Pantaz
Aquarium Advice Newbie
I did just about everything wrong.
Making a short story long... About 5 years ago I inherited two goldfish from a friend's children. The fish were living individually in glass flower vases (no flowers), roughly five inches diameter. I immediately trasferred them into a new "goldfish bowl" -- just over 1 gallon. I knew enough to use water conditioner and to match the temperature before moving them into the new bowl. One fish pretty quickly outgrew the bowl, so I moved them into a 2.2 gallon and added a Whisper 3i filter. They appeared to do quite well for the past few years. One continued to grow, reaching about 2.5 inches, the other seemed to stop at about 1.5 inches (hard to measure a swimming fish!) I honestly didn't expect goldfish won at a carnival to survive this long, or grow so much.
About three weeks ago (end of March 2011), the smaller goldfish died. Shortly thereafter the big one began acting unusual -- swimming quickly back and forth, and occasionally resting on the bottom. I thought his/her increasing size in the too small bowl was causing the behaviour. I also considered the possibility that she was lonely after losing her long-time companion, so I got her a new friend (a 29-cent goldfish). Disease never crossed my mind.
The two fish appeared to be getting along fine, in fact, the big one appeared to calm down a bit, but she was still prone to bursts of rapid swimming. I had been contemplating a larger aquarium, and the local Petco had a 10 gallon kit on sale for $40, so that's what I now have. Upon reading the instructions, and doing a some online research, I learned of the complex nature of establishing a new aquarium. So, I began the procedure.
About two days after introduction, the new goldfish died. Thinking there must be something wrong in the old tank, I decided to accelerate the move into the new tank. I tested the water, matched the temperature, and transferred the big girl into the new aquarium. She seemed to take to it just fine. She was still swimming rapidly across the breadth of the tank, but continuing to anthropomorphize, I attributed it to her enjoying the new, larger surroundings. A day later I added two new goldfish.
Within a couple of days I noticed the new fish behaving sluggishly. Then, one of the new goldfish died. Using a flashlight to better observe one of them, I finally noticed the white spots. Didn't take much searching to find the name of the affliction -- Ichthyophthirius.
The only store still open was Petco, and the only treatment they had that specifically mentioned Ich was Tetra Lifeguard. I followed the instructions to the letter. The other "new" goldfish was gone the next day, then, early on day four, my old friend finally succumed. I still feel horrible for not diagnosing the disease earlier.
I raised the water temperature, continued daily gravel vacuuming and partial water changes to eradicate the pests. Ten days after the last fish died, I dropped the temperature to 76F, did a very thorough gravel vacuuming and a >50% water change. Finally, I've added API Stress Zyme.
Next step = new fish.
Making a short story long... About 5 years ago I inherited two goldfish from a friend's children. The fish were living individually in glass flower vases (no flowers), roughly five inches diameter. I immediately trasferred them into a new "goldfish bowl" -- just over 1 gallon. I knew enough to use water conditioner and to match the temperature before moving them into the new bowl. One fish pretty quickly outgrew the bowl, so I moved them into a 2.2 gallon and added a Whisper 3i filter. They appeared to do quite well for the past few years. One continued to grow, reaching about 2.5 inches, the other seemed to stop at about 1.5 inches (hard to measure a swimming fish!) I honestly didn't expect goldfish won at a carnival to survive this long, or grow so much.
About three weeks ago (end of March 2011), the smaller goldfish died. Shortly thereafter the big one began acting unusual -- swimming quickly back and forth, and occasionally resting on the bottom. I thought his/her increasing size in the too small bowl was causing the behaviour. I also considered the possibility that she was lonely after losing her long-time companion, so I got her a new friend (a 29-cent goldfish). Disease never crossed my mind.
The two fish appeared to be getting along fine, in fact, the big one appeared to calm down a bit, but she was still prone to bursts of rapid swimming. I had been contemplating a larger aquarium, and the local Petco had a 10 gallon kit on sale for $40, so that's what I now have. Upon reading the instructions, and doing a some online research, I learned of the complex nature of establishing a new aquarium. So, I began the procedure.
About two days after introduction, the new goldfish died. Thinking there must be something wrong in the old tank, I decided to accelerate the move into the new tank. I tested the water, matched the temperature, and transferred the big girl into the new aquarium. She seemed to take to it just fine. She was still swimming rapidly across the breadth of the tank, but continuing to anthropomorphize, I attributed it to her enjoying the new, larger surroundings. A day later I added two new goldfish.
Within a couple of days I noticed the new fish behaving sluggishly. Then, one of the new goldfish died. Using a flashlight to better observe one of them, I finally noticed the white spots. Didn't take much searching to find the name of the affliction -- Ichthyophthirius.
The only store still open was Petco, and the only treatment they had that specifically mentioned Ich was Tetra Lifeguard. I followed the instructions to the letter. The other "new" goldfish was gone the next day, then, early on day four, my old friend finally succumed. I still feel horrible for not diagnosing the disease earlier.
I raised the water temperature, continued daily gravel vacuuming and partial water changes to eradicate the pests. Ten days after the last fish died, I dropped the temperature to 76F, did a very thorough gravel vacuuming and a >50% water change. Finally, I've added API Stress Zyme.
Next step = new fish.
