Evidence for corys eating goldfish slime coat is anecdotal at best, we agree.

However, corys have been kept alongside goldfish very successfully at temperatures of around 20-22 celsius, which is comfortable for goldfish.

We also agree with the point you made about Chinese Algae Eaters. It was not made forcefully enough in the original blog post. They are totally unsuitable for goldfish tanks, and as you rightly stated will eat slime coat.

Also good point about the snails increasing in number quickly. They are very easy to breed!

Thanks for the interesting article. I have been keeping and breeding a great variety of fish over the last 35 Years and would like to point out that some points outlined in your post, may be mis-leading to newbies in terms of compatible fish to keep with goldfish:

Corys

There are no cories that I know of that are sold for goldfish tanks (nor should they be). They are tropical fish, and as such require warmer water thatn is normally recommended for goldfish.

Kept correctly (in schools of 4 to 6 fish), they can be very active.

They generally get on well with goldfish, if the goldfish are kept in a heated aquarium. I have NEVER experienced a Cory Catfish eating the slimecoat of Goldfish or any other fish for that matter. Not sure where you researched your information from.

Chinese Algae Eater

This is one fish I would definitely NOT recommend keeping with goldfish. They are fine when they are small, but become aggressive as they get larger, and these fish WILL try to eat the slimecoat on your goldfish! Definitely not recommended for Goldfish tanks.

Snails

Unless you keep goldfish in heated aquariums, the Golden Apple snail will not survive. They require very warm water to thrive. In some common snails that are suited to coldwater tanks are the pond snails and the Red Ramshorn snails. The only drawback with these is that they overtake your aquarium (numbers) in a short space of time unless you keep them under control.

Hope the above helps