Please don't judge/advice please

[momb]

DD won two goldfish at the fair. The woman sold us two 12" tanks (basically rectangular fishbowls) and told us we could feed them crumbs out of the toaster! I looked up what they needed on the web and the site I saw said minimum 120 litres! We have no space for such a thing and thought as they were from the fair they'd die anyway. I bought a 30l tank with built in pump and lights and we set it up with plants and stuff and put them in. Not ideal but a short term fix and better than the plastic pots.....
18 months later: the tank is obviously too small and consequently we are constantly cleaning it, part changing out the water, changing filters. Further we had nowhere to put it without part sunlight so it gets quite green. The goldfish are getting very big (4" and quite fat): they spawned this year although the filter sucked everything up thank goodness. They are happy fish but only because of the amount of work we put in to maintain their environment because the tank to just too small.
So, everywhere I read a different recommended tank size. I don't want to have to replace in another 18 months. We don't want any more fish so whatever fits the two will be fine. Any subsequent tank change will be to a pond.
We will need to get something on a stand as have no surface space available.
Recommendations please?
Thanks in advance

[EauRouge]

Oooh, I won't judge but I am going to shock you, sorry. Goldfish get absolutely enormous- they do not grow to the size of their tank (premature death does not count as 'growing to the size of their tank'). They do need a very large tank. For two fancy goldfish (fat round ones with long fins) I'd be looking at about 180 litres. Common goldfish (ordinary fish shaped ones) are best off in a large pond really. Fancy goldfish cannot live outside so if you can't provide a big enough tank it would be best to rehome them with someone who can (there are fish rescue groups on Facebook).

There's a lot of misinformation out there because most people have never seen a fully grown healthy goldfish in a tank :( They are a rare thing indeed because most people don't know what they need.

This is a good explanation of fish.

I can't believe fairs still give away goldfish as prizes, they are one of the least suitable fish to give to an unsuspecting newbie. I wish they would ban it, they wouldn't give away gerbils as prizes.

Good luck, I hope you manage to get your fish sorted with a bigger home.

[Buttholelane]

Find someone with a pond would be my advice, or look into building a pond in your garden.
There's some beautiful designs around now with waterfalls and all sorts, could be a really lovely feature.

These fish should not be kept in aquariums at all imo, they are carp.
A healthy goldfish should be 30cm from head to base of tail minimum, a fancy goldfish the size of a small football!
These are big fish...

[Buttholelane]

Then you could put a Siamese fighting fish or 5 micro fish like celestial pearl danio, Pygmy cories or chilli rasboras in the 30.

[momb]

Updating with a happy tale: we eventually found someone with a pond to take our goldfish. One was nearly 6", the other 4" when they left us. Both are happy and healthy and are growing day on day. Certainly the bigger of the two will be a foot long by the end of the year!

We haven't bought anything small for the tank, although the children would like to. I'm enjoying having no pets at the moment so we can come and go as we please.