Fishy problem

Post by **ayr41** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 10:26 pm

Has anyone on this forum got cold water fantail goldfish, wife bought me a biorb tank, it has a filter and we have use the water treatment fluid, unfortunately the fish only last a few weeks and I can't undrstand why, the latest one is going the same way and the wife gets upset - please help

Post by **PSL184** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 11:45 pm

Yes, I've had one for about 5 years now - can't kill the b****r know matter how hard I try ;-)

Post by **WPR678B** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 11:51 pm

I'm with PSL on that one! Don't do any of that treatment rubbish though. Tap water and like it for them i'm afraid!!

Post by **LouiseM** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 7:29 am

I've got fantail goldfish - one black & one gold - in a biorb tank and they've lasted 4 years so far, and I always add a water treatment to the tap water. However the black one is occasionally prone to a fungal infection and I think they are just more susceptible to infection than the gold one's. Do you keep getting replacement fish from the same place? If so, try getting some from elsewhere to see whether the same problem occurs as it could be that there isn't actually a problem with your tank.

Before putting fish back in the tank clean it thorughly making sure that the ceramic media is well rinsed, and change the air stone. Leave the water to 'settle' for at least 48 hours before adding the fish.

If you still get the same problem try using a 'First Aid' filter cartridge. This fits exactly the same as the usual filter cartridge but you only keep it in for a week or two, and add some treatment powder to the water. This does the trick and 'kills' the fungal infection.

Post by **RogerRust** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 9:05 am

Wow. Is there anything we can't help with on this site?

Post by **nigelr2000** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 9:54 am

I keep tropicals and the commonest thing to kill them is overfeeding as the food they dont eat rots in the water causing lots of problems, also it takes 4 to 6 weeks for the filter to get up and running properly and in that time the water cycle starts by changing ammonia to nitrite and then nitrate, the first 2 kill the fish easily. If another dies take a water sample to the fish shop before buiyng more fish to check the quality. The man in my shop says we a primarily water keepers as the fish normally look after themselves.

For info on the water cycle click the link

http://www.tropicalfishcentre.co.uk/Cycle.htm

Goldfish are pretty robust and can take a bit of mistreatment but fantails a little more delicate and more like tropicals to keep.

Post by **kennatt** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 10:03 am

anybody know what the points settings are on a black and gold

and have they got the wolseley larger type fins

Post by **nigelr2000** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 10:05 am

12 thou using unleaded flakes 15 for live food

Post by **LouiseM** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 10:19 am

I keep tropicals and the commonest thing to kill them is overfeeding as the food they dont eat rots in the water causing lots of problems

I agree with the overfeeding advice however left over food is never a problem with my fantails as they seem to be constantly hungry. It's like a piranha feeding frenzy sometimes when I get home from work and feed them

I suspect it's because they have a short memory span so forget that they were fed just a few hours earlier

Just feed them morning and night but don't give them too much.

anybody know what the points settings are on a black and gold and have they got the wolseley larger type fins

Definately got Wolseley fins but I think mine must be running a bit rich as they keep getting flooded

Post by **ASL642** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 11:31 am

Mine outgrew their tank so I dug a 2,200 litre pond in the back garden and now they are 6/8" long -leaping out of the water at feeding time!

Post by **andrew.searston** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 2:13 pm

i can beat psl
ive got a gold fish thats 9 or 10 years old(no joke) it killed the other one and have been swimming happily on its own all this time. in a simple bowl of water no water treatment or anything.
i went to buy a new bowl the other day and the guy at pets at home told me its crule to have a fish in a bowl with out any filters. how stupid. so i ended up buying a tank instead as they now stopped selling bowls
forgot to add i feed it once a day 4 flakes for one fish

Post by **les** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 9:43 pm

i went to buy a new bowl the other day and the guy at pets at home told me its crule to have a fish in a bowl with out any filters. how stupid.

something to do with reduced surfce area of water compared to the volume I think, so maybe not so stupid!

Post by **andrew.searston** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 12:55 pm

good point les i stand corrected never thought of that

Post by **HarryandDoreen** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 5:13 pm

This forum is amazing.

It reminds me of Johnny from the spoof 'Police Squad'. People would ask him 'What's the word on the street?' and the gag was that he would offer specialist advice to Cardiac Surgeons and Firefighters as well as to Frank Drebin. What do we not know?

Awesome.

Harry & Doreen

Post by **les** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 9:42 pm

What do we not know?

How we got everything we now see from a piece of molten rock, that the planet once was. It's as if it has all been secreted there, just waiting to be discovered; we've brought nothing in!

Post by **rayofleamington** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 10:16 pm

How we got everything we now see from a piece of molten rock, that the planet once was. It's as if it has all been secreted there, just waiting to be discovered; we've brought nothing in!

Some of us know the answer to that one too. ;-) Praise the Lord.

As for fantail goldfish - we had one, but the bigger goldfish ate it's fins. We lost most of them due to overfeeding (try explaining 4 flakes to children... and it still translates to a handful) and had a lone survivor - we bought a few more last year and lost nearly all when we were on honeymoon. The goldfish sitters had 5 adults in the house and I think they all got up and fed the fish before going to work, as they all got up at different times.
Yet again, we had the same lone survivor, the bigger one who used to bully the others.
He likes having the tank to himself and as there's only one now, its 10 times easier to keep the tank clean and no need for pumps and filters. Luke doesn't like this goldfish as it bullied / ate the others so he won't feed it - which is a blessing to the fish!

Straight tapwater everytime + a bit of hot to make it match room temperature!

Post by **les** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 10:21 pm

That version has things already made for us!!

Post by **rayofleamington** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 10:25 pm

That version has things already made for us!!

Yes, in that God knows the future, but allows for free will, hence all the dumb things we do. That's probably more than I'm allowed to say but c'est la vie

Post by **les** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 10:33 pm

Yes, lets leave it, this goes nowhere!

Post by **ayr41** » Thu Dec 31, 2009 8:03 am

Many thanks to you all for all the information, thought I might not get a reply on that one so just goes to show what a great group we have. Unfortunately Herbert died and has gone to the great bowl in the sky, i have cleaned the orb out and will go to another fishery for my next one. Happy new year to one and all.