I am not altogether new to fish, but I'm no pro, either. I currently have 2 five gallon tanks for my bettas, each also housing a golden mystery snail, and I recently set up a 30 gallon goldfish tank with a pair of fancy goldfish.
Just yesterday, a relative gave me her 18 gallon hex tank. It's old and was utterly unmaintained, but with it came five poor fish, which somehow survived massive neglect, overstocking, overfeeding coupled with periods of rank starvation, etc. - a single glass catfish, two fish which may be striped silver dollar fish, a sad looking 'algae eater', and... randomly, a common goldfish their child had gotten as a party favor at some kid's birthday.
I dropped the goldfish, which looked healthy compared to the others, into the goldfish tank, but I have no idea what to do with the rest of them. I cleaned out the tank some (had to anyway to transport it over here) and returned the fish to the tank, for lack of any better ideas.
I know the catfish would be happiest with several of his own kind, and the algae eater, should he survive, will get too large for the tank, and I don't know what to do about the other two, or the spare goldfish.... The goldfish should be all right for now, since all three are pretty little and have ample filtration/room, but in the long term... erk!
Advice/ideas on how to manage this mess?
Just yesterday, a relative gave me her 18 gallon hex tank. It's old and was utterly unmaintained, but with it came five poor fish, which somehow survived massive neglect, overstocking, overfeeding coupled with periods of rank starvation, etc. - a single glass catfish, two fish which may be striped silver dollar fish, a sad looking 'algae eater', and... randomly, a common goldfish their child had gotten as a party favor at some kid's birthday.
I dropped the goldfish, which looked healthy compared to the others, into the goldfish tank, but I have no idea what to do with the rest of them. I cleaned out the tank some (had to anyway to transport it over here) and returned the fish to the tank, for lack of any better ideas.
I know the catfish would be happiest with several of his own kind, and the algae eater, should he survive, will get too large for the tank, and I don't know what to do about the other two, or the spare goldfish.... The goldfish should be all right for now, since all three are pretty little and have ample filtration/room, but in the long term... erk!
Advice/ideas on how to manage this mess?
