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Is Akadama compatible with goldfish

a1Matt

Member
Joined
10 Mar 2008
Messages
2,489
Location
Bromley
I am selling my tank, and the potential buyer will be putting goldfish in.

I don't know what to advise them in regards to substrate for goldfish.

The tank currently has akadama, so the eaaiest solution would be to leave that in.

I have very little experience with goldfish, but I have seen them sucking up and spitting out gravel. It appears to be playful.

So I assume akadama is a bad idea as it will crumble and the dust could get messy.

I've also seen people advise against substrate for goldfish, for ease of cleaning or for fear of them choking on it.

That seems a shame, like it's depriving them. I could be anthropomorphising
though.

Any thoughts or experience?
 
Hi
I will advise to chsnge substrate.The gold fish will sift trough it.And will crumble it down making a right mess.Sand will be best in my opinion .Thin (2cm) layer fine sand will keep them happy while preventing anaerobic substrate and getting filled with muck.
Regards Konsa
 
Yup agree with Konsa, i tried years ago but ended up switching out for a gravel
 
Cheers guys, I guessed as much, but it's good to get confirmation akadama isn't suitable :thumbup: I'll remove the akadama before selling the tank and let the buyer know gravel or sand is ok.
 
They love it!!.:D

DSC_0450.jpg


And i have to guess a little, but the Akadama in there (randomly mixed with sand and gravel) is at least 4 years submersed now. And still pretty solid.. I remember it was an extra hard type of Akadama.. Ok this are the babies.. But even the big ones also had partialy akadama mix to play with. I never found anything crushed. A also doubt they will crush it while shifting it around.. They pick it up, sift out what's edible and spit out to their left or right whats not.

Solely to small grained Akadama i can imagine it might not be best.. But larger grained and or mixed,not realy a problem. Akadama is a clay and small dusty particles sink in and accumulate deeper down into a silky clay mass. But they are not realy deep diggers..

Anyway, i have gold fish for many years on all kinds of substrate, sand, gravel, akadama, sintered glass, pebbles and over the years i have mixed up, never realy experienced any issues. They wont choke on it.. At least not a healty fish, but since they are heavily inbred it might occur accasionaly seeing anatomical deformities causing strange issues. Lately saw one abnormality in a fancy goldfish (not mine i have no fancies) having problems with spitting things out from its gills. Than things can get stuck and cause harm..

Also a planted tank for goldfish shouldn't be an issue if you do it right. This means take plants that grow fast and propagate via runners.. Firstly plant a tank and let it grow in completely, so there will be a deep rooted blanket of (hair) roots and plants interconnected with runners. This can take a long time, up to 1 year.. :) Than introduce the fish, they will dig and sift substrate, but can't dig through the root blanket only sift the top layer.. It's a bit trail and error maybe to find plant sp. they do not eat. The mainly like to niblle on soft tissue plants. For example they will eat Elodea, obviously that shouldn't be the main plant. They wont eat pondweed, nymphoides, nymphaea, hornworth, all are fast growing vigorous rooting plants. :) There are more options..

Where the majority goes wrong, is buying the fish first and the plants last. Resulting in the idea plants and goldfish don't go together.

That's an advice to thinker about, don't give your goldfish an invironment nor the oppertunity to create a mess. :thumbup: Let them work for you not against you.
 
I’m not hugely experienced but what I have learned about planted tanks and goldfish is in my journal
I used sand but found it was too easily sucked up during cleaning so switched to a gravel.
There’s a thread on heat somewhere recommending roughly 3mm grade and coincidentally that’s what I use. Maidenhead Aquatics standard aquarium substrate by “Aqua-substrate” seems to be working well at the moment.
I have never tried planting the substrate directly but have found creating removeable planted islands incredibly effective at allowing the tank to be properly cleaned.
Anubias and Java ferns seem to be left alone by the golds other plants get munched so I’d advocate keeping a couple of bunches of elodea at all times to keep them distracted.
Good luck!
 
I've noticed quite some difference in type of substrate and how plants root.. Example i've grown Potamogeton gayi on Akadama in a high tech and it was pretty much restricted to one small area, like akadama is to coarse an too heavy for the plant to spread easily.

Growing the same plant low tech on a layer of clay based organic lily soil (that is extremely mushy and soft submersed), caped with river sand and that again capped with fine gravel. The plant poppud up all over the place within a few months. Growing a very dense root math and runs like a race car absolutely unstoppable need to trim it weekly. If i pull it i pull out metre long runners with lots of hair roots attached. In a way in this setup it grows 10 x beter than in the previous high tech.

Btw the goldfish don't touch it, same goes for the other pondweeds (potamogetons) Also threw in a bush of Bacopa with the adult fish, it is not touched.
Rotalla rotundifolia and Lilaeopsis brasiliensis also.

I’d advocate keeping a couple of bunches of elodea at all times to keep them distracted.

Could very well be an issue them taking on less attractive plants if they miss something and or get boored. I never kept adult goldfish in tanks, in a way i can see them getting boored in a simple square box invironment.. I always experienced tham very playfull and they love brooken lines of sight and caves. Hard to say something about what they actualy are playing, but to humanize it, it looks like hide and seek and catch me if you can.. :) They are very interactive if given a playfull decorated invironment..
 
A little update.

I spoke to the buyer, who is new to fishkeeping, and explained all the substrate options.

We decided that as some people have had success with akadama (thanks @zozo) it is worth leaving it in the tank and giving it a try.

They are prepared that it might get messy and need removing.

It's one of the harder types so they are in with a chance.

All the other info about plants and hardcsape etc. is appreciated and taken onboard too :thumbup: I'm including enough wood to break up line of sight a bit.
 
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