goldfish dead again, whats wrong?

[mugface]

I have read up on goldfishkeeping and as i am aware done evrything right. But, I have bought 5 goldfish so far and the longest they have lasted is 3 weeks.
I can't understand it!
I have one of those glass round bowls, quite big.
a couple of friend have theirs in those round plastic bowls, no filters or anything an dthey have had them ages.
ds1 and ds2 are not impressed
Help please!

Well, quite!

I must admit the thought of rats running around the loft is defo creepy.

I must admit the thought of rats running around the loft is defo creepy.

You are supposed to have oxygen pumped into the fishtank.

Kelly - well yes, we hear scratching in the cavity walls plus a fair bit of squeaking / squealing. Quite unnerving.

Re the oxygen being pumped in - not entirely necessary in a bowl just housing 1 or 2 goldfish, especially if you dissolve oxygenating tablets into the water

I must being doing something right DS's gold fish is a bout 6yrs, we have 3 in the tank. We have a filter and oxgenator (?). MIL had it for years before it was moved to ours she just had in a simple tank and cleaned it out regularly.

The problem with bowls (or bowels) is that if the water is up near the top the surface area is small in comparison the the volume in the bowl and limits the oxygen. If it is a straight sided bowl this should be fine.

Check that the sun isn't on it through the day over heating it. I would clean it all out and start a fresh let the tank settle for 2 weeks first before putting in a new fish from another shop. You should get bacterial bloom after about 5 days/ week. This is when it goes all cloudy, even without a filter this should clearin a couple of days. Change about 1/3rd of the water every week, make sure fresh water is room temp. Perhaps your tap water is too chlorinated. I would consider testing but with tap safe it should be OK. We just use plain tap water but it is quite pure here. Pet shop should be able to advise on suitability of local water.

We have 2 ordinary goldfish (DS2 won one of them at a fair in the summer, it only cost about £10, lol) in one of those moulded rectangular plastic tanks with a hinged ventilated lid which are really meant for small dry creatures.

Definitely keep them well away from sun or any other bright lights; make the water as near room temp as poss when you put them in; use one of the anti-chlorine additives; feed as little as poss and get the pellets rather than the flakes, DS2 was very generous with the flake food when they first arrived and the water needed changing after less than a week.

Ours have just had the same lot of water, unchanged, for at least a month and have been fine. I've just cleaned them out and added a bit of weed (which will probably kill them ) which is good for aerating the water and also they can nibble it for a change of diet.

We had a mirror over the fishtank, when we were kids. 3 pairs of fish had to die before my mum realised that when she polished the mirror, the polish particles floated down into the tank...

mugface, I do sympathise. I got goldfish thinking they were the easy option, pet-wise. HA!

First one died after one day. Then second one died when he got wedged in the decorative castle adorning the tank. One after another, they all perished. We all cried over the first one and gave him a decent burial, but by the end we were flushing them down the bog.

Never again

can't believe how many evil fish killers are around! Call the rspca.

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