4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[teri]

after only one week my daughters birthday goldfish have both been found floating in their tank RIP lipstick and Goldilocks . twinkle toes and pablo are still with us and i'm hoping they are still with us in the morning.

the tank itself is really cloudy concidering it's only been running a week and it has a filter and air pump. i think i will take a water sample to the pet centre and see what happens.

any advice would be great

[Griffin]

Do a water change now. As soon as a fish dies it starts to decay and pollutes the water. The sample you take to the shop will show the nitrates are through the roof. Change a third now, a third in two days and another third two days after that. Is there any sign of disease on the fish? White spot can finish them off in a matter of hours.

 

Goldfish are very 'dirty' fish. They produce more waste than most fish and it takes a while for the tank & filtration to cope with this level of waste. Depending on the size of the tank you might have over done it by starting with four. When my daughter first started keeping fish we lost our first few goldfish this way. They certainly taught us a lot!

[teri]

thanks for the advice

the guy in the pet shop did assure us that the tank would hold four fish, however lucy did choose some very big ones! i think we're gonna stick with two goldfish and introduce a couple of loaches once the water settles down. hopefully they will keep the mess down a bit!

[chickencam]

It takes a while for the natural eco-system to develop. If is is white spot there is a treatment that you can get to put in the water which works wonders. We had a problem with this after having our fish for a few years, so we built a pond in the garden and from 3 fish we soon had over 30, we now have about 12 and one of the original large fish. about 8 years on

[victoriabunny]

You overloaded the filter by adding fish too soon - you need to cycle a new tank (allow time for the beneficial bacteria which break down waste and ammonia to develop in the filter). What you've got is called "new tank syndrome". A new tank needs to be cycled for anything up to a month, with regular tests on the water to check ammonia, nitrate and nitrite levels, before any fish are added. Even then, fish should be added in small numbers and at least a week left between new additions so the filter can get used to the larger amounts of waste it's dealing with. Adding four goldfish to a brand-new tank was a bit ambitious, I'm afraid. How big is the tank and what kind of goldfish are they? Ordinary goldfish, comets and shubunkins grow very big and need at least 80 litres of water each. Fancy goldfish such as fantails, moors and orandas need 40 litres each. All goldfish have primitive digestive systems and produce lots of waste, and you will find if your tank is too small it will get dirty extremely quickly as the filter won't be able to cope with the waste. The fish will seem stressed and ill. Tropical fish are a lot easier to keep to be honest, as they don't need the space that goldfish need and produce much less waste. If you have ordinary goldfish, I would consider rehoming them to a pond when they're a bit bigger if it's an option, and switching your tank to tropical.

[teri]

thanks victoria

the guy in the shop told us four fish would be ok. the tank was running for a week before we introduced the fish. you obviously know more about it than him now that we are down to two fish they seem happier. i have cleaned the filter and changed the water a bit at a time over the last few days. all is well at the moment but i'm keeping an eye on things. if these go i'm going to upgrade to a tropical tank instead x

[victoriabunny]

It frustrates me how ignorant most pet-shop staff are about fish I've heard people being given completely unsuitable advice about tank sizes, stocking levels etc so many times. You will need to do very regular water changes, and your filter will need cleaning every week - make sure you only clean it in tank water, don't rinse it under the tap or the chlorine in tap water will destroy the beneficial bacteria. Get yourself a test kit - one with chemicals, not the test strip ones which aren't very accurate - and measure your water levels every few days. Ammonia needs to be zero at all times. You can buy bacteria to add to the tank, which will help it cycle faster. Just be prepared for the fish to outgrow the tank - if they are normal goldfish, they will potentially reach 10-12 inches, and they grow quickly. When this happens your filter won't be able to cope. I have a very big tank (200 litres) and had to move the goldfish I had in it into a pond because even a tank that size couldn't cope with the waste, and they didn't have enough swimming space.