Help! Goldfish dying…

[Caliban07]

I think what people are having trouble with is understanding how there could not have a been a single occasion in the time you had 15 goldfish, probably the most notoriously waste heavy fish there is in what is seen as a relatively small volume of water for these creatures where the ammonia levels were uncontrolled. Unless you were testing and replacing water from day one nobody in the hobby performing the same actions would be able to say with any degree of certainty that there wasn’t an episode or occasion of elevated ammonia levels. Particularly in the early stages of set up.

Disease is a possibility, no denying that but I think it’s your reluctance to agree that the possible effects of ammonia toxicity may be beginning to take their toll.

Having said that. The fish are small, its not impossible to keep water parameters under control with very good tank maintenance.

So if you you can hand on heart say ammonia toxicity is an absolute impossibility then it sounds like a disease brought in by the fairground fish.

 

[Shelbyman]

There were months in prior years when my wife would say..."honey...the fish tank really smells and looks terrible". Honestly, in prior years you could see and smell the tank and knew that it needed cleaning. I would totally clean it and put the GF back in and they would be fine.

In this recent case, that did not happened. I changed a portion of the water regularly and it was not enough from what I'm being told.

Anyway, the GF are all dead, the tank is now empty and we will probably sell the tank & accessories.

I'm sure that there are a lot of Goldfish out there that are thankful for our decision.

 

[Caliban07]

There is no need to sell the tank. If everyone sold their tanks after an episode of unexplained fish deaths or frustration there would be no aquarium hobbyists.

I would suggest setting up a natural hardscape with plants and wood and keeping some shrimp. You can phase a single fairly large shoal of smaller fish in gradually.

Planted tanks are awesome.