Hardiness of fantail goldfish types

[moby]

I like to stock my pond with a variety of types and colours of fish and am wondering about a few of the fantail varieties for added interest. Are any types hardier than others in this range of fish please, bearing in mind I'm from the UK? Currently I have shubunkins, red and yellow goldfish, golden and blue orfe, sarasas, comets and two very large ghost koi.

 

[addy1]

We get cold here, ponds ice over. I have fan tails that survive the winter just fine. They are in a 1000 gallon pond with shubunkins.

 

[Riftlake]

Wakins

 

[bettasngoldfish]

I think of all the fancy type goldfish the fantails are the most hardy and appropriate for a pond.

 

[Smaug]

Be careful mixing the fancier goldfish with larger faster more rambunctious fish like koi and comets. It can be difficult for the fancies to compete with food and I've actually seen my koi harass my black moors when I had them together . They actually nose bumped them into the air a few times.

 

[addy1]

I have my fantails with shubunkins they seem to do just fine together. They are slower movers that the goldfish.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

The black moors or telescope eye fish are at a disadvantage due to their eyes. They don't see as well and are also considered more delicate due to the eyes sticking out. They are best kept in a controlled environment where they aren't at a high risk for injuring or even losing an eye.

 

[moby]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Personally I'm not a fan of the telescopic eyed types so I wouldn't add those, also, black moors would not be my choice as they are not easily visible against my black liner. I also am not happy with the ones without dorsal fins as I consider them very abnormal and can have difficulty in swimming. The smallest fish are around 4" body length so they would have ones of similar size to shoal with if I decide to get a few. I also use small pellets in order that the smallest ones are able to feed ok....the biggest fish, the two koi and the three golden orfe just have to work harder to gulp up a large amount of smaller food.....and they seem to manage that quite well enough!

 

[Smaug]

I guess my koi are just bigger buttheads then most,no fantail goldfish I ever added made it more the a season or two. The moor I had grew up with them so they were easier in him,he got stuck in a plant but he was over 10 years old.

 

[Faebinder]

I have a mixture in my pond. One of them is a fantail and it wintered fine with the other types of fancies and the single tailed goldies.

The worst type of goldie to winter in a pond for me so far has been orandas. The ranchus, lionheads, etc etc are fine.

 

[keyplayer]

I like to stock my pond with a variety of types and colours of fish and am wondering about a few of the fantail varieties for added interest. Are any types hardier than others in this range of fish please, bearing in mind I'm from the UK? Currently I have shubunkins, red and yellow goldfish, golden and blue orfe, sarasas, comets and two very large ghost koi.

I live in temperature Zone 5a and have several fantails that have survived the pond being covered in 6 inches of ice, and, it's not terribly deep! The only casualty was a baby KOI despite a horrendously long and frigid winter.
I do, however operate THREE freeze-mitigation devices: a VENTURI to aerate and keep ice open; a low wattage pond heater; and an aquarium-sized air pump. These fish are amazingly tough. The biggest problem I had was disease until I converted my pond to an all-natural bio-filter system. After that the fish have thrived despite the pond being (according to some «experts») too shallow and too crowded. The fish seem to disagree. BTW 90% of their food is pond-growing DUCKWEED with occasional citrus-peel treats!

 

[addy1]

I was pleased to see all four fantails in my 1000 gallon pond, they did fine with their first winter! All I used was a pond breather. They just started leaving the cover of the plants to come out and be seen.
We did not freeze as deep this winter as last, but the pond was ice covered for a few months.