Traditionally, goldfish are raised in ceramic tubs in China. I am following such tradition. I don't use a glass side-viewing fish tank for my goldfish. I just use a 20 gallon beautiful decorative tub for my 4 small fantail goldfish. The outside has very pretty traditional Chinese ceramic decorative patterns. The inside is pure white. The fantails looks really nice when viewed from the top.

I put a power-head and sponge filter on the bottom and some decorations for the fish to swim around. The bottom has a few pebbles for decoration. I don't have a under-gravel filter. I kind of like the white bottom of my tub which provides good contrast when I view my fish from top-down.

Has anyone here some experience in such an aquarium arrangement? Do you see any problem with my setup? Will the lack of a gravel filter be trouble? What can I do to improve my tub? Any advices are welcome.

Check out my photo gallery, I have posted the pictures of my fish tub. The upload sequence was screwed up, sort the album by file names will bring the photos back to the correct sequence.

The two live plants were added two days ago, I don't think they will survive because the tub is unlit and there is no substrates. The tub is in a room with a skylight, but direct sunlight does not reach the tub.

Thanks for that info, i never realized that was the tradition for goldfish keeping in china, however it really doesnt vary tremendously from keeping them in outside garden ponds (which i do), just on a larger scale. The smaller volume of water involved in your choice of container may cause you some extra work, as goldfish tend to produce large amounts of waste, and will require lots of attention to water quality, by way of frequent water changes. All this aside your set up is very attractive, and if it makes you happy thats what counts

I had a indoor pond with sides made of wood and black liner. not sure if this is similar to your setup. My prefence however on any tank is undergravel filters are not of my choice. all big waist just sits on top of filteration creating nitrates. I had nothing but problems. I swiched to canister filters for the large tanks and pond and vaccumed the gravel with a python during water changes. Never had any problems since. not every method works for everyone. You'll have to find what works for you.

__________________
Just keep swimming, just keep swimming......

Thanks, JIM for your advices. Goldfish originally come from China. If you go to any furniture store in the Chinatown in any major US city, you may find the fish tub that I showed in my photo gallery. In some of them, the inside is painted with picture of goldfish. Since I planned to raise real goldfish in it, I bought one with a blank interior, the fake goldfish paintings would be distracting.

Thanks nonyabiz for your advices.
I believe your experience in indoor pond will be similar to my setup except for the volume of water.

Currently, my concern is the two live plants I put in couple days ago. The tub only gets diffused sun light. They many not survive to low light condition. And I am planning to put a dish of lava rock on the bottom for the plants to take root.

I browser through some postings in the live plant forum and I kind of worry that if I focus on the plants, like adding fertilizer and such, then my goldfish will suffer.

What is your exprience with planting in in-door pond?

I had bad luck with plants. My fish kept eating them. lol I use fertilizer on my tanks with delicate fish in it and had no problems at all with the fish. The fish were the problem. lol. I jsut followed the instructions on the bottle for the dosage of fertilizer. I used the liquid. I would definatly get more advice about plants from someone that had better luck.

__________________
Just keep swimming, just keep swimming......

Without some additional light over this pot, your plants are unlikely to make it. The goldfish is small will do okay for a while. Do make frequent small water changes though. I am originally for Japan and these are quiet common. Many there use these with Koi fry to get some size on them before adding them to a pond.