Goldfish Help

[ayresygirl]

hi all im new to this so thanks to all who are going to help out.
About 6 months ago i was given 2 goldfish in a goldfish boal with no filter, after 2 weeks i felt really sorry for them and wanted to give them a bigger home so I bought a 30 leter tank. I was told to let the tank run for 2weeks which i done and then added my fish along with 2 new fish. needless less to say after 3 days 3 of my fish had died as they developed ick. I treated the tank and the one remaining fish (who was very ill) but finally she servived and was lovely and healthy. I left her in the tank by her self and all was good. she had been fine for 2 months so i thought it was time she had new friends. So i bought 2 goldfish and 1 fantain about 3 months ago and they have been fine. no probs at all and i thought after 3 months nothing would go wrong!
All 3 gold fish are fine no spots, lovely colour and looking healthy but i notist my fantain was floting on the top on her side, I though she was dieing but when i woke in the morning she was swimming about happly. She was fine all day but then done the same the following night and again fine the next day. but to day she is laying at the bottom of the tank, not looking well, fins flat and just very lathargic. Other 3 are fine tho. I dont think it is ick as shorly this would have developed when i first added them to the water 3 months ago, but she is defo ill. I have always done weekly water changes with tap water conditioner and also add a health drops every week, so what is going wrong now. I vacume the stones and clean filter when needed so dont know whats gone wrong.
I have developed diatoms (bout 3 week ago) lately in my tank but was advised that this was not harlmfull to my fish? dont know what to do? Hope it is not ick again as it was a big killer last time. Do you think i should treat them for ick just incase? will this cause harm is i treat them but they do not have it?

 

[bae1994]

your tank sadly is way to small for even 1 goldfish or 1 fantail they need 40 gallons per gold fish then a additional 10-20 gallons per extra fish

 

[Curiosity101]

You would know if it was ick as they would've developed spots again. So unless they have spots, don't treat for ick.

As Bae said the tank is FAAAR too small for that number of fish (it's not even big enough for 1 of them tbh).
I think that more than likely the water quality is bad due to overstocking and stocking too much in one go.
They will all have been exposed to ammonia and may well have been poisoned (if they aren't still being poisoned), this is normally what allows the ick parasite to attach to the fish.
Since you treated the tank it seems there aren't any parasite in the water.

But due to being poisoned the fish has become physically ill, chances are it has gill damage and/or damage to it's nervous system.

I would recommend a 100% water change with conditioned tap water. 100% changes are recommended often, but I have a feeling that a 100% change would be less risky that leaving the fish in the conditions they are in at the mo.

Short term you need to be thinking about either re-homing them all and getting fish more suitable to the tank size, or upgrading to at least 125l straight away.
If the 'goldfish' are commons/comets then they can't really be housed in anything other than a pond (unless you have room for a 6ft coldwater tank?), fantails and fancy goldfish are the only ones really suitable for indoors as they require less space.
The 125l I'm recommending would be just for the fantail...and that's if it survives. I'm sorry to say that the damage may already be too extensive.

Please don't take any of my comments personally. Although you should really have done research before you bought the fish, the shop you bought them from is also at fault for not advising you on how to correctly care for your pets.

Ps. Don't know what these 'health drops' are...but I would guess they're probably some sort of marketing gimmik to seperate you from your money. And not actually neccesary for the fish.

 

[aly_starh]

Agreed /\

Gold fish need atleast 60l each with excellent filtration, an external filter is a must! I suggest not buying anymore fish, unless you have researched and then researched some more.

~betta_246

 

[ayresygirl]

Hi all thanks for you comments but i think I may have my mesurments on my tank size wrong, when i bought the 3 new ones the man in the shop said i was not to put in any more fish after these as the tank would be to small for any more then 4. My tank is large and no where near overcroaded although i do understand that fish need a curtain amout of room. I did not get them from a normal pet store but a fish specilist store so i think the tank is the correct size and like i said it is a big big tank and if your saying to upgaid too 120 odd letares then that would be amazingly massive so i think i am working in out wrong. is there any way i can mesure the tank to find out how many gallons it is?

 

[aly_starh]

Yes, to calculate your tank's volume Use This
~betta_246

 

[ayresygirl]

thanks will work this out now and then let you know. Hope my mesurment are wrong coz like i said i only wanted to give then a better quality of life as there were stuck in a tiny bowl!

 

[pippoodle]

120 litre tank would only be suitable for 1 fancy goldfish , a couple of snails , couple of hillstream loaches and maybe a small group of 8 WCminnows

Or 2 fancy goldfish ONLY with no other tank mates

it would need filtration at least 10 times - 1200 lph external canister

can you measure your tank and if you cant work out the calculator add the measurement here and someone will work it out for you

 

[ayresygirl]

just mesured and it says 113 lts, so thats 2 small then!? It cost me over £100 pound so cant afford a bigger one! why are shop allowed the sell fish to these condition if it is against their standards of living! makes me mad! So what should I do? shall I get rid of 2? how can i?

 

[aly_starh]

yes, that will only fit 1 goldfish max. with excellent filtration!

 

[Curiosity101]

If you wanted to rehome the goldfish then you could advertise them here in the classfied section. If you try to re-home them ASAP hopefully you might find the fantail will pull through. But it'll be touch n go. Eitherways I think the best course of action (if you want to keep goldfish), is to re-home the commons/comets and do your best for the fantail. If the fantail pulls through then keep it as a single fish, if it doesn't then get a new one, make sure it's a fancy one though.

Eitherways I'd recommend getting a small bottle of household ammonia from boots, or homebase etc. Keep it on hand incase the fantail doesn't pull through, that way you can keep the tank cycled until you buy a new fish.

 

[crazychris]

your tank sadly is way to small for even 1 goldfish or 1 fantail they need 40 gallons per gold fish then a additional 10-20 gallons per extra fish

I saw a group of teenage girls in the LFS buy a plastic fish bowl yesterday and 6 common small goldfish to immediately put in it! He did ask how old they were and they said "16" so he served them and said they could add 6 small goldfish easily. No filtration and no aeration. When I was asking for my live food I said "Isn't 6 too many" and he said "yes but thr more fish I sell means more money" How many times a day must this happen up and down the country? Around the world in fact!

 

[crazychris]

OP what filter do you have? Assume you got one with the new tank!

 

[Honeythorn]

just mesured and it says 113 lts, so thats 2 small then!? It cost me over £100 pound so cant afford a bigger one! why are shop allowed the sell fish to these condition if it is against their standards of living! makes me mad! So what should I do? shall I get rid of 2? how can i?

Yes, far too small even for 1.

It's a pity you went and bought a tank for £100 - I presume it was new from a shop? If so it's a shame because you could have most likely got a much bigger tank second hand for FAR less money. Ebay, Newspaper classifieds and Car boot sales are all good places to look.

The shop will not tell you that those fish grow to over a foot long ( common ) and in fancies, about the same size ( in the body ) as a big orange/cricket ball. They won't tell you they can live for 20+ years when you keep them correctly, and most of all, they won't tell you how to keep them correctly to begin with because they wish to make money. If they really told you what these fish need and how big and old they get, 90% of people wouldn't buy them .

They will sell you a bowl and some fish, and when that fails you go back and get more fish, this process repeats itself and the store will continue to make money from you until you either give up or find out how it's meant to be done. ,


A tank about 5 foot long is what you need for a nice pair of goldfish to be able to grow and swim properly. A bigger tank than that if you have the space is obviously better, and if the goldfish are the normal commn type, then they really do belong in a pond.

For a tank you will need a decent external filter because these fish make a LOT of waste and even a large internal cannister will not be able to cope. Externals can be pretty expensive new, anything from £70 upwards IME. Again, trawling ebay is a good way to try and find a second hand filter for less money.