Goldfish Help Needed!

[Upsy Daisy]

There must be someone on this forum who knows about goldfish and can help us sort out this problem.

 

Ok. In January we took the 'voucher' Father Christmas sent our six year old to the pet shop and bought two goldfish. We had set up the tank with the weekly additive etc and the pet shop tested the water for us before we brought the fish home.

 

We have followed their advice about 10 - 20% water changes, using a syphon to clean the gravel, being careful not to overfeed them. They were fine for six months.

 

We left them with food tablets for two weeks at the end of July while we went on holiday. The next weekend we found one very weak against the filter and it died a few hours later. We waited four weeks and the other one seemed fine so we went and bought two more. We kept testing the water in between and used extra additive to keep the nitrates down.

 

Two weeks ago the other one from the first pair suddenly got really weak and died too. Last night one of the new ones did the same. We have checked with the pet shop that they are getting through about the right amount of food. They have weed and are in a hallway with only one window so they are not getting too much light. We don't have the central heating on so they are not too warm. There is a filter which we clean out in tank water and a pump which puts bubbles in there. We have some testing strips which tell us that the nitrates are at the high end of normal but we do water changes and use additive to get it down. I don't know what else we can do.

 

We are baffled.

 

My daughter begs us to take the dying fish to the vets each time it happens.

 

Can anyone give us a clue about what we might be doing wrong?

 

If the last one dies my plan is to milton the tank, stones, etc and leave it for a few weeks before we try again. Would that be that be the right thing to do?

[Cait]

probably, although make sure everything in rinsed well.

 

I have kept fish - hm, the same one I might add, for 24 years. I have fish at preschool too although not for that long. I'm not sure why you are doing the water nitrates thing as these fish will live happily in outdoor ponds or anywhere. I put mine in tap water that's been left to stand for about an hour for the chlorine to disperse into the air then fire them in. They get a pinch of the cheapest fishfood on the market - if the water goes green they are getting too much I was told. They have no filters or anything so they have snails in there instead. Oxygenating plants and an inch or so of pebbles. Only ever had one fatality many years ago and he was one my daughter won at a funfair that sparked the whole thing off as the 24 year old was bought to keep that one company!

[Guest]

I have to agree that you may be killing them with kindness.

 

I kept 2 fish in a tank for many years (named 'lunch' and 'dinner' as my cat would look at them fondly). All they ever got was a change of water every few months when it began to look scummy. I didn't even let it sit or anything. I think they had weed in there but I can't vouch for it. They lived happily for years and then when we moved overseas I gave one to my mum and it lived on for years more in her outdoor pond, even having some babies!!

 

So I would say stop testing the water, get rid of the filter and they should be fine.

[Panders]

My son's girlfriend gave him one of these bio-orb thingys for his birthday. He has been away for two weeks on holiday and I've been looking after them. Before he left he cleaned out the orb, put in all the additive etc., the water was crystal clear and looked a real picture, but 10 days in, the water is extremely murky. The food is tiny pellets and if the fish don't catch them as them fall down through the water at feeding time they lay on the floor of the tank and go fuzzy. He lost one of the fish about a month after he got the tank.

 

It does seem a lot of faffing about to keep them - given that as previously stated above, years ago we kept fish in a bowl without too much effort for years, the odd clean out, change of water, and flaky fish food, often the goldfish was won at the local funfair in September.

 

Tricky things fish - I shall be glad when he is home on Wednesday and he can see to them again!

[narnia]

our preschool fish are cleaned out once a month.we do add a few drops of anti-chlorine stuff and feed them a pinch of cheap supermarket brand food once a day.There's 4 of them: Seigfried and Roy, Penn and Teller ( we love magicians!!)They get nice fresh weed as well, but that, I'm afraid, is it! Penn and Teller are rescue fish, in fact....they came to us in a bowl SO murky, we couldn't actually see them in it! So, moral of the tale?? Your fish are being molly-coddled and need to toughen up !!

[Upsy Daisy]

I think I might have been taken for a ride by the pet shop!

 

Daughter and Daddy have just left for local fish and aquarium shop with almost dead fish to get advice.

 

Maybe I should put goldfish in the same category as plants - if I own them, they die.

[hali]

ok the holiday food is not good for fish and really messes up the water cycle. the only way to get rid of nitrates is water changes and using a de chlorifier before adding it to water.

 

nitrates are caused by over feeding or your filter not being mature with good bacterias!!!

 

i would imagine that maybe you are overfeeding only feed once per day and ensure you only give them enough that they eat straight away (so none is left to rot!).

 

As for the filter i would keep it in (sorry Suzie) but as long as the bacteria is left to build and when it needs washing you are only doing it in the fish water it will help to keep the water clean. How often do you clean them out?

 

if you are not overfeeding then the other problem could be parasites or disease. have you checked the fish for white spot or any other disease????????

 

i think maybe you are cleaning them out too much and the tank isnt cycling........

[Upsy Daisy]

Wow this forum is brilliant. Who'd have thought I could get goldfish help here too?

 

They usually get fed once a day either flakes or pellets. I sometimes give a few extra flakes at night if I am not sure that my daughter remembered to feed them in the morning. She is pretty stingy and the ones we got at Christmas hadn't really grown so I worry that they might not have been getting enough. They always eat everything straight away.

 

Once a week I take some tank water out and rinse the filter in it. I then do a 10% water change and put some water additive in. Should I put the additive in this water before putting it in the tank or perhaps let the clean water stand for a while first?

 

If the cycle wasn't right wouldn't it show up on the dipsticks?

 

I haven't seen any spots or anything on them but I wouldn't really know what to look for.

 

It doesn't seem fair that we are jumping through all these hoops to keep them alive and other people's seem to be thriving without much help at all!

[Rea]

I cant keep goldfish alive either so you're not alone. Our last 2, Felix and Whiskers, were killed by me. I fed them one night and in the morning they were dead. As easy as that.

 

My uncle had one in the foyer of his hotel for 20 odd years, it was fed by any guest who felt like it and lived in a green walled tank. My aunt used to change the weed and swop some of the water now and then. They'd won it at a fair in Birmingham, but their hotel was in Wales so it even managed to survive traveling.

 

Get a cat instead, so much easier and cuddlier

[SueFinanceManager]

Hi

 

When we were thinking of goldfish the quy in the shop said to keep them healthy for a long time it was a good idea to have a filter to keep the water clean and if you were going to the trouble of having a filter you might as well go for tropical fish which is what we did.

 

I do think you can get a bit over concerned with all the advise the shop will offer. I don't think there is much harm using a product like 'Tap safe' that makes the tap water nicer for the fish.

 

With regard cleaning the filter, you are doing the right thing using the tank water, this way you are not killing the good bacteria in the filter. I am not sure you need to do water change every week, I do my tropical tank every 2/3 weeks when it starts to look at little dull.

 

What do the fish look like in the shop, do they look healthy? Have you tried getting your fish from another pet shop to see if the current place has poor stock.....we noticed that when buying tropical fish.

 

Fish don't like to be in a place where there is lots a traffic past them all the time so they are best placed in a corner of a room. Do you have stuff in the tank where they can hide? I know that sounds odd but if they have good coverage where they can retreat they come out more if that makes sense.

 

Will keep thinking and let you know if I have any more ideas......good luck.

 

Sue

[Cait]

Our preschool fish are in the main room and regularly get their tank crayoned on by over zealous children, and they come to the front of the tank to watch - so funny! They love the children waggling their fingers at them by the tank and come and dance for them.

[hali]

upsy daisy - i think they need more food just feed as much as they will eat (obviously within reason!!) dont let left over food sit in tank - they should be growing ..... also if your filter is running well and your tests are good (dipsticks can be unreliable!) you should only need to clean out every 3 weeks. good luck