an inch long black moor. Our petstores have no return policies so I now have a black moor goldfish LOl. I think I'm just gonna give up on my planted tank as my Molly went on a destructive rampage this morning and took all the stems off of the foxtail, but I'll try and keep it going for a bit longer.

The temp's only set at 24 degrees celsius and from what I've read thats at the high end of the comfortable range for goldfish so hopefully the moor'll be fine, the molly and gourami ahve always been at 24 degrees temp so hopefully they'll be fine. The tanks 20g, so it "should" be big enough for a single gold fish, and I guess when it gets bigger I'll just have to move the Molly and Gourami back to one of my tropical tanks though I have doubts about the remaining gouramis health.

The reason my Mum got me a goldfish is because my Mum belongs to th old way of keeping fish and she herself has four fancy tailed goldfish and a few tropical tetras living together, I'm actually surprised those goldfish are still alive they were bought for me as adults almost 10 years ago.

So can anyone tell me a bit more about black moors?
ie what size they get to,
best food (I have tropical fish flakes, will that do? LOL, oh and of course my remaining plants),
Do they eat Java moss? What about Foxtail? As I'd like to at least save my Java Moss
Do they jump at all?
and will he be okay in the 20g?

Thanks
Emma

[cuticom]

Have been doing lotsa reading LOL, from hwat I've read Onyx "should" be okay in his tank and thrive though the gourami might get nippy, if thats the case I at least ahve plenty of tropical tanks to move the gourami too. Most sites also generally agree that well fed fish wont touch foxtail (aka hornwort) or java moss, lol so at least some of my pretty plants'll survive

[AquaGirl]

Well, I don't think you should keep coldwater fish and tropical fishes together but I guess you can't help it...

[cuticom]

I never planned on mixing tropicals and coldwater together, but whats done is done I guess, the only way I can change it is to get rid of fish and since our ptstores dont let us return fish that pretty much means killing them and theres no way i'm gonna do that

[cuticom]

I gotta say I abolsutely adore the little moor LOL, he just bumbles around the tank, he's run into the Molly and Gourami a number of times but everytime they just ignore him, such a cute little fella LOL.

Oh I did like a lot of research on the net and these goldfish can live in 30 degrees celsius, so keeping it at 24 should be fine

[Scuba Kid]

I don't think any goldfish should live in 30 C. That's pretty high....

[cuticom]

Mmm, I know its possible though, as when we were in India one of the hotels we were at had a massive fish tank and the goldfish were fine. Plus where I live in Australia the average temp of pretty much any shallow body of water is 28-30 degrees celsius, and our neighbours have ponds with shubunkins that are fine.

I in know would want to put a goldfish in a 30 degree water just sayiong its possible, oh and my tanks dont get that hot our house has full air conditioning, no one can survive outside for long in summer heat LOL

[Niki2105]

Your Moor should do fine in that temp. of water, mine do fine in water in that range. A 20 gallon planted tank sounds like a fine home for him. Not much to tell you about black moors they are pretty much the same as most fancy goldfish only have odd eyes and are black, but there color can change my moor has gone from nice black to a orange. They get to be about 6-8 inches long, as for jumping im not sure.. why do you ask? do you have a cover on your tank? mine has never attempted a jump but a few of my fantails will occasionly try it. I find a good food to feed is sinking pellets because they dont swallow air like they do when they eat something off the surface, this can cause swimbladder problems which are not nice. Also be sure to soak any food you feed them so that it obsorabs water before they eat it insead of in their stomach. Also i believe he should be fine in with your tropical fish, i had to put a gamori and some neon tetras in my goldy tank and they seam fine. anyway i hope i was of some help. Niki

[cuticom]

Okies thanks for that. The reason I aks about jumping is that the light fixture on my tank gets rather hot and I'm just a bit worried that he'd hurt himself if he hit it, but the tank does ahve a full lid