Hi Elronmaynard, welcome to the forum..
We had a guy join not too long ago from on the other side of Mt Charleston...in Pahrump. Maybe he'll spot this and sa 'Hi' to you.

I belive, Badflash's (and JCO's) coment about buying goldfish, especially the 'feeders' was in concern of the fact, that they are so often 'sick' fish. And that's not a good way to start.
'If' you end up with 'healthy' goldfish, they are pretty tuff. The heat and cold doesn't seem to bother them much. And they eat like pigs and supply lots of nutes for your system....
Seeing as how his is alive, it is a pretty good indicator, that they may be fine.

I saw your post in another thread, you said you needed to learn about cycling.
Oliver has written some great threads for new folks...
Aquaponics 101 by Oliver
Part 4, covers start up.
If you haven't read through them, check it out..