Urgent Advice Needed

Thanks for the post, I have uploaded a couple of pictures, one showing a close up of the fish, the other of the tank with the 2 fish in, so you can get an idea of the size. The fish shop owner didn't give any idication of any problems when we bought them, and we said the tank was a vase of about yey size.
My girlfriend spoke to them today, and he's said it may be the plant in there is polluting the water, so we're going to give it a good clean out now, and see how we get on.

thanks so far for theadvice, and please keep it comming.

Those fish WILL die if you dont get them a proper tank with filtration. The plant has nothing whatsover to do with the water quality.
The fish will be giving off 30% of their body weight each day in ammonia. Get a test kit for ammonia until you sort out living conditions and see how much ammonia your fish are swimming in.

Pet shops should be banned from selling goldfish if they cant give proper advice on the care and housing.

I bet if you wanted to put a baby oscar in there then he wouldnt be too keen, though they are both the same in waste production.

Yes you do need 10 gallons per fish.

all plants produce oxygen. typically when they are very healthy, they will pearl which is when you can see the actual oxygen bubbles escape the leaves and float to the top of the tank. i don't see any nutrient-rich substrate in your tank nor do i see sufficient lighting. your plant needs these to survive. your plant will die and then it will pollute the water.

also, i don't see any filtration! filters are meant to keep the water clean. your water is probably very polluted right now because there's no filtration (and i am assuming you haven't cycled either?). filters will also break the surface, which provides oxygen for your fish.

but the biggest oxygen factor is surface area-- a two gallon tank doesn't have enough surface area for two goldfish. i would seriously suggest you either take the goldfish back to the pet store and get a betta instead or buy at least a twenty gallon tank like black angel says. whichever you decide, make sure you buy a filter! if you keep the goldfish, be aware they produce lots of waste and that waste needs to be managed sufficiently. in fact, it'd be best to over-filter if you choose to keep the goldfish.

good luck!

Don't trust that LFS guy for any real information as he clearly is completely ignorant of or apathetic to the animals he sells. Perhaps both. There are many pet shops that will give you false information because either they don't know, or they don't care. In fact that sort of pet shops far outweighs the good shops, and that is regardless of the animal, but far more prevalent with fish.

The only reason that plant would pollute the water is if it was dead and decaying which it clearly isn't. Actually your plant is thriving. Unfortunately it's the only thing that is thriving, and will be the only thing living if you don't remedy the situation.

Your fish look like Ryukins too me rather than red-cap orandas, but their care is the same. They will need ten gallons of water each and a good filter, as well as a possible bubble curtain.


Here's the trouble.

1. Oxygen. Goldfish use a LOT of oxygen very quickly. While plants help a bit, alone they aren't enough to cover the needs of really any fish kept singly, let alone two goldfish. Most of your oxygen exchange happens at the surface of the water, so the more surface, the better (ie: a longer tank will be beter than a tall tank). Filter outputs and bubble curtains will both disturb the surface of the water and this movement aids in the exchange of oxygen by increasing the amount of surface area by means of the waves and currents they produce.

2. Room. Sure, those guys are small now, but they are going to get much bigger. Like I said before, they should reach 7-10 inches. Your LFS guy may know this, or he may not. Most goldfish don't make it to this size because they are put in poor conditions and they die, or are stunted and die, long before their natural time (not sure on fancy goldfish, but commons/comets have been known to live 20-40 years.

3. Water quality. Goldfish, and all fish, are constantly producing waste, much like humans. They excrete ammonia and urea, as well as being quite the little poop machines. This means they need a good filter and a cycled tank. A cycled tank refers to the nitrogen cycle where (in short) fish excrete ammonia (which is toxic to them) --- ammonia is consumed by bacteria and excreted as nitrite (which is also toxic to them, though slightly less so than ammonia) --- nitrite is consumed by bacteria and excreted as nitrate (which is also toxic but only at exceptionally high levels) --- nitrate is removed by the fishkeeper during the weekly partial water change/gravel vac. It is thoroughly important that you have a filter for this cycle to happen properly. The filter, besides removing the gunk (uneaten food, fish poo), is also the home of the good bacteria that is turning all that toxic natiness to semi-safe nitrate.


I'm not blaming you for not knowing, and neither is anyone else on this forum, but you seem very reluctant to listen to us and it does become a little frustrating. You aren't going to recieve different ideas on what these fish should be living in, at least, not so different that they conform to the set up you have. many people will recommend 20 gallons for the first fancy goldfish and ten for every fancy goldie after that. WE are only saying ten each. The simple truth is that all animals need to be researched before purchase, whether that animal is finned, feathered, furred, or otherwise, and sadly petstores are generally very bad places to go for that information.

If u have a large storage container then stick them in that untill u manage to get a new tank go have a shout at the pet shop and tell them clay says thay smell and try and get a refund and get a bigger tank and they are not red caps reds caps are genrals smaller white fish with a little red spot on ther head

Thanks for the advice guys.

starrynightxxi - I've not been ignoring the advice given.

I am going to look for a new tank tomorrow (sat) and try and get all the gubbings that go with it. So far we have been changing the water every day to help the little fellers out. I totally blame the fish shop they should never have sold us these guys if we didn't have the facilitys to keep them alive.

Can someone please explain to me why some small goldfish bowls exist? and what fish can you put in them. Are the standard goldsfish super resiliant or something?

anyway fingers crossed for tomorrow, the little guys will get a home upgrade. other wise its down the toilet with them..... That was a joke by the way!

Small goldfish bowls exist because they sell well to people who don't no what goldfish need. The bowls are death traps and ALL goldfish added to them die prematurely.

Good luck getting a bigger tank, i got a 24 Gallon near meter long tank for £37 brand new! afew days ago, you'll pick one up cheap im sure, filters and airpumps ect are dirt cheap aswell and just imagen how much better its gonna look that the one you own at the moment (tho your one looks good, just small )

Your right pet shops sell fish to anyone without even noing themselfs what the fish need. not your fault at all

just been looking for a tank, and found one called a biorb anyone tried these, or have an oppinion on them? they look really nice....

I looked it up on google,

To get one big enuf would cost £££, They arnt cheap.

They look alright tho with filtration and airpump but still have a small water surface area too allow toxic gasses to escape, the greater the surface area the better the gass exchange (oxigenated air in, toxic air out) thats why rectangular tanks are so good for fish.

I would say its a very expensive tank aimed alot more at apperence than fish health. up to you i guess tho.

Id say pass on it and get a more traditional tank, with curved front glass or something if you dig the modern look