Gold Fish

[Brainchild]

I have had Goldfish on a number of occassions (no not to eat)
But they never seem to do very well.Lots of floaters
So anyone have aquariums that would like to share some tips on how to keep Goldfish swimming? I'm all ears

I have 10 small goldfish, and an algea eater in a 10 gal, aquarium.
A whisper JR filter, and a bubble stone in the bottom dual air inlets.A heater, lights, rocks on the bottom, and a big plastic rock in the middle for them to swim around.

I filled the tank last night, added dechlorinator(sp?) and left them in the bagin the tank for a half hour, to equalize temps.Put them in.This morning the water was murky, and foggy.

Any tips appreiciated here
BC

[TheBurningCat]

Clean the pebbles. I mean really clean them wash them

goldfish are very very very very dirty fish. you must work hard to keep them clean

http://www.kokosgoldfish.com/care.html

http://www.petlibrary.com/goldfish/fishcare.htm

[Brainchild]

I dumped them into a big strainer, and used the sprayer from the sink with warm water, and washed them that way. I guess maybe I didn't do it well enough
Looks like a water changeis due again though.

[NeoStarO1]

Hello Brainchild,

I am Neostars BF and was obliged to respond to your thread. I have been in the fish hobby for 24 years and own a fish store www.aquariumslive.com so I have a little bit of knowledge about this stuff. First of all the fish really dont like being rinsed off with warm water, it removes their protective slime and damages their skin(JK, I know you meant the pebbles).

From your post it sounds like you just acquired the fish and filled the tank up that day, if so then be prepared for floaters. The dechlorinator or water conditioner as shops like to call it only removes chlorine, ammonia, and some metals blah blah blah which is really good, but it does not address the more critical issue of seeding your aquarium with nitrifying bacteria which are responsible for breaking down the waste that the fish are constantly excreting. Without this bacteria the fish are essentially swimming in piss soup and die from their own waste excretiations in the form of ammonia poisoning and nitrite poisoning. Even though your tank has a Whisper filter, at this point without the bacteria all its really doing is removing the organic visible waste from view as the filter still returns the same water back into the tank. The fish will still be suffering in their own poisons. A responsible fish shop would have advised you to just add 1 or 2 fish and let them seed the tank and weather the storm until your bacteria colony was established enough to handle more fish load. This bacterial colonization normally will take 4 to 6 weeks. By introducing 10 turd slurpers(just watch them, aaaack) all at once, they will soon overload the very limited biological capacity a new and fairly small tank has to offer, and they will poison themselves within a week or so. Also if you have the plump fantailed goldfish variety and your algae eater happens to be the common chinese algae eater, he will harass them to death. On the cloudy water, I suspect its a milky white cloudiness, if so then its a bacteria bloom caused by introducing alot of fish in a large quantity of new water. The bacteria were present on the fish and in their original tank water and when they were introduced into new tap water which is very high in nutrients usually phosphates combined with the high levels of nitrogenous waste given off by the large number of fish, now are on a feeding frenzy multiplying exponentially creating a white haze. These bacteria though unsightly are harmless and you can either wait the week or two it takes for them to eat themselves to death or you can put in a flocculent like AccuClear or Sparkling Clear in the tank and that will clear them up in a few hours.

A few quick rules that should help your situation are:

Add Only 1 or 2 fish for the first 4 weeks to establish bacteria

When chaning water, never change more than 25% of it. It reduces both water chemistry shock and temperature shock.

Change 25% water every 2 weeks.


Good Luck!

[Target]

Thats a lot of fish for an aquarium that size in my opinion. Too many I believe of that type anyway. The general rule of thumb is to have a match of maximum fish inches for each gallon of water. For instance, if you have a 10 gal aquarium, the total length of all your fish should not exceed 10 inches. To be honest, the smaller your tank is, the more you should deviate from that general rule and error on the side of caution by going with an even lower number of fish inches.

Gold fish are dirty fish as well. They tend to "polute" their own water pretty quickly. This leads to PH imbalances in the water, poor water quality overall, and allows for bacteria and other problems to introduce themselves in a short period of time. No amount of filters is going to handle that for you with such a small amount of water. This of course could be the reason you are ending up with so many floaters.

As for cleaning the rocks, simply rinsing them off often is not enough. They have to be sterilized as well. I place mine into a large pan of water, and then boil them. Once that is complete, I let them cool somewhat, then put them into a strainer and rinse them off before re-introducing them to the aquarium.

One other thing I do differently than you have, is that after filling a tank, and introducing the chemicals for initial setup, I let the tank stand for two full days before putting fish in. This allows for most of the chlorine to evaporate out of the water, and ensures that the temps level out. Air pump and filters running the whole time.

I also rarely introduce more than two fish at a time. Remember you are dealing with a mini eco system. Gradual changes are always preferred.

I'm not a big fan of 10gal aquariums either. They quite honestly are a nightmare to maintain. Because the amount of water is so small, the PH levels and water quality tends to fluctuate wildly compared to larger tanks. Its really hard on the fish.

One other thing:
You mentioned that you have rocks on the bottom, and a large plastic rock in the middle as well. All of this displaces water that could be in the tank, so you likely don't have 10 gallons in the unit either, and probably have more like 8 or 9 max.

I'd try far fewer fish, say like 3 gold fish and the algea eater, or get a bigger tank. Recommend a 29 gallon or larger.

[Brainchild]

BF,Target, GZ3 thanks for some very useful info. Makes me look at things from a different view.
I think I will look for a bigger tank tomorrow. I did add some clearing agent to the water to clear it up, it's much better now.And I bought the fish from the infamous Wally World, so support isn't an option, shoot getting help is a challenge

Thanx Again
BC

[JacobM5727]

i had a 7 cent feeder fish, lived two years, just didnt keep the tank too clean...

[Richard Cranium]

Can you use "Distilled Water" instead of tap water and be better off ?

It's like 50 cents a gallon at K-Mart

You don't need a heater for gold fish do you?
I have never used a heater for them.. Could they be getting poached?