poor goldfish?

tinner777

hi,
i have one of those 60 ltr tanks with three goldfish, 2 filters and a airstone.

First question is tank big enough for three fish? Santa brought a ten ltr tank, poor little soles got black spots within a few days, black spots all gone now and fish happy looking.

Second question, tank stinks, ive been changing water on a weekly basis, my water here is treated and filtered, and then i add some water treatment stuff. Now i think the tank has cycled, cloudy for a bit but now clear. What should i do?

dancingqueen

60 litres is massive for 3 fish. I have 11 fish in my 60 litre tank at home and they are very happy.

When you do a water change, how much water are you changing? You should only change about 25% of the water weekly. Use treatments in petshop for cycling.

spookymuffin

60 litres is not big enough for three Goldies in the long run. They're probably fine for the moment while they're small (I assume they're still babies) but they will need to be upgraded at some point. Long bodied goldfish can grow up to two foot in lenght and fancy goldfish can grow as large as a human head!

Common long bodied Goldfish at adult size:


Fancy Goldfish at adult size:


I don't know if you have long bodied Goldies or fancies but Long bodied ones should really be kept in a pond (or a massive tank) and fancies really need a good 40/50 litres each when they reach full size.

My own Goldfish tank at the moment is 120 litres with three fancy Goldfish:

They're still babies but it wont be long before they really grow into all that space!

Your 60 litre tank is more appropriate for some of the smaller tropical fish like Guppies or Tetras. I would suggest buying a new bigger tank for the Goldfish or finding them a new home with someone that has room for them. Poeple will often take unwanted fish and give them a good home here: http://www.irishfishkeepers.com/cms/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,52/

You also need to look into cycling your tank by setting up the bacteria that will process the waste ammomia that fish produce otherwise you end up with sick/dead fish pretty fast.
There is a good guide to cycling here: http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/Cycling

Also a really good source of Goldfish info: http://thegab.org/

darsar

Hi all I hope it's ok to use this thread for my issue.

I got three goldfish yesterday and four tiny tiny minute fish. Today one small one was dead and my black fish keeps chasing and nibbling the orange ones tail. The yellow one is happy out.

What do I do? Get rid of the black one? Is he an aggresser or is there something up with the orange one?

Is it something I did maybe? I was told to fill bowl two inches above filter .. It is tap water with two tratments from the pet shop

Also fella in pet shop said two flakes per fish 2-3 days but the flake box says feed twice daily?!

It is 15ltr baby biorb. The quantity is at recommendation of pet salesman

Magenta

spookymuffin wrote: »

60 litres is not big enough for three Goldies in the long run. They're probably fine for the moment while they're small (I assume they're still babies) but they will need to be upgraded at some point. Long bodied goldfish can grow up to two foot in lenght and fancy goldfish can grow as large as a human head!

It takes years for goldfish to grow that size. Most of them don't get bigger than about 6 inches and that's fish that live in a pond for years and years.
The fish in your photos are exceptionally sized, I did a Google search for Worlds biggest goldfish and the fancy goldfish photo you had came up.

spookymuffin wrote: »

I don't know if you have long bodied Goldies or fancies but Long bodied ones should really be kept in a pond (or a massive tank) and fancies really need a good 40/50 litres each when they reach full size.

My own Goldfish tank at the moment is 120 litres with three fancy Goldfish:

They're still babies but it wont be long before they really grow into all that space!

60 litres is more than enough for 3 goldfish and it will be years until yours grow big enough to need 120 litres.
In addition you should have got a longer tank instead of that square one so they have more room to swim and more oxygen.

http://www.aquariumfishwonders.com/aquarium-supplies/how-the-shape-of-an-aquarium-tank-can-affect-your-fish/

spookymuffin wrote: »

Your 60 litre tank is more appropriate for some of the smaller tropical fish like Guppies or Tetras. I would suggest buying a new bigger tank for the Goldfish or finding them a new home with someone that has room for them. Poeple will often take unwanted fish and give them a good home here: http://www.irishfishkeepers.com/cms/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,52/

The OP's fish have more than enough room unless he puts them in a swimming pool! Bear in mind most people keep goldfish in those awfull bowls.

tinner777

thanks for replies, its a tank from aldi, so longer rather than taller. So they'll be ok for a while, don't know what i'd tell my five year old if i had to give them away.

LisaO

Sounds like your tank is a fine size for 3 goldfish, particularly as you also have filters & airpump. Remember lots of fish manage to survive in small bowls without aeration or filtration!

I would be concerned though about the smell from the tank. Does the petstore that you buy your fish products from offer a water testing service? You take in a sample of the tank water & they then test it & can advise of imbalances/problems & how to treat them.

tinner777

LisaO wrote: »

Sounds like your tank is a fine size for 3 goldfish, particularly as you also have filters & airpump. Remember lots of fish manage to survive in small bowls without aeration or filtration!

I would be concerned though about the smell from the tank. Does the petstore that you buy your fish products from offer a water testing service? You take in a sample of the tank water & they then test it & can advise of imbalances/problems & how to treat them.

Hi, tested the water, all is ok apart from high nitrates, now i've been changing about ten litres out of a 60 litre tank every week and conditioning the water i put back in. Also washing the filters in the old fish tank water before putting them back. Is there anything else i should be doing? The test strips says i should buy further water conditioners? Has my tank cycled?

LisaO

Was in a pet store last week that had a good range of fish products & they had some to target specific problems, ie, an additive to combat high nitrate levels, etc.. Might be no harm to try something like this? May also be an issue with your tap water, depending on what has been added to it before it reaches your house?

I may be wrong but I also thought that when you add weekly conditioning agents you need to add enough for the whole tank, not just the amount of water you are replacing?

tinner777

well our goldfish died, ok last night, but this morning found all three of them dead at the bottom of the tank. The water tested ok, a little high in nitrate, but water change night was tonight. Is it unusual for all three to die at the same time?

Barr

Were there any marks on the fish? maybe a bacteria infected them.

tinner777

Barr wrote: »

Were there any marks on the fish? maybe a bacteria infected them.

no marks.

ha-ya-said-what

Remove the water in the tank incase it is contaminated with some infection the fish had ... just incase. Add some general tonic to the new water & water treatment & leave it be for a few weeks to work it's cycle in the tank with the filter on. 2-3 always has been plenty for me but if you want to be safe you can give it longer.

I got my tank last year, no stanger to fish but took a bit of convincing the OH to let me get one, what I find is a tank will always smell until the filter builds it self up, so leave it alone & don't wash the sponge in it, when you are changing the water & cleaning the sponge a little, just give it a rattle in the old water your removing from the tank.

I don't change the water on a weekly basis, I find the more you fiddle with the water the more goes wrong with the fish, the water in my tank stays clean tho I've a filter meant for a far bigger tank set on a lower setting so it clears all that shouldn't be in the gravel! Mines 60lt & I change 25lts only when the water appears to be getting a bit dirty... which takes ages, but sure the 3 fish in the tank & healthy so that's all that matters.

tinner777

ha-ya-said-what wrote: »

Remove the water in the tank incase it is contaminated with some infection the fish had ... just incase. Add some general tonic to the new water & water treatment & leave it be for a few weeks to work it's cycle in the tank with the filter on. 2-3 always has been plenty for me but if you want to be safe you can give it longer.

I got my tank last year, no stanger to fish but took a bit of convincing the OH to let me get one, what I find is a tank will always smell until the filter builds it self up, so leave it alone & don't wash the sponge in it, when you are changing the water & cleaning the sponge a little, just give it a rattle in the old water your removing from the tank.

I don't change the water on a weekly basis, I find the more you fiddle with the water the more goes wrong with the fish, the water in my tank stays clean tho I've a filter meant for a far bigger tank set on a lower setting so it clears all that shouldn't be in the gravel! Mines 60lt & I change 25lts only when the water appears to be getting a bit dirty... which takes ages, but sure the 3 fish in the tank & healthy so that's all that matters.

thanks for that. You know i might change from goldfish to tropical fish.

ha-ya-said-what

I was gonna go with tropical but I was thinking nahh too much hassle lol I remember my mother having them & the trouble she used to have when the power went & with the bad weather we had in the winter I was like noooo not going for that.

I had a fan tail gold fish he died oddly, yet the 2 Black Moors & Oranda are still going strong, I picked them cos I knew they were hardy wee divils.

Ohhh also just ask your five year old did he/she put her hands in the the tank at any stage ... I know your gonna hate me for saying that but some kids are fascinated by fish & try putting their hands in to follow the fish around & pick them up, it has been the answer to a lot of sudden death cases for people.

tinner777

ha, no don't worry. My lad has no bloody interest in them, so i think i might give tropical a go, just for myself like.

Alkers

There isn't really a need to wash out the filter media unless the flow from the filter is less than normal, certainly no need to do it as often as a water change.

antodeco

I have around 18 fish in my 60 litre tank. All be it tetra, guppies and a pleco. I had my tank for 2 weeks and both a load of mollys. They all died relatively quickly (I changed the water quite regularly), second time round, clean tank and water. Left it for 6 weeks, before putting in fish. Slowly added fish over a 2 month period. A year later, all fish are happy. I rarely change the water. Water is crystal clear, neutral and lots of water snails!

OP, I've heard bad stories about the Aldi tanks. Just keep an eye on it..