too late now but....

[guppler]

I went to a wedding reception for one of my dad's friends from work and didn't even notice until Mom pointed out that there were live fish swimming around in the table decorations. I got a betta that way last year and he's fine, but for some reason these 2 little goldfish were more difficult. I think they were silver commets and the vases also had cut flowers, including roses and ferns. I was sure most serious fish keepers would not like the idea, but it looked neat. We didn't wait long before moving the flowers to a different vase and doing a water change, but the smaller of the 2 was gone pretty quick anyway. He was a little funny shaped anyway, so I thought it could be a personal problem, but pretty soon the other one was getting red around the gills and armpits. My fantail, Nugget has had similar synptoms several times, but not for a while. At first I thought it was septicemia, but then I read that long finned cold water fishes can get that way from stress. I figured the commet would be better off in a real aquarium anyway, no matter how much I changed the water, but she was so tiny I was afraid Cracker or Creamsicle might eat her, so I put her in my comunity where she was close to the size of my cories and black neon tetras. I figured maybe by the time she was big enough I could get a bigger goldfish tank anyway. Well, just when I thought the red was fading, she died too. I wasn't really surprized, but I was disapointed. Maybe they would have lived if I'd just put them both straight into the goldfish tank. I thought about getting another sponge filter for one of my small critter keepers. That type of set up worked well for Cracker and Creamsicle when they were small, but I had a lot of small tanks already going and most had new fry that the goldies might eat. I was low on space and resouces and thought maybe part of the stress was from being alone. I figured if the white clouds like the comunity and like about the same water temp as goldfish, and none of my tanks were being heated anyway, then why not go ahead and put her with the fishes closest to her size, with the least crowding. Maybe it was already too late by the time they got home. I don't think the other fishes will catch anything.

 

[black angel]

its sad that your story didnt have a better ending for the goldies, but i really applaud you for trying your best for those two.
the damage would have been done by the stress of being in such a small volume of water. the ammonia would have built up so fast their tiny bodies wouldnt have coped. the stuff from inside the cut flowers would have poisoned them as well, so overall the chances of them surviving would have been very small.
so sad,