Fantail Goldfish Care, Feeding,  Diseases, Breeding, and more...

Introduction

Fantail Goldfish are the second most popular variety kept by aquarists after Comets. 

Fantails are quite hardy and are suitable for ponds as long as they don’t have too many single caudal fin varieties in the same pond, as over time, they will dominate the feeding and outgrow the fantails.

Fantails come in several different variations depending on where you live, but  do have a few characteristics that remain the same for all:

• Two caudal fins are always present
• Better specimens have two anal fins
• All fins are present.

last Updated: 02-14-2025 by Grant Lord

Fantail Goldfish General Care Guidelines

Fantail Goldfish require no special care.  They are quite hardy active fish.

• Give them enough room to grow; allow about 70 liters (15 gallons UK, 18 gallons US) with a filter installed for an adult fish.
• Make frequent large water changes, ensuring no large differences in water temperature or pH and chlorine or chloramine has been removed from the water.
• Feed them a variety of fresh plant and animal-based foods.
• Fantails are suitable for ponds so long as there is not too much competition for food from single-tailed varieties.
• These Goldfish can suffer digestive problems caused by poor food, which can lead to balance problems due to their short, round bodies. This typically shows up as buoyancy problems.

Fantail History and Origin

All Goldfish varieties can be traced back to the Prussian or Gibel carp.  Through selective breeding of fish that developed odd genetic characteristics such as gold coloration and twin tails, all 100 plus different varieties have been created.

All Goldfish varieties have the same scientific name of Carassius auratus auratus var., not Carassius gibelio, which is interesting because no variety of Goldfish lives in the wild (unless introduced intentionally), not even the Common Goldfish.

Fantails were an early variation of the common Goldfish.  The Common Goldfish of Japan, the Wakin, is just a Common Goldfish with a double tail.  The deep-bodied varieties were derived from the Wakin.

Physical Characteristics

What Should a Fantail Goldfish Look Like?

This is where things become a little tricky.

Fantails come in several different variations.

Japan has two versions of Fantail.  The first is the Wakin or Common Goldfish of Japan.  It has short fins, and the body is slim compared to other Fantail varieties.  It is the most popular Goldfish in Japan, but is seldom seen in other countries.

Because they don’t have showy finnage, they are bred for intensity of color, which should be deep orange/red.

The second version of Fantail in Japan is the Ryukin or Japanese Fantail, and it conforms more closely to the accepted characteristics of a Fantail.

It has a short, rounded body with long flowing fins and forked caudal.

British and American standards recognize the humpbacked version of the Japanese Fantail where the body line rises sharply from behind the head.

To conform to the national United Kingdom Goldfish standards and the American Goldfish Association standards, the fins of the Fantail must be short, with the caudal lobes slightly rounded.

Scale Types of Fantail Goldfish

The scale group most desired is deep red metallic, but they can be found in all three scale groups.

Feeding and Diet

Fantail goldfish can suffer digestive problems caused by poor food leading to balance problems due to their short round bodies.

Gel foods are recommended as they mimic Goldfish's natural foods, which are mainly soft and moist.

Live foods can include mosquito larvae, daphnia, earthworms, blood worms, white worms, and adult brine shrimp.

If live food is hard to find or grow yourself, many specialist fish shops have the frozen equivalent.

I wouldn't collect daphnia from the wild as parasites such as lice can be introduced into the aquarium.

Mosquito larvae are easy to raise, and Goldfish of all ages love them.  Check whether you are legally allowed to raise them, as you can't in some countries and US states.

How much, how often, and what to feed your Goldfish depends on age, season, or whether you are conditioning your fish for breeding.

Because Goldfish only have rudimentary stomachs, they graze continuously, which is why they always appear hungry.  Ideally, they should be fed 3 times a day, but for most, this is impracticable.

Adult fish should be fed between 1-2% of their body weight daily.  If only one feeding a day is possible, a good quality food that won't dissolve before the fish can eat it is needed.  This is why a gel food such as Repashy Super Gold is recommended.

The danger of overfeeding is often the reason given to feed only what can be consumed in a few minutes.

Fact: Goldfish cannot be overfed! Goldfish are slow eaters compared to some fish species because they only have a rudimentary stomach.  They force as much food as possible into their mouths and slowly chew and swallow it before looking for another mouthful.

During this period, dry, processed foods are dissolving.  When the fish are looking for their second or third mouthful, the food has dissolved into dust that will decay and pollute the water.

Tank Setup and Maintenance

Suitable Tank Size for Fantails

Fantails are reasonably active fish. 

Allow about 70 liters (15 gallons UK, 18 gallons US) with a filter installed for one adult fish.

70 liters is a good compromise between how big the fish will grow, how big the tank is to handle, water temperature swings, and the frequency of water changes needed to keep nitrates below 30 ppm.

For each additional Goldfish, another 20 liters (5 gallons UK, 6 gallons US) are required.

If your tank is for display purposes only, get a tank slightly taller than it is wide, as taller plants such as Vallisneria can be grown, and a taller tank has a larger viewing area.

Do not place your tank where it will receive direct sunlight or strong indirect sunlight.  Even strong artificial light can be a problem.  Tanks produce ideal algae growing conditions with their high nitrate levels; sufficient light is all that is necessary to produce an algal bloom.

If you have no option but to place your tank near a strong light source, you can always install a UV clarifier.

Maintaining Water Quality

Like all Goldfish varieties, the Fantail requires good water quality to thrive.  The difficulty with this is that Goldfish can become large given the right conditions; when young, they need a lot of food to grow quickly, which produces large amounts of waste.

The ideal water parameters for Fantails are:

• PH between 6.5-7.4
• Nitrates below 30 ppm (parts per million).  Very young fish (fry) require nitrates to be below 5 ppm.
• Ammonia needs to be at zero
• Nitrites need to be at zero
• Water temperature between 16-24^oC (60-75^oF)
• GH (general hardness) of 200 ppm or above (dGH 11)
• KH (carbonate hardness) of 143 ppm or above (dKH 8)

Most city water supplies fall into these parameters.  If your water source is from a bore, it will pay to check the water parameters, as nitrates and hardness readings can often be very high.

Some water supplies can be extremely soft, with KH 0-1 and GH 2-3.  If you want your fish to grow, the GH must be raised.

You will need a water test kit to check your water parameters regularly and determine when to make water changes.  Get a test kit that has test tubes and solutions.  Don't use test strips, as they are notoriously inaccurate.

Making partial water changes without checking whether they are sufficient or often enough is just guessing.

Filtration and Heating

A filter, although not essential, does reduce the maintenance workload.  Water changes must be made much more frequently to keep ammonia at a safe level if a filter is not installed.

Once it is cycled, a filter removes dangerous ammonia and nitrites, creating less harmful nitrates.  A water change becomes necessary once the nitrate level goes above 30 ppm, which is why you need a water test kit.

Short-finned Fantails are reasonably strong swimmers; a filter should turn the aquarium water volume over four times an hour but not create a current the fish have to swim against.

Fantails are warm water fish, not cold water, not tropical, and prefer seasonal temperature changes.

Goldfish can take very low temperatures but only briefly, such as in Winter when they enter a dormant or low activity state.  Low water temperatures like these are best tolerated by less developed varieties such as the Comet. 

A heater is not required if kept indoors, where water temperatures will be well above freezing.  If Fantails are kept outside in a pond, and water temperatures are expected to fall below 7^oC (45^oF) for extended periods over Winter, bringing them inside for Winter would be wiser.

Plants and Substrate

Vallisneria is a suitable plant for a Fantail aquarium or pond.

Goldfish are omnivorous, meaning plant material forms part of their diet.

If you choose the wrong plants, your comets will strip them to stalks within hours.

Suitable plants are;

• Vallisneria - used as a background plant because of the height it grows to
• Blue Hygrophila – used as a foreground plant.  There is a dwarf variety available.
• Hygrophila Difformis – used as a foreground plant.  Its fast growth helps control algae
• Red Bacopa – the leaves get a red tinge on the underside
• Ludwigia Arcuata – this plant requires a relatively large amount of light before forming a red stem and leaves.

Adding substrate or having a bare bottom tank is a personal choice, but there are some considerations before purchasing substrate;

• White substrate will cause your fish to lose color intensity
• Sand is not a good choice if you want to install an under-substrate filter.  The grains need to be between 3 and 6mm in size.
• Goldfish will choke on small pieces of smooth gravel.  I have lost two Black Moors from this.
• Are you planning on growing live plants?  Plants can be grown in containers if you don't want to have substrate.

Aquarium Decorations

Aquarium decorations aren't such a problem for Fantails as it is for other shortsighted varieties, such as Moors, who tend to blunder around an aquarium.

Some Fantail fins can grow quite long, so they appreciate more open water in the aquarium to move around freely.

Decorations with holes or confined spaces should also be avoided as if it's possible to get stuck, Goldfish invariably will.

Suitable Tank Mates for Fantails

The most common mistake novice Goldfish keepers make is to mix fancy varieties with single-tailed varieties.  They don't realize that slow-swimming varieties such as Oranda and Fantails can't compete successfully with fast-swimming varieties like Comets for food.

What happens over time is as the single-tailed fish get the majority of the food, they get bigger and bigger, and the others don't thrive.

Fantails can be kept with other Goldfish varieties, but a close watch needs to be kept on them to ensure they are getting their share of the food if housed with a single-tailed variety.

Plecos and Bristle Nose catfish used for removing algae can become a problem when they get larger if they start eating the slime off the sides of your Fantail as a protein supplement to their diet.

Any other small fish or aquatic life in the aquarium will be eaten if it can fit into your Fantail's mouth.

Health and Diseases

Parasites

Several types of parasites attack Goldfish;

• Flukes if the body length of the fish is under 52mm (2 inches)
• Intestinal worms
• Protozoan parasites such as Costia and Ich (white spot)
• Free swimming aquatic parasitical crustaceans such as anchor worm and lice.

Bacterial Diseases

Bacterial infections can show as;

• Fin rot
• Bacterial gill disease
• Mouth rot
• Pop eye
• Raised scales
• Body sores (ulcers)
• Red patches on the body and fins

Fungal Infections

Fungal infections are quite common in Goldfish.  They are usually seen as large or small tuffs of white cotton wool-like matter on the skin or fins.

A much more serious fungal infection is Branchiomyces, an aggressive fungus that kills fish by destroying gill tissue.

Viral Pathogens

The two most common viruses are:

• Lymhocystis virus, which appears as a white crusty growth on the skin and
• Papillomatous lesions caused by the cyprinid herpes or carp pox virus.

Both look very similar, but the treatment is different.  Both are weakly transmissible, but neither is fatal.

More about goldfish diseases here...

Quarantining New Fish

Quarantining new fish does not mean keeping them separate from your existing fish population for a few weeks and observing if they develop a disease.

It is unlikely fish being kept in pristine quarantine conditions and being fed high-quality food will succumb to any disease.

But what if the new fish are carrying a few parasites, such as flukes within the gills, and do not exhibit any symptoms?

And what if your fish have low immunity to flukes as they have never been exposed to them before?

It should be assumed your new Fantails have parasites and should be treated for them. 

A mild salt bath at the same time will take care of any bacterial or fungal infections that aren't obvious at the time of quarantining.

An additional benefit of salt is that it boosts Goldfish's immune system.

Breeding Fantail Goldfish

Fantails are one of the easier fancy varieties to breed because they lack features that hinder breeding in the more exotic varieties such as telescopic eyes.  They are quite active fish, so a large aquarium or small pond is required.

Male/female differences are more evident in the breeding season because of their slim body shape.  The female becomes much more rounded as the eggs ripen before spawning.

The white tubercles that appear on the male's operculum (gill plates) in the breeding season are usually easily seen, as are the tubercles on the leading edges of the pectoral fins, indicating the male is in breeding condition.

When Fantails are bred, all fry will have metallic scales unless they are calico Fantails. If calico Fantails are bred, all three scale groups are produced.

Approximately half the fry will have nacreous scales, 25 percent will have matt scales, and the remaining 25 percent will be metallic.

The metallic specimens often take a long time to change color, if they do change color at all.  Any fish that haven’t changed color by six months old shouldn’t be used as breeding stock.

Feeding large amounts of tubifex worms and bloodworms is also recommended, but finding enough supplies for these types of food can be problematic.

More about Goldfish breeding here...

Summary and Key Facts

Country of Origin: China

Maximum size (body length): 6 inches (150mm)

Caudal Fin: Double, short with rounded lobes

Dorsal Fin: Present

Anal Fin: Paired

Scale Group: All three scale groups, metallic, matt, nacreous (calico)

Eyes: Normal

Distinguishing traits: Deep body, twin caudal fins

Breeding:  One of the more straightforward fancy varieties to breed because they lack features that hinder breeding in the more exotic varieties, such as telescopic eyes.

Male/female differences are less obvious outside the breeding season because of the short, round body shape.  The female will often have a slimmer body shape than the male, giving the impression that she is a he.  The white tubercles that appear on the male’s operculum (gill plates) and leading edges of the pectoral fins in the breeding season sort any confusion out.

Special requirements: Nil

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