seakaurora
Aquarium Advice Newbie
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2018
- Messages
- 3
Hi, I have a 10 gallon tank where 5 comet goldfish "seemed" to be living happily for two years. They are currently 2 and a half to three inches long each. I do a partial water change once a month and change the filter once a month... occassionally may slip to six weeks between a change but for the most part pretty good about it. I have never cleaned the rocks, but the water is always crystal clear, not much algea on sides, plants etc. and it doesn't look like from the bottom edges there is that much crud under the rocks (but I'm worried this could have contributed to the problem along with overcrowding). Anyhow I found 1 fish dead today. He seemed to be missing a bunch of scales in a big patch. I'm not sure how long it's been dead it had gotten stuck at the top of the castle so wasn't floating on top of the water but it was starting to smell which clued me to something and I also saw some whitish mold? growing ontop of filter which I'd never seen before. Of course I took the dead fish out, panicked did a partial water change and put in a new filter. I know one goldfish needs 50 gallons etc. and don't need a lecture on that, my plan was to upgrade slowly over the years. I have a 29 gallon tank that I was going to put them in next month, but now I think I need to move that time frame up. I want to put them in there now, but read about cycling which can take up to two months. I'm worried about waiting that long if the conditions are bad in the small tank - that the rest might not make it that long. I think I should clean the rocks but don't want to stress the existing fish more, maybe I should wait a few days? a week after this death? I set up the new tank today and know about adding ammonia and all that to do the cycling, but I was wondering about putting rocks from existing tank and water strained from existing replacable media filter to speed up cycling process but if theres bad bacteria or anything else in this tank I don't want to add to new tank so perhaps I should not do that? I've never tested the water (went for two years with no issues) but will be getting a kit later tonight to see if any bad readings in current tank... just wondering what would you would do???? My daughter loves this fish and will be very sad when she comes home from school today, I just want to do whatever I can to save the remaining fish!!!