Mixing Freshwater Fish

Question
Hello, I have a 24 gallon aquarium and in it is 1 blue gourami, 2 tiger barb, 7 medium size feeder gold fish and 1 large red white and black spotted gold fish. I want to add more exotic looking fresh water fish...every one keep telling me to get rid of all my gold fish because they will limit what I can put in my tank. Please tell me where I went wrong so far and if I did what direction should I take now.

Answer
Hi Christopher,
 It isn't so much "going wrong" as that you made certain choices and now you have to deal with those.  Putting goldfish in the tank really does limit what else you can put in there. Personally, I would not mix goldfish with tropical fish because goldfish are really temperate animals and don't do really well in tropical conditions.  There are also alot of issues with goldfish (particularly feeder goldfish) often harboring parasites.  Basically, if you want to keep goldfish, keep them separated from "tropical fish".  

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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