Fantail Goldfish Tails

[Mfish123]

An ultraviolet steriliser (UV light) won't make any difference to this. Save your money and send it back or cancel the order.

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Garlic in fish food doesn't do much and is a bit of a gimmick. Fish food manufacturers put things in fish food that people recognise (eg: wheat flour, garlic, rosemary, vitamins). Most of these things are useful to people but not fish. You can try it and it might help but fish never evolved to eat terrestrial plants, let alone terrestrial plant bulbs like garlic.

Goldfish need lots of plant matter in their diet and you can grow duckweed (small floating plant) and other aquatic plants like Ambulia outside in plastic containers. Each week you bring some of the plants in and put them in the aquarium for the fish to eat.

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If you add a 1/2 to 1 inch layer of fine gravel to the aquarium and get a basic model gravel cleaner, you can gravel clean the substrate (gravel) each time you do a water change. Don't buy an electric gravel cleaner for an aquarium, they are rubbish and a waste of money. Just get a basic model gravel cleaner like the one in the following link and use that to drain water and clean the substrate at the same time. You can also make a gravel cleaner out of a plastic drink bottle and garden hose.

Aquarium Cleaning Made Easy

Aquarium cleaning should take 30 minutes every two weeks. Learn how the professionals do it in 18 easy steps.

www.about-goldfish.com

Home made gravel cleaner
Get a 1, 1.5 or 2 litre plastic drink bottle (like a Coca cola bottle).
Cut the bottom off the bottle and throw the bottom bit in the recycling bin.
Remove the cap and plastic ring from the top of the bottle and put them in the recycling bin.
That's the gravel cleaner part done.
Put a garden hose into the top of the bottle and run the hose out the door onto the lawn. If you don't have a lawn, you can use a shorter piece of hose and drain the water into a bucket.
You can buy clear hose from a hardware store and either get a hose that fits snuggly into the top of the bottle, or over the outside of the top of the bottle. The bigger diameter hose on the outside will drain the water faster and is better for big tanks. A hose that fits into the top of the bottle is better for smaller tanks.

I use to have gravel but a couple of times they both got it stuck in their mouths and I nearly fish net/tweezered them out, but they managed just to get it out. So I removed all the gravel and got large pebbles instead but, cleaning became an issue and the female now has the tail fin change too. I have paused on adding anything, just because I found the cleaning of the gravel quite tricky with a Fluval pipe. I read, sand is better for goldfish and, do want to grow aquarium plants as I can afford. I can tell they miss foraging and make the most of a few tiny gravel stones that came with them when they were rescued from their previous home. There are also a few of the large pebbles I replaced the other medium sized gravel with but, the majority are out of the aquarium in a bag.

 

[Colin_T]

You can grow aquarium plants in pots so they don't need to be planted in the aquarium substrate. Just use 1 or 2 litre plastic icecream containers. Put some gravel and plant fertiliser in them and plant the plants in that. Then you just move the pot with plants into their tank for a week before moving it back outdoors for a few weeks to recover. If you have a number of pots going you simply rotate them around every week.

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Goldfish will grub about in the gravel and suck it into their mouths and spit it out. They do this to find food. As long as the gravel or sand is small enough to easily go in their mouth, they should be able to spit it out without any issues.

------------------

If the ammonia and nitrite are 0ppm, and the nitrate is less than 20ppm, you just do a big water change and then add salt. Wait a week and then do another big water change and add more salt.

If you have an ammonia or nitrite reading above 0ppm, or a nitrate reading above 20ppm, you do a big (75%) water change to reduce those numbers and add salt to the new water before you put it in the tank.

 

[Mfish123]

An ultraviolet steriliser (UV light) won't make any difference to this. Save your money and send it back or cancel the order.

-------------------

Garlic in fish food doesn't do much and is a bit of a gimmick. Fish food manufacturers put things in fish food that people recognise (eg: wheat flour, garlic, rosemary, vitamins). Most of these things are useful to people but not fish. You can try it and it might help but fish never evolved to eat terrestrial plants, let alone terrestrial plant bulbs like garlic.

Goldfish need lots of plant matter in their diet and you can grow duckweed (small floating plant) and other aquatic plants like Ambulia outside in plastic containers. Each week you bring some of the plants in and put them in the aquarium for the fish to eat.

-------------------

If you add a 1/2 to 1 inch layer of fine gravel to the aquarium and get a basic model gravel cleaner, you can gravel clean the substrate (gravel) each time you do a water change. Don't buy an electric gravel cleaner for an aquarium, they are rubbish and a waste of money. Just get a basic model gravel cleaner like the one in the following link and use that to drain water and clean the substrate at the same time. You can also make a gravel cleaner out of a plastic drink bottle and garden hose.

Aquarium Cleaning Made Easy

Aquarium cleaning should take 30 minutes every two weeks. Learn how the professionals do it in 18 easy steps.

www.about-goldfish.com

Home made gravel cleaner
Get a 1, 1.5 or 2 litre plastic drink bottle (like a Coca cola bottle).
Cut the bottom off the bottle and throw the bottom bit in the recycling bin.
Remove the cap and plastic ring from the top of the bottle and put them in the recycling bin.
That's the gravel cleaner part done.
Put a garden hose into the top of the bottle and run the hose out the door onto the lawn. If you don't have a lawn, you can use a shorter piece of hose and drain the water into a bucket.
You can buy clear hose from a hardware store and either get a hose that fits snuggly into the top of the bottle, or over the outside of the top of the bottle. The bigger diameter hose on the outside will drain the water faster and is better for big tanks. A hose that fits into the top of the bottle is better for smaller tanks.

I use to have gravel but a couple of times they both got it stuck in their mouths and I nearly fish net/tweezered them out, but they managed just to get it out. So I removed all the gravel and got large pebbles instead but, cleaning became an issue and the female niuw has the tail fin change too. I have paused on adding anything, just because I found the cleaning if the gravel quite tricky with a Fluval pipe. I read, sand is better fir goldfish and do want to grow aquarium as, I can afford. I can tell they miss foraging and make the most of a few tiny gravel stones (and a few of the large pebbles) that came with them when they were rescued from their previous home.

You can grow aquarium plants in pots so they don't need to be planted in the aquarium substrate. Just use 1 or 2 litre plastic icecream containers. Put some gravel and plant fertiliser in them and plant the plants in that. Then you just move the pot with plants into their tank for a week before moving it back outdoors for a few weeks to recover. If you have a number of pots going you simply rotate them around every week.

------------------

Goldfish will grub about in the gravel and suck it into their mouths and spit it out. They do this to find food. As long as the gravel or sand is small enough to easily go in their mouth, they should be able to spit it out without any issues.

------------------

If the ammonia and nitrite are 0ppm, and the nitrate is less than 20ppm, you just do a big water change and then add salt. Wait a week and then do another big water change and add more salt.

If you have an ammonia or nitrite reading above 0ppm, or a nitrate reading above 20ppm, you do a big (75%) water change to reduce those numbers and add salt to the new water before you put it in the tank.

I see, that all makes alot of sense.

Thank you