Water conditions:
zerio everything, amonia, nitrite, nitrate all zero. pH neutral.
56 litre tank
3 white clouds
one goldfish, body four centimeters long.
long weird history:
i had the goldfish outside in a samll pond for years, since a fry.
possibility of moving house, so decided to transfer him to a tank.
was in a 16 litre tank with filter, doing fine.
decided to get him some friends.
bought the 56 litre tank off ebay, not collected it yet
bought 5 white clouds
took them home, tested the pH that they came in, pH was 6 !!! at this point I'd planed to put them in with the goldfish for a day or so till i got the bigger tank, but couldn't because of the pH discrepancy.
I wasn't very experienced, but knew a sudden pH change of 6 to 7 point somethign would kill them, I also had nowhere else to put the white clouds, so i kept them in a plastic container and tried to bring the pH up slowly over a few days, however i know now that even then I must have done it too quickly... by the time I'd put them in the bigger tank, they were already fading.
three died.
one was completely pale, but swimming fine, and one was so-so
oh and, in the middle of all this, baby white clouds appeared in the tank. i counted five, but they were eaten in a day, I'd been misinformed that whiteclouds don't eat their babies.
the so-so one died.
then i thought I was ok. the pale one was fine, stayed fine.
I only had a pH test kit, so I went and got an amonia test kit.
tank said zero amonia.
it seemed that everything was fine.
I put the goldfish in the big tank with the pale white cloud
again, everything seemed fine. I cursed the place I got fish in pH 6 water, and myself for changing their pH too fast. not going back to that place.
pH was good, stable, ammonia was zero, everyone seemed ok. big tank was filtering with the filter from the small tank, which I assumed had a healthy bacteria colony going, because it had been exposed to fishpond water, and had with the goldfish for pleanty long enough. I have the filter such that the outlet creates a large stream of bubbles.
white clouds are meant to be in groups, so, taking it slowly, i bought one white cloud. lets call her no2.
a few days later, I bought another (no. three), but when I arrived home, no.2 wasn't active and I was worried. I did a pH test and the amonia level was just above zero, but less than .25 ppm. Panicing, I did a water change. there was then no detectable ammonia. I put in white cloud no.3. (floating the bag in the tank for temperature etc)
that was a few days ago. since then, all three minnows have gradually gotten worse, with different symptoms roughly in this order:
hanging at the surface
loss of apetite
inactive, drifting
sinking
and now the goldfish is having problems, he's slow and at the top more often.
from the day that no.2 was hanging at the top/no.3 went in, a few days ago, I've been doing water changes every day (whith dechlorinator) 50% on the first day, because there was the slight amonia reading, and then 10-20% after that, ammonia stayed 0. I finaly bought nitrate and nitrite test kits today. they read zero. tap water reads zero nitrate. fish are getting worse, not better. what do I do???????
there should be pleanty enough oxygen for three tiny fish and one small fish in 56 litre rectangular tank, with filter breaking the surface.
nitrate reading zero is likely a result of all the water changing.
horrible way to introduce myself, but there we go. I have so many regrets. If they all die, I'm going to start again, -propperly- with a very very carefully controlled cycling. I so want this to work.
fish no. 3 is weird at the moment, appears to have a ton of energy but no ballance. nervous system collapsing? at the moment I have the three little ones in a seive suspended at the top of the tank, because they're not strong enough to not sink.
zerio everything, amonia, nitrite, nitrate all zero. pH neutral.
56 litre tank
3 white clouds
one goldfish, body four centimeters long.
long weird history:
i had the goldfish outside in a samll pond for years, since a fry.
possibility of moving house, so decided to transfer him to a tank.
was in a 16 litre tank with filter, doing fine.
decided to get him some friends.
bought the 56 litre tank off ebay, not collected it yet
bought 5 white clouds
took them home, tested the pH that they came in, pH was 6 !!! at this point I'd planed to put them in with the goldfish for a day or so till i got the bigger tank, but couldn't because of the pH discrepancy.
I wasn't very experienced, but knew a sudden pH change of 6 to 7 point somethign would kill them, I also had nowhere else to put the white clouds, so i kept them in a plastic container and tried to bring the pH up slowly over a few days, however i know now that even then I must have done it too quickly... by the time I'd put them in the bigger tank, they were already fading.
three died.
one was completely pale, but swimming fine, and one was so-so
oh and, in the middle of all this, baby white clouds appeared in the tank. i counted five, but they were eaten in a day, I'd been misinformed that whiteclouds don't eat their babies.
the so-so one died.
then i thought I was ok. the pale one was fine, stayed fine.
I only had a pH test kit, so I went and got an amonia test kit.
tank said zero amonia.
it seemed that everything was fine.
I put the goldfish in the big tank with the pale white cloud
again, everything seemed fine. I cursed the place I got fish in pH 6 water, and myself for changing their pH too fast. not going back to that place.
pH was good, stable, ammonia was zero, everyone seemed ok. big tank was filtering with the filter from the small tank, which I assumed had a healthy bacteria colony going, because it had been exposed to fishpond water, and had with the goldfish for pleanty long enough. I have the filter such that the outlet creates a large stream of bubbles.
white clouds are meant to be in groups, so, taking it slowly, i bought one white cloud. lets call her no2.
a few days later, I bought another (no. three), but when I arrived home, no.2 wasn't active and I was worried. I did a pH test and the amonia level was just above zero, but less than .25 ppm. Panicing, I did a water change. there was then no detectable ammonia. I put in white cloud no.3. (floating the bag in the tank for temperature etc)
that was a few days ago. since then, all three minnows have gradually gotten worse, with different symptoms roughly in this order:
hanging at the surface
loss of apetite
inactive, drifting
sinking
and now the goldfish is having problems, he's slow and at the top more often.
from the day that no.2 was hanging at the top/no.3 went in, a few days ago, I've been doing water changes every day (whith dechlorinator) 50% on the first day, because there was the slight amonia reading, and then 10-20% after that, ammonia stayed 0. I finaly bought nitrate and nitrite test kits today. they read zero. tap water reads zero nitrate. fish are getting worse, not better. what do I do???????
there should be pleanty enough oxygen for three tiny fish and one small fish in 56 litre rectangular tank, with filter breaking the surface.
nitrate reading zero is likely a result of all the water changing.
horrible way to introduce myself, but there we go. I have so many regrets. If they all die, I'm going to start again, -propperly- with a very very carefully controlled cycling. I so want this to work.
fish no. 3 is weird at the moment, appears to have a ton of energy but no ballance. nervous system collapsing? at the moment I have the three little ones in a seive suspended at the top of the tank, because they're not strong enough to not sink.
. What I can't work out now though is, with the water good, why are they still so sick?
