Urgent Help Please I Keep Killing My Fish

[big fish little fish]

OVER THE LAST FOUR MONTHS I HAVE MANAGED TO KILL 12-15 FISH AND I DON'T KNOW WHY!!!
MY TANK IS A 45LITRE WITH THE CORRECT FILTER AND EVERYTHING BUT THEY KEEP DYING.
I WAS TOLD I COULD HAVE 5 OR 6 FANCY FANTAILS IN A TANK THIS SIZE.
THE LAST TWO OF MY BLACK MOORS DIED LAST WEEK AND SO I WAS CLEANING OUT THE TANK AGAIN TO START A FRESH WHEN I NOTICED ALL THESE LITTLE BLACK THINGS ON THE SIDE AND THE BOTTOM OF MY TANK, WHICH WHEN I EXAMINED CLOSER TURN OUT TO BE LITTLE SNAILS. THEY ARE VERY SMALL WITH BLACK SHELLS ON THEM AND THEY STICK TO THE SIDE OR SLIDE ALONG THE GRAVEL.
THE THING IS THAT I HAVE NOT BOUGHT ANY SNAILS SO WHERE ON EARTH HAVE THEY COME FROM AND COULD THIS BE WHY MY FISH ARE MYSTERIOUSLY DYING?
I NEED BASIC STEP BY STEP HELP ON HOW TO START UP MY TANK FROM SCRATCH AND EVERYTHING I NEED TO DO SO THAT MY FISH LAST LONGER THAN 4 WEEKS.
I WOULD BE GRATEFUL OF AS MUCH HELP AND ADVICE ON EVERYTHING I HAVE MENTIONED ABOVE.
THANKS FOR LOOKING.

 

[england]

this may help you hopefully http/www.aquazoo.co.uk/page.cfm/Type=Systems go through step by step

 

[WILDER]

Goldfish are big waste producers so need a filter the size of a 20gal rather then a ten gal, then you only should be keeping one fancy in a 10gal tank, the rule is usually one goldfish to 20gal, then 10gal for every other one added, the reason there dying is through bad water quality the ammonia build up will be burning there skin.

 

[england]

this i agree with

 

[LucyHurst]

you can only keep one fancy fish in that tank.
the reason they keep dying is you probably havnt cycled the tank first, let the filter build up the beneficial bacteria it needs to detoxify the ammoina that fish produce.
the cycle will take up to 2 months somethimes and most fish will not live through it.. which is what has happened to yours.
you need to set the tank up and leave it running for about a month putting a tiny pinch of fish food in there every day or so to trigger the bacteria bloom, whatever you do dont clean the filter, dont change any water and dont put in any fish!
after this month you will need to test the water... ammonia should be 0ppm nitrItes should be 0ppm and nitrAtes should be below 20, if all this is ok you can get one fancy fish. but no more or you will be overstocked and the fish will get all sorts of problems.
from then on the weekly maintainance will be a 20% waterchange with declorinated temp matched water. and monthy swish the filter media in USED tank water, if you rinse it under the tap the chlorine in the tap water will kill all the bacteria and your cycle will be lost. also if you change all the media the cycle will be lost. personally i only change a bit of the media and thats not even once a year, only if it is really falling apart.

Im sorry to hear youv had so much trouble, some fish stores just dont know what they are talkin about.

 

[aquamanA]

well I can tell you what I had like heaps of goldfish in the past but jeez mate dont kill them that would be so cruel just flush them down the toilet I killed one of my big fish once and I am still regreting it I felt absolutly terrible and I felt like crying so please!!! stop killing the fish when they die just take them out you dont have to kill them just be cool I stabbed a pencil through my fish and that was a bad thing to do the poor bastard was still alive when I flushed him down the dunny awwww no dont do that.

 

[black angel]

well I can tell you what I had like heaps of goldfish in the past but jeez mate dont kill them that would be so cruel just flush them down the toilet I killed one of my big fish once and I am still regreting it I felt absolutly terrible and I felt like crying so please!!! stop killing the fish when they die just take them out you dont have to kill them just be cool I stabbed a pencil through my fish and that was a bad thing to do the poor bastard was still alive when I flushed him down the dunny awwww no dont do that.

What you are saying aquamanA is instead of killing a fish just flush it instead?? Thats the cruellest thing you can do to a fish.
And he didnt mean literally kill the fish, more likely they die in his care.
No need for the bad language either

 

[dwarfgourami]

well I can tell you what I had like heaps of goldfish in the past but jeez mate dont kill them that would be so cruel just flush them down the toilet I killed one of my big fish once and I am still regreting it I felt absolutly terrible and I felt like crying so please!!! stop killing the fish when they die just take them out you dont have to kill them just be cool I stabbed a pencil through my fish and that was a bad thing to do the poor bastard was still alive when I flushed him down the dunny awwww no dont do that.

Flushing a living fish down the toilet is easily the cruellest way of euthanasia (yes, I know you weren't speaking of this at all, bigfish, just making things clear for aquaman). It is like being drowned in a waterfall of liquid ammonia. Smell a bottle of ammonia and think about whether this is the way you would like to go!

The humane way of euthanising (yes, I know this had nothing to do with your topic, bigfish), is by putting the fish in a container with water and clove oil. It will go to sleep painlessly. Then to ensure it really is dead, you can sever its head before disposing of the body.
Lacking clove oil, stabbing the fish's brain and then severing its head is the most humane method- though I would use a sharp knife rather than a pencil. When I had to do this recently, I anaesthesized the fish by adding brandy to the container it was in first. But clove oil would have been better.
Letting your fish suffer a long and cruel death to save yourself some tears is not the most responsible course of action.

Sorry for this hijacking, bigfish. Hope your problems get sorted. Basically, it is about tank size; goldfish being heavy waste producers with a need of a lot of oxygen need bigger tanks than you'd think.

 

[big mick]

Read the post properly aquamanA....thats not what they are saying. I dont really think you should share you fish killing stories either, stabbing a pencil through a fish and flushing it down the "dunny" is something you should keep to yourself.

 

[xautomaticflowersx]

I think AquamanA is just trying to antagonise people, pay no attention to his ridiculous post. If he has really been killing fish by stabbing them with pencils or has been flushing them down the toilet when they are still alive then he's clearly some sort of deranged halfwit. However, I think that the post is a wind-up so I'm not going to bother saying any more.

big fish little fish: This is not the first time people have told you how many fish you can have in how many gallons ( http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=116287&hl= ). Please start listening! You really should have been seeking out some help after the first couple of fish died... not the first dozen! 12-14 fish being killed is unacceptable, so to save more fish you need to ignore what the salesman is telling you, listen to the people who actually care about fish and try to sort out these problems. You can only keep one fancy goldfish in your tank, so the others either need to be rehomed or taken back to the shop pronto.
x-Lucy-Fish-x has given you good simple information to follow on setting up a tank. I would like to add that you should never 'clean a tank out to start afresh'... all this does is make the problem much much worse. You'll be getting rid of the beneficial bacteria and the fish will be living in a tank of toxic ammonia. Water changes are great, but never a whole tank cleanout. You never really want to remove more than about 40% of the tank water at a time.