# ???



## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

I have heard that goldfish produce nitrates and that kills other fish. I have a cory cat and a betta in a 5 gal with a filter. Will they survive in my tank?


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Goldfish eat a bunch and poop a bunch which makes ammonia, which should be turned to nitrite and then nitrate by your filter. Taking out the nitrate need water changes. Any goldfish tank need a lot of attention to water quality and water changes. I don't recommend keeping goldfish with tropical fish like betta and cories. The temperature preferences are too far apart for both to be comfortable, goldfish grow quickly and make a lot of waste, and goldfish (esp. feeder or fair) often carry diseases that can make the tropicals sick and goldfish can be aggressive toward other fish or even eat them when their mouth size gets large enough. 

So, while not immediately fatal, adding a goldfish is not a good idea.


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

Won't plants fix the nitrate problem?


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Plants will help (but a gold fish will chew them), but to get them to take all the nitrate, you usually need a low fish load, high plant load, and maybe even high light/CO2 to get them really growing fast.


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

Thanks a lot!!!


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

My goldfish hasn't eaten the plants at all.


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## Mr. fish (Mar 8, 2011)

First off, every fish produces ammonia which in all tanks if established properly will turn into Nitrate which goes for all tanks. The problem here with goldfish is, they produce SO MUCH waste that the Nitrate levels rise quickly and can often be fatal to other fish if they reach too high.

So as Emc said, goldfish tanks require alot of attn to the water quality and cant be kept with any other type of fish due to the gap in temp.

Goldfish like to be kept at 67-72F, Most tropicals like 74-80F


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