# Bye Bye GT's



## fishyfishyfish (May 8, 2008)

I sold my beautiful gt pair yesterday and i'm going to replace them with some Oranda's 










Yes you heard corectly i've never had cold water fish so ill give that a try plus i'm bored of the constant aggression of cichlids but anyways i just have a quick question about foods?

Q - I have 3 bags of cichlid (hikari) food & tropical flake - will i be a ble to feed the goldfish on this or should i buy proper goldfish food.

Is it all the same food repackaged for (selling more) reasons or are there different dietary requirements between cold & tropical fish??

Thanks


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

It's a 40 gallon right? Probably why you had so many aggression issues bro.

Anyway, there are alternatives, have you even tried any of the Dwarf SA species? Would you consider it before you write Cichlids off as a group!?

I would suspect that goldfish don't need similar protein and fat content - being cold water their metabolism will be somewhat slower than that of our tropicals, so yes you can probably feed it to them,just give them a little less than you would your Cichlids (I would expect Cichlid foods to be higher protein/fat than goldfish feeds).

Might be better off asking on a Goldfish forum though, I've never had one. My mountain minnows were quite happy in a tropical environment with NLS cichlid formula, for what it's worth. They were supposed to be feeders but they just thrived instead :roll:.


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## crotalusfan (Jun 21, 2008)

I have fed goldfish cichlid food in the past and never had any problems. They were feeders that my oscars didn't want to eat for some reason. I noticed some possibly accelerated growth, but since I had never kept goldfish before, I'm not sure. They were regular feeders (comets) from my LFS and they went from 1-2" to about 9" in less than 6 months.


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## xalow (May 10, 2007)

Goldfish are known for being really messy fish that add a lot of waste to a tank. This is relevant to your diet question because I believe they are so dirty from not being able to digest excess protein. I just checked my old goldfish food and found that it had 33% protein, while my other flake types have 44%. While an 11% difference does sound all that remarkable, chances are it is slightly better for them to have designed food but I doubt that it would be fatal for them to have a different type, just be sure not to overfeed goldfish which is easy to do.


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

> I just checked my old goldfish food and found that it had 33% protein, while my other flake types have 44%


That's pretty much what I expected...


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## fishyfishyfish (May 8, 2008)

just bought 3 oranda & a black moor and was quite suprised by the personalities - they are like little puppies - as soon as you come near the tank they come up to meet you and beg for food.

there probably just mindless eating machines but they have a pretty cool cutesy factor!!!


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

So that's a no then? You haven't tried any other Cichlids before giving up on them as a group?

Shame really considering how massively diverse the Cichlid group is - there are plenty of Cichlids that would satisfy your mellow but personable interest in them, not to mention their blend of colours, intelligence and characteristics.

Have you done this because you feel like Cichlids are too much work? You just want something easy and less time consuming? I just can't understand how you go from having GT's, lumping all Cichlids together as "too aggressive", to having nothing but Goldfish. There's no middle ground walked there :lol:.

Well I hope you enjoy your goldfish, I can't say I see the draw to them but it's each to their own eh! Maybe one day you'll think about coming back to the Cichlid family and trying your hand at something a little less aggro (pair of GT's in a 40 is really too small, part of the problems you've had), maybe you'll see that with appropriate stocking and aquascaping, you can have an easy and stress free experience with a large number of Cichlidae.

Maybe you're just a goldfish fiend. I wish you luck with that.

:thumb:


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## fishyfishyfish (May 8, 2008)

blairo1 said:


> So that's a no then? You haven't tried any other Cichlids before giving up on them as a group?
> 
> Shame really considering how massively diverse the Cichlid group is - there are plenty of Cichlids that would satisfy your mellow but personable interest in them, not to mention their blend of colours, intelligence and characteristics.
> 
> ...


To be honest i was fascinated by cichlids and had them for last few years, and before that i had general tropical then i tried brackish.... i've never had coldwater fish.

Plus i didn't see every cichlid as aggressive just the ones i have had - but to be fair they ARE ALL aggressive just differing amounts of aggressiveness and it would be nice to sit in the living room and not have 2 fish trying to kill each other while i'm enjoying a cuppa and a chocolate hobnob ;-)

It's like everything else i suppose - i just got bored and fancy something new - plus most ppl see goldies as a food source for cichlids which pains me so i thought i'd give them a chance before some vile individual fed them to a fat cichlid!!!

In a few months ill be bored again and maybe get a hamster!!! :thumb: 
Ta for the help tho guys xxx


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

> To be honest i was fascinated by cichlids and had them for last few years,


Fair enough really! I was just curious as to whether you'd tried anything other than green _terrors_. Being a Cichlid fanatic I feel duty bound to try and keep people hooked on them .



> It's like everything else i suppose - i just got bored and fancy something new


Ah you see, my method when that happens is to set up another tank, rather than change a pre-existing one. To get over my "sametankitis" I usually just change the aquascape around every 3 months or so. I'm weird though, once I get a Cichlid I don't like to let go of it unless it's behaviour/unforseen circumstances leave me with no alternative option, probably because I know it's well looked after in my tank and I can't bear the thought of it ending up in the hands of someone who couldn't really care less about the health of the fish.

Best of luck with your new fishy friends! I hope they keep you entertained.
:thumb:


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