Red gills

[Laraa]

The school gave my niece a fish a week ago, and today I noticed that her gills have become dark red. What should I do? How do I know the type of fish, its age, and the amount of food and water? For now we put it in a small container and we change the water every other day and we used tap water. Please provide clear steps we are new to this

[Aiken Drum]

Its poor water quality, most likely ammonia from the fish living in its own waste.

There is a natural process called the nitrogen cycle that removes waste from aquarium, but it takes months to establish. Until the cycle establishes the aquarium needs a little help from you doing a lot of water changes to keep the water clean and safe.

Keeping the fish in a small container isnt going to help. Less water means less dilution of the toxic waste the fish produces. The fish needs to be in a proper sized aquarium, with a proper sized filter. And that aquarium needs to be cycled. The tank needs to be big enough to keep that lone fish and some more of the same species, so the aquarium needs to be 20 gallons/ 80 litres in capacity. And it will need a filter, a heater, and preferably a light.

Did the school just give you the fish or did they give you equipment to keep the fish in?

If they gave you nothing to keep the fish in, are you prepared to invest in providing the fish with a healthy environment? It will cost some money, or maybe you can look at the used aquarium market. If not, take the fish back to the school.

In the meantime, change the water more frequently. I would be doing a complete water change 2 or 3 times per day in a small unfiltered container. Make sure you use water conditioner every time you change the water. Do you know what a water conditioner is?

What on earth is a school doing sending children home with fish and giving them no instruction on how to properly look after them? Its called animal abuse and the school should be reported to whatever animal welfare organisations exist in your country.

[Laraa]

The school gave her the fish in a cup with floating food bag. I fully agree that this is an animal abuse but in my country is not considered abuse unfortunately.
I don't know what water conditioner is? For today, can i use drinking water?

Is this a goldfish?
Thanks for your help i really appreciate it

[Aiken Drum]

Its not a goldfish. Im not terribly good at identifying fish ive never kept, but it looks like some kind of colour variation/ albino variety of fish. Some kind of tetra? Hopefully someone who has kept a variety of fish or worked in the aquarium shop trade can give you a better identification.

Water conditioners remove the water treatment used to make your tap water safe to use. Most tap water is treated with chlorine or chloramine and this is very harmful to fish. I dont know what you mean by "drinking water". If you mean water from the tap dont use that without adding water conditioner. If you mean bottled water that you buy, that shouldnt have chlorine or chloramine in it, so should be safe to use as long as its not carbonated or flavoured. If you are using tap water, go to a pet store and buy some water conditioner. Seachem prime if they have it, but there are lots of water conditioners out there. Even a general store that has a small pet section should have water conditioner. It will say something like "makes tap water safe" on the bottle. If you go to a pet store, ask someone.

I really dont want to commit you to spending money on a fish that has been dropped on you. Setting up and maintaining an aquarium is expensive. Your fish really needs a 20 gallon aquarium and friends. A 5g aquarium and living on its own is going to be better than a cup, but wont provide much quality of life. Its then a judgement on whether euthanising the fish is better than a poor quality of life.

If you are committed to giving the fish a good quality of life then we can absolutely help you. If its a case of you providing what you can, then while its not ideal, we can do our best. Its really down to how far you want to go.

Feeding wise. Food will be contributing to the poor water quality. So for now only feed every 2 days, as much as it eats in 3 minutes.

[Aiken Drum]

And i want to add that the fish will be suffering a whole lot of issues caused by water quality, and dont always pull through even when you do everything you can to improve things. You could go out and spends proper money on an aquarium, filtration etc, do everything you can to keep good water quality, and the fish might still die a day or a week or a month from now. And then you have a whole heap of aquarium equipment, and no fish.

Do you actually want to keep fish?

[Laraa]

Affording an aquarium might be a challenge for me, but it pains me to see the fish suffering in a cramped space and I'm not sure what should i do

[Aiken Drum]

Take the fish back to the school. Its their responsibility. If they dont want to take it back just leave it on the reception counter and walk away.

[Aiken Drum]

And just to add, that keeping fish doesn't have to be expensive. You could set up a small 5 gallon aquarium reasonably cheaply, and keep a fish suitable for that size of aquarium. Unfortunately that size aquarium isnt suited to your fish. If keeping fish is something that would interest you its an enjoyable hobby.

[GuPpYnEwBiE82]

Just wondering, were you able to follow the advice from Aiken Drum and get some water conditioner and a cheap enough tank for the fish? Poor little guy

I've found this site so helpful - even if we think we have done everything right, if you don't have that knowledge and experience it is the fish that suffer.

I hope you were able to get something and that he/she is doing better...

[Colin_T]

The fish is a white shubunkin, a type of goldfish that normally has black, grey, blue and red markings, except this one doesn't have any colour. They are renown for very transparent gill covers. However, the water does look a little milky cloudy and that means poor water quality and you need to do big daily water changes to keep it clean.

You can use a 50-100 litre (or bigger) plastic storage container to keep the fish in. They are normally cheaper than an aquarium but you can't see the fish as easily through the sides.