fcking pets at home - i bought dd1 goldfish for her bday - next day DEAD then guess what

[nailpolish]

frogmarched back to pets at home
took a sample of tank ater

which tey tested it was FINE

they gave us 2 replacement fish - 2 days later

DEAD

wtf is going on? i did everything by the book

i feel i cant go and get another 2 replacement fish in case same thing happens and dd1 will be even more distraught

sorry am sorry for the loss of your fish

one of ours died the other week, but i am not sure if it was scooby or shaggy and the children keep asking me, and i can never remember which one i have said it is!!

any independent pet stores near you?

Demand shop assistant (male, handsome, sans acne or pubic hair tufts on the back of neck) comes home with you, sets up tank and cares lovingly for fish for minimun of 72 hours.

i am gong to go to independent
shop
once if ind one

nailpolish: just a few questions

a) how big is your tank? A single goldfish really needs at least 10 gallons (around 40-45L) to be healthy - they grow VERY BIG.

b) do you know about the nitrogen cycle? I ask this because to me (apart from the high likelihood you got dodgy fish) it sounds like "new tank syndrome". Fish waste products (and rotting food) produce ammonia in the water and ammonia is highly toxic to fish. The way you get around this is to slowly introduce good bacteria in the tank which takes the ammonia and changes it firstly into nitrite (also toxic to fish but in larger quantities) and then nitrate (less toxic - easy to keep under control with regular water changes).

You can go down two routes here:

• you can go the easy route (as you have no fish) of doing a "fishless cycle" which prepares the tank with lots of good bacteria without any risk of harm to your fish.

• you can get new fish, but you will have to test the water daily and do daily water changes for many weeks. Also there is still risk of harm to the fish. There's an article on how to do that safely here

I would also look at the size of the tank. If much smaller than 40L, then maybe adding a heater and turning it into a tropical fish tank would be the wise thing to do. The above articles on cycling still apply.

Hope this helps

RUBBER DUCK

THANKS!

someone else mentioned new tank ssyndrome to me

i have spoken to dd1 and i am going to read your links and i think i will try the fishless cycle

tnaks again

tank is less than 40L

I got my fish from PAH, 1 baby one died the first week BUT i got 4,and the other 3 are still growing fine after 13 months.

I would say then, that for a tank smaller than 40L it's not ideal for a goldfish, and you may be better going the tropical fish route.

I know it's extra outlay for you (with the heater) but they're lovely to look at as you'll be able to have multiple small fish and generally less disease-prone in my experience. I really recommend finding a good local retailer who you can trust (NOT pets@home!) who can best advise you.

Some more helpful links:

Basics of fishkeeping

aquatic shop finder

ThinkFish - is free membership to this one and once you log in you get access to the community creator. You can put in the dimensions of your tank and it'll tell you how many fish you can have in the space, lets you try out different combinations of fish and will tell you if any species won't get along together. Awesome site.

Which Fish Get HUGE - in case there's anyone who might think I'm exaggerating when I say how much space a goldfish needs, scroll down to the pictures in this article and SEE how big an adult fancy goldfish is - they really are big cooking apples with fins!

another adult goldfish - a bit bigger than the tiddlers you get in the fish store

These images are really a great visual to show how unkind putting a goldfish in a small tank is.

thats rubberduck
i feel less anxious now - will speak to dh
are tropical fish more work after initial outlay?
how muc hare heaters?

how many fish can i have in the tank - i think its 26L

wow thats big!

THANKS rubberduck
not thats

A heater should "only" be about £15-20. They come in different powers though, so get one in a shop where they can tell you which one is suitable. I'd imagine a 25W or 50W would be best for your size tank.

Tropical fish, in my experience, are generally easier as they're less messy than goldfish as they have such smaller body mass. Also they don't shred any plant you put in with them!

In terms of how many fish - very roughly I'd say about 1cm of fish per L, so 26cm of slim-bodied fish - that's full adult size. So, for example, a common starter tropical fish is a zebra danio. It's adult size is 6cm so you could have four of them in the space comfortably.

Chat to your LFS (Local Fish Shop ) and they'll be able to recommend some nice pretty starter fish that will be easy to care for, are suitable for the tank size and are hardy to give you some leeway while you learn!

Oh, another alternative if you don't want to go the heater route is get some white cloud mountain minnows. They're very pretty cold water fish, very hardy and good for beginners and small spaces. I think the adult size is about 4cm so you could have 6 WCMM in there comfortably, and would shoal beautifully - you don't have the heater outlay then.

(also, if you ever do decide to go tropical and upgrade your tank, WCMM are also happy at tropical temperatures as long as you acclimatise them gradually - they really are very hardy little fishes!)

MMMMM .. Fish!

WCMM - fairly unassuming little fish in the shop, but once you get them home and they settle in, the tips of their fins get really orange. And a group of them is really very pretty.

yum

Is your pump aerating your water - ie; getting bubbles? If not you may need a bubble stone as it may partly be oxygen levels?

the little cloud minnows are really cute and easy to look after, the only thing is you really can't tell them apart! so they might all have to have the same name

Ah but the not telling apart is actually an ADVANTAGE! (At least in this household). No names for the kids is less attachment... so if you do get a floater, there's less upset .

True, True and dead easy to replace dead ones without anyone noticing!

with tropical fish do you need a light?