Hi,

We live in the UK & have a 25 gallon plastic cold water tank & i was just
wondering how many comets/goldfish i can keep in it. I had 3 x 2" comets &
they grew to about 5" for about 3 years until they all died when we were
away on holiday. We over fed them & the water got really polluted. Now i'm
ready to start all over again armed with more facts like we don't need to
feed them so often esp. when we're away & keeping the water clean all the
time by replacing up to 50% of it when needed & having more oxyginating
plants in the tank.

The 25 gallon tank is sited in partial sunlight which i think is best & i
try to keep any leaves & garden debris out of it most times. The tank is
rectangular in shape & has a surface area of 28" x 22". It's about 20" deep.
I've read previous posts about comets growing up to 10" in size & i was
wondering if they were constrained by the size of the pond/tank, will they
stop growing? & how long do they live for?

A few further questions, do comets/goldfish eat mosquito larvae & other
'worms' or insects found in a pond? While cleaning out the pond after the
last 3 comets died, i found leaches in the pond/tank & i was worried that
they might be harmful to the fish, are they? Also i've read that comets can
go w/o food for up to 2 weeks, perfect for when we're away for holidays but
do they eat oxyginating weeds & such in the meantime? I don't really want to
use holiday fish food again. Also can someone advice on the feeding pattern
of comets, from experience i've noticed that they eat less or hardly in the
winter while they're more active in the summer. I've also noticed that they
tend to spend more time on the surface during the summer, is this because
there's more algae growth & less oxygen in the water?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

DC.