Argh! Goldfish issues...

[Aisling]

I gave dd three goldfish for her birthday. Three days later, they're all in fishie heaven :scratch :shrug This has happened before. What am doing wrong??

drinking water, not city tap...check
conditioner....check
plenty (but not too much) fishy food..check
waited till water was room temp to put them in...check
plenty of swimming room, no foreign substance in bowl, room temperature...check
no ick....

Why are they dying?? I'm very, very good with mammals, so why are fish so difficult? :O

Lovey toddled into the living room today and signed for "fish", and was sad when she saw the empty bowl :(

[BeckaBlue]

how much room is in the bowl? goldfish grow really big (we have 3 that are each over 5" nowadays, only 3mts after we got them at 1") where did you buy them from??

asking dh...

did you happen to wash it with soap or bleach? (lethal to fish)
how long had you had the tank set up, and had you put any other fish in before?
any houses or fake plants that could've had anything on them?

could've been sick from the a store too and just didn't know yet (we've had our share die too within days of bringing them home :( )
we also have a tank that everything we put in has died for unseen reasons

[boonpnutsmom]

What type of goldfish are these?

[Sanveann]

Check out this board ... lots of very nice, knowledgeable folks: http://www.aquamaniacs.net/forum/index.php

[SouthPaw]

What probably happened...

Goldfish are very very very dirty. They poop a lot, and that gets turned into ammonia. The ammonia builds up in the water. It is toxic to them, and they die.

In a mature fish tank, beneficial bacteria exist that turn ammonia to nitrites, nitrites to nitrates (much less harmful) Then you just do a water change every now and then to remove excess nitrates. But in an "un-cycled" tank, the ammonia just builds up and builds up until.... :( no more fishies.

Whoever sold you those goldfish led you down the wrong road unfortunately :( The rule is about 10 gallons per goldfish. If your tank is under 30 gallons (for 3 goldfish), I would suggest you get a betta instead of goldsfish. Goldfish can grow to be more than a foot long! If they are in a too-small tank, their insides keep growing but their outsides don't, which greatly decreases their lifespan.

A betta will live very happily for about 3-4 years in even a smallish (half gallon minimum) bowl. And you don't have to have a filter. Goldfish require a filter since they are soooo messy.

I hope that helps! Sorry about your fishy loss, it is sad when the little guys don't make it.

The bright side is, you did almost everything else right :tu you just need a different species, and a little info on the nitrogen cycle!

Oh and for the next fishy - don't feed it for 3 or 4 days so it poops as little as possible while the bacteria are cycling in (that usually takes about 3 weeks). If you take a water sample to a pet store, they will test it for you for free - so you can keep an eye on the ammonia buildup.

HTH

http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_syndrome.php New Tank Syndrome - what you experienced
http://www.epinions.com/content_3185614980 Why Goldfish Aren't Happy in Bowls

Oh and just so you know - i have killed MORE than my fair share of fish!! It just happens sometimes. Good luck with your next fishy friends!

Hope that helps!

[Aisling]

What probably happened...

Goldfish are very very very dirty. They poop a lot, and that gets turned into ammonia. The ammonia builds up in the water. It is toxic to them, and they die.

In a mature fish tank, beneficial bacteria exist that turn ammonia to nitrites, nitrites to nitrates (much less harmful) Then you just do a water change every now and then to remove excess nitrates. But in an "un-cycled" tank, the ammonia just builds up and builds up until.... :( no more fishies.

Whoever sold you those goldfish led you down the wrong road unfortunately :( The rule is about 10 gallons per goldfish. If your tank is under 30 gallons (for 3 goldfish), I would suggest you get a betta instead of goldsfish. Goldfish can grow to be more than a foot long! If they are in a too-small tank, their insides keep growing but their outsides don't, which greatly decreases their lifespan.

A betta will live very happily for about 3-4 years in even a smallish (half gallon minimum) bowl. And you don't have to have a filter. Goldfish require a filter since they are soooo messy.

I hope that helps! Sorry about your fishy loss, it is sad when the little guys don't make it.

The bright side is, you did almost everything else right :tu you just need a different species, and a little info on the nitrogen cycle!

Oh and for the next fishy - don't feed it for 3 or 4 days so it poops as little as possible while the bacteria are cycling in (that usually takes about 3 weeks). If you take a water sample to a pet store, they will test it for you for free - so you can keep an eye on the ammonia buildup.

HTH

http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_syndrome.php New Tank Syndrome - what you experienced
http://www.epinions.com/content_3185614980 Why Goldfish Aren't Happy in Bowls

Oh and just so you know - i have killed MORE than my fair share of fish!! It just happens sometimes. Good luck with your next fishy friends!

Hope that helps!


That helps so much! I bought them at WalMart, and the guy in the pet section obviously wasn't too knowledgable :rolleyes He assured us that we could safely keep three fishies in a bowl, and that they thrived on a dirty bowl..."so we shouldn't change it very often or they'd die" :doh Poor little fish, they were swimming around the top of the bowl making gasping motions :cry Ah, well. Poor little dears.

I think a beta might be the best choice for us :D

Thanks for the good links!

[Sanveann]

Oh, I just HATE it when "knowledgeable" people think that fish thrive in dirty water and actually go around telling others that! The worst are those bowls with a flower on top and a betta in the bottom, and they tell you never to change the water or feed the fish. (In fact, bettas are carnivorous, and will NOT eat the roots unless they're starving to death. And of course any fish needs clean water.) I think this idea originated because bettas, in the wild, often live in brackish water. Many people think that means "dirty" ... it actually means a combination of salt and fresh water. (Though they do fine in just fresh water.)

This site has a lot of great betta info: http://www.bettatalk.com/

[Aisling]

ooo, good beta link! Thanks! :tu