Fish dilemma

[rosebud32]

I've been concerned for the welfare of some fish for a little while now. My hairdresser has one of those huge cylinder fish tanks. When I say huge i mean stands ridiculously tall. It has a huge base on it about 3ft I would say the same as my tank but the cylinder of the actual fish tank also stands really tall. But the width is only about the size of a ruler.

The tank is in the shop window and you can barley see through the tank due to the amount of algae.

I spoke to the owner of the salon about the tank and she said it's a nightmare as she can't physically clean it due to the impractical design. You can't reach the bottom to clean the gravel the filter has packed in so they only have a oxygen stone in it.

As you can't see through the glass clearly I assumed there was goldfish 1 fancy tail and 3 comet goldfish (massive) and some danios but they are in fact
3 comet goldfish, 1 fancy, 5 guppies, 2 Corey's and 2 loaches. The goldfish all came with her tank and she was told by pets at home if she put the heater on she could keep the tropical with the gold fish.

She said she wants the fish rehomed as they haven't got enough room in the tank and the living conditions are far from perfect. I have suggested the goldfish go in a pond, I've given her the number of a friend who has a huge pond that keeps koi and goldfish.

She has asked if I will take on the fancy guppies corys and loaches, she wants them to stay together as they happily play together. My tank is 300L and I only have 1 small fancy that is 5 years I did have another but that was a rescue one that someone took back to the aquatic shop and had no idea what age it was.
I didn't intend to take on any more fish as I wanted to go over to tropical once my fancy passed on. The hairdressers fancy and comets are approx 9 and all the others she had are 2 and bought the same day.

The temp of her tank says 25 and my cold water is natural temp of 24 as mine is in a very well lit room.

I know and am aware this is not the done thing to mix the species and tropical and cold water but it's already been done, would I be mad to consider taking these on? All it would take is a heater to make my tank a constant temperature.

No pet store would have told her she could mix goldfish and any kind of fish let alone put cold water fish in a tropical tank, unless they're temperate fish like platys!
Comets need to stay with comets and orandas (fancys) need to stay with orandas due to the size difference once fully grown, a comet should reach 30cm and a oranda 20cm.they are also very dirty fish and are better suited to ponds.
Move the comets into a pond ASAP. Goldfish (including orandas) eat anything they can fit in there mouths, the comet could still grow if you put him in a bigger tank he could still grow and would eat anything smaller(ie Guppys)!
do you know what type of loaches they are as they may still have some growing? For example a clown loach will reach 25cm in a suitably sized tank so needs 25l alone.

Basically, yes fish grow to the size of the tank but this is because if the tank is too small, it stunts there growth shortening there life span, also if the tank is too small or over stocked the ammonia levels will go through the roof effectively poising the fish causing them a shorter life span and again can stunt their growth.

The Guppys and corys would only need say a minimum of 30l all together(obviously the more space the better) but if the loaches are big loaches they may need an additional 25l each.

You could try rehoming the fish online or speaking to small pet shops about them taking some of the goldfish (Not P@H as they don't do this)
Do you have pictures of the loaches and I could see if I could identify them?

The loaches are clown loaches, they are not that big. Actually nothing in the tank apart from the comets looked that big.

We have a tropical tank aswell here. Did not mention it too the hairdresser as its only 30L and we only have 4 guppies but I feel it's over stocked as it is due to the shape of it as its quite a tall tank not massively so but it dirtys pretty quickly and I certainly can't add that many extra fish into it no way.

I called my friend and she said she is more than happy to take the comets but can't help with the others as she keeps salt water fish.

She said while it's not recommend to mix the fish that way she's Known other people to do a simular mix of fish due to lack of knowledge.

Surprised the guppies haven't become fish food as that was some huge comets in there.

I feel torn as I know they shouldn't mix but on the other hand it's 1oc difference between my cold and the tropical fish and Christ knows where they will end up. I've seen some vile looking tank conditions on my local fb page.
My tank has the room to house them all with lots of hiding places and my water conditions are good.