# Zebra China Sucker and Goldfish?



## PGTibs (Jun 9, 2012)

Hey there,

I've had mixed answers to this question, and I'm in a great deal of a hurry to find an answer, so i thought I'd give it an ask on here. I've recently been lumbered with a number of Zebra China Suckers and at first decided they'd probably cope best in my terrapin tank. A risky idea i know, but they seem to thrive in the environment. However, one by one they seem to slowly disappear (probably into the terrapins stomach unfortunately!). I do also have a tank containing two gold fish, and plan to add more goldfish in the near future. 

My question is, can i rescue the remaining Suckers and put them in with the goldfish? Or is their fate a possible five course meal for my terrapin? I hope the response is that they'll do fine with my goldfish, but i fear the worst here!

Thank you!
(And sorry if this is in the wrong section!)


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## freshwater77 (May 24, 2011)

What size are your goldfish? Goldfish have a widely varied diet and I believe that if you were to provide ample shelter for your Zebra China Suckers and gave the goldfish plenty of other food variety such as vegetable matter and freeze-dried foods to keep them occupied, everyone should survive.


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## PGTibs (Jun 9, 2012)

One is about 2 inches long, the others about 3.. There's a number of ornaments and plants in the tank, and plenty of little hiding places. But i've read in places that the suckers can sit on the fish as they sleep and cause them to loose their "slime"? That said, there should be plenty of space for them to never really meet?


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Sounds like what you have is chinese algea eaters, which can get good size and aggressive. Yes they will eat slime coat off fish but usually its on flat bodied fish like angels and such. Should be fine with the goldies for awhile.


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## PGTibs (Jun 9, 2012)

Ahh this is the kind of response i was looking for  Brilliant! I'll try them out for a while and if they're getting along then i'll leave it! Much appreciated!


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## snail (Aug 6, 2010)

Are they common or fancy goldfish? I'd think common goldfish are strong and fast enough to stand up for themselves. Some of the fancy ones are pretty slow and struggle with aggressive fish. But as Susan says you can try and see if it works.

How big is the tank? Goldfish are messy and get huge, chinese algea eaters get fairly large too. Just in terms of bioload I'm thinking you'll need a really big tank for it to work long term. Good filteration and plenty of large water changes are probably going to be a good idea for the fish to keep healthy.


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