A couple questions on Golden Shiners.

1. Are goldens particularly disease prone? I ask this because my tanks have only had ich outbreaks 3 times. Though the most curable disease I fought, it always started after adding golden shiners. Mind you all three were from less than ideal situations. (A feeder tank rescue, trapped bait minnows left in an overcrowded aerated bucket overnight, and a couple placed with a verya gressive sunfish) thus were stressed. So is it just stressed fish, or are goldens disease prone.

2. Also are goldens a danger to other fish from predation? They grow fairly large, but unlike other large shiners they lack a big mouth and never seen or heard of one eating a minnow. Would a golden outgrow and eat minnows in a minnow tank like chubs and common shiners will?

1. I do not think they are more disease prone, they actually are a tough adaptive fish which is why they are used as bait and have spread to many locations due to bait buckets. Stress makes people sick too and yours were stressed indeed. An aggressive Sunfish, particularily a Green, is not a good tankmate for many species!

2. Lots of bigger minnows eat smallerminnows but they should be no more so than others, and even less i would think.

I have bought Goldens from a bait shop and enjoyed watching them develop, Most were transferred to the cement pond while several are now about 6 to 8 inches long. They begin to develop big flowing fins. I have also caught several large ones from a reservoir while pole fishing, and collected some nice red fined ones from the FL panhandle. They are all nice to observe while snorkeling in the pond. Years ago the TN Aquarium had several Goldens nearly a foot long on display.

I think they are a legitimate for fish keeping and are attractive. Certainly a great beginner fish. I have enjoyed them.