Sand vs gravel substrate for goldfish

I've got an Oranda goldfish in a 20 gal long tank. She is about 5" from tip of head to tip of tailfins and is doing quite well in the tank.

I put some semi-large river rocks from the fish store in the tank with 3 live plants and 2 fake plants, and for substrate pebbles too large for her to get stuck in her throat. Not a thick coating of substrate.

I made a 25% water change a couple of days ago because she was finishing her Tetracycline after I brought her home and notice how much food was hidden down in the pebbles. She constantly grazes down there but I don't think she can displace the pebbles well enough to find all of it (pebbles = 1/8-1/4").

I thought maybe sand would be easier for her to manage, and I think it would lighten the tank as well.

I'm thinking of putting in an airstone.

Thoughts?

Get some snails and some black worms (blackworms usually sold as fish food) and the food in the substrate will be taken care of. Don't worry about fish ingesting the substrate as they will spit it out. I have a catfish that will suck in gravel along with the feed and then spit out the gravel and that cat has been in my tanks for three years.

Dave

What kind of snails?

Thanks for your thoughts.

malaysian trumpet snails.

also sand is always the way to go for the more natural environment. also easier to clean (as long as its at an average of 2inches deep)

Malaysian Trumpet snails are a good choice as they are live bearers and don't leave clusters of eggs over everything. Another good choice would be any of the snails from the Sulawesi region of Indonesia (Rabbit Snails).

Dave

So the Malaysian Trumpet snails are those (formerly) irritating ones that come into the tank with plants and reproduce "like rabbits"? I have a ton of them!! I can take care of that right now!

My fancy LFS has rabbit snails also. Are they live bearers or do they leave eggs around? There was a huge one NFS in the tank but didn't see the smaller ones.

MTS are actually quite beneficial. they stablize the biological load of a tank due to the ebb and flow of their fluctuating population. and they are easy remove from a tank subsequently removing excess biomass from the system

they also let you know if you are overfeeding with massive population explosions, prompting you to cut back and feed more effciently

OK, I'm going to move a bunch from my quarantine tank to the goldfish tank.

I put in a short bubble bar and Penelope is having a great time swimming back and forth through the bubbles!

What a cute girl.

Now I'm trying to decide between CaribSea Super Naturals white sand and CaribSea white sand with the beneficial bacteria water in the bag. Cheaper and no washing with the latter.

But is the Super Naturals sand more awesome or something? Why is it $10 more per bag, even online? Because it takes some washing, I read, and doesn't add the lovely bacteria.

On the other hand, the reviews are great. "Sparkling" black, "breathtaking" white, etc.

Have you heard or experienced anything with regard to these sands?

With Goldfish you really don't need to worry about having your tank cycled as you do for tropical fish. Goldfish are very hardy as in they usually are a variety of carp.

In fact feeder goldfish have been used to start the bioload to cycle tanks (not something I advise due to the fish diseases goldfish can carry but not be affected by).

Malaysian trumpet snails are live bearers and don't leave clusters of eggs and the Rabbit snails don't leave clusters of eggs around either. Pond snails on the other hand leave clusters of eggs, but are a good source of food for the fish (I squish the ones I can reach every day in my 75 gallon tank and the angel fish love them.

So theoretically I could add a small oranda buddy for her whenever I feel she might be ready for this?

I can already see that the 20 long is going to be small for her and an even smaller oranda but don't have my other tanks moved around enough to set up the 40 breeder (and I like her tank because it is directly in my line of sight and very easy to watch her - the 40 breeder as will be easy to see but not as direct).

The formula for stocking tanks is one inch of fish length for every gallon of water so you can easily put two of the goldfish in there with no problems. Also you can increase or add filtration and you will be fine.

I filter my 20 gallon tanks as I would a 40 gallon and my 75 gallon tank as if it were a 125 gallon. I do this by either using larger filters than are required or by using extra filters (i.e. a power filter and a canister filter on the 75 gallon tank, two powerheads pumping 180 gallons per hour in reverse flow on a 20 gallon tank, and two 20 gallon tanks being filtered by the power filters designed for 30-45 gallon tanks).

I've got two Aqua Clear filters - one up to 30 and the other up to 20, which I might replace with another 30. And a bubble wand about 5" long.

She just dug up the main set of plants hiding the heater, 30 filter and hang-on for the bubbler and tubes. How she's obsessed with the area. I think she likes having more space to swim.