Need Quick Advice

[Astro387]

Hello, I'm not new to the aquarium world, I've been doing it for years but haven't had one in quite some time.

The problem, I reluctantly won my 3 year old daughter a goldfish at a carnival (knowing it probably wouldn't live long) and setup a small 1.5 gallon cube tank for it. The tank was not properly cycled and the fish died after 2 weeks due to ich that killed the fish in 2 days. I added aquarium salt and raised the temp in an attempt to save it. I now have a 3 year old that thinks her fish has been sleeping in it's castle decoration for a day and a half, I have to replace the fish in the morning, what can I do to insure the new fish survives? I cleaned the tank and threw away the filter cartridge, so I now have no good bacteria. Help please!

 

[Caliban07]

Hello, I'm not new to the aquarium world, I've been doing it for years but haven't had one in quite some time.



The problem, I reluctantly won my 3 year old daughter a goldfish at a carnival (knowing it probably wouldn't live long) and setup a small 1.5 gallon cube tank for it. The tank was not properly cycled and the fish died after 2 weeks due to ich that killed the fish in 2 days. I added aquarium salt and raised the temp in an attempt to save it. I now have a 3 year old that thinks her fish has been sleeping in it's castle decoration for a day and a half, I have to replace the fish in the morning, what can I do to insure the new fish survives? I cleaned the tank and threw away the filter cartridge, so I now have no good bacteria. Help please!

Hello astro welcome to AA.

Unfortunately, a 1.5 gallon tank is really only suited to house freshwater shrimp. Gold fish need a much much larger tank. For actual tank sizes you would be best asking in the cold water section.

If you could afford to by a larger tank you could tell your daughter that he has had a house upgrade a buy a 20gallon. Most people on here will also say that a 20 gallon is still not big enough myself included and the tank would need upgrading again in the future.

Increasing temperature to cure ich is not really an option with goldfish because they are a cold water species and don't tolerate heat very well or even require a heater.

With respect, I suspect that ich was only half the problem here. Goldfish are very messy fish, the produce a lot of waste and have a large bioload. In an uncycled 1.5gal tank toxins like ammonia will build up very quickly and you will not have grown enough bacteria to deal with the ammonia in two weeks in a tank of that size. Also over feeding will cause ammonia to rise quickly and it would have required daily water changers to ensure the health of the fish.

Here's what I propose. Buy a 20gallon tank (if you can) stock it with 2 swordtails a male and female or 2 females. You can easily find orange swordtails and tell your daughter you got him a friend. You will need a heater for these though. If you have any gravel still wet in the 1.5gallon you can put it in a mesh bag and place it in the new filter and transfer ornaments over these will still have bacteria. The ich should have died off by now with no host to feast on.

 

[Astro387]

Thank you for your reply. Currently, I do not have space for a larger tank which is why I went with the small 1.5. I'm actually not used to the smaller tanks or goldfish, I've always had large tanks.

 

[Caliban07]

Thank you for your reply. Currently, I do not have space for a larger tank which is why I went with the small 1.5. I'm actually not used to the smaller tanks or goldfish, I've always had large tanks.

Ok well goldfish will outgrow a tank 10x that size fairly quickly. You could maybe look at some nano fish on google but again a 1.5gal is really only suited to house shrimp in my opinion.

If you are still to pursue another goldfish then you will need to by a liquid test kit and test the water everyday changing half every time ammonia rises.

 

[jglover]

How about a betta? While a gallon and a half is not ideal, a betta could work provided you keep up with tank maintenance.