Too Much Semantics!
You guys are getting caught up in semantics again. You need to consider a fish's temperature range before you go labeling it. Goldfish are not cool or cold water fish. They are fish with a wide temperature range which includes the lowest part of the range of some tropicals. Subtropics like Florida get cold sometimes, so labels are misleading. The Dolphin Loach is as close to a perfect companion fish for indoor Goldfish as you can find. Petland Discounts, the main supplier, requires that their stores keep them in Goldfish tanks. They can't overwinter in a partially frozen pond, but they can also be kept in Koi ponds that get down to the 50's. I keep mine with Red Ceibals, a subtropical fish, in the low 70's with lots of room. You can't put Goldfish in there though, not so much because of temperature, but because the Ceibals will rip their fins off and bully them. And you can't keep Ceibals with Discus, as the Discus need water too warm for the Ceibals.
So, in the preceding paragraph, i have accounted for the coldest and one of the warmest water hobbyist kept fish. I would say in general, you shouldn't keep Goldfish with other fish because, they are delicate, pretty defenseless, messy, and need different food than most tropicals, in addition to the water temp differences. Otherwise, a novice aquarist might look up Ceibals and Dolphin Loaches and think he or she could keep them with Goldfish. All will do fine at 70 degrees F, but the loaches are peaceful, non-territorial, and eat anything, whereas Ceibals are feisty little carnivorous cichlids that especially hate new fish.
Whenever I answer compatibility questions on Yahoo, i always include temp, pH, food requirements and behavior as necessary to check out.
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Dr. Robert Price
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