My ~30 gallon Gold-fish tank

[anshuman]

Okay, I am not a fish-tank enthusiastic or something, My dad had to bring two gold fish a year ago for my sis as she threatened to bring a dog, she never cared bout this gold fish after a month and I was forced to take care. This were almost 1+ inch babies .

This gold fish have rapidly grown in size ( I am newbie so i dont know rate of growth) in this 13-14 months , All i did was make sure small 3 gallon tank was clean and they were fed properly, I regularly use to feed them blood worms every week or two, they used to go crazy on that, I loved it.

[[[[[[ OLD TANK BELOW ]]]]]

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Now after a year , the small round tank started feeling like they were going around in tea-cup. so i was forced to make room for big tank, bring a huge table and get this large Tank. I then got Golden-sand (by instinct i washed it multiple times and then put it in tank) then added plants and put filters in it, then bulbs came, after full day of running it on, I introduced the fishes in this tank. (Its just instinct i did this, I was later told by tank-guy that if i had introduced the fish straightaway in new tank without running oxgygen for long time, they would had probably died).

So rate-my-tank , please please please give me tips of what i can do better. and what new fish should i add if i can .

[[[ MY new tank ]]]]

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I tried to add two red-cap goldies but 1 simply got sick and died in two days , Now i know i should quarantine first for some days before putting fish in big tank. Again rookie mistake.

(I have no time for this really, i am amazed how easily I got drawn into this. I am linux sys-admin and programmer)

 

[DarkLies]

Wow! Your fish will be so much happier and healthier!
Though they need at least 25 gallons PER FISH, this is much better than both being cramped into a decorative flower pot
Good job on getting a pretty big tank

 

[kenny1tothe6]

Though they need at least 25 gallons PER FISH

It's 10 gallons per fish...25 is recommended, but not necessary.

Very nice tank!

 

[Newman]

Wow you must be the Jesus of fish keeping cuz you managed to keep them alive in such a small bowl. I applaud your efforts

For starters i believe you should have cycled the new tank for a long time, before adding the fish. theres a chance theyre going to die now, and that can be very sad because you managed to raise them up for such a long time.

Also if you care for fish enough to get a bigger tank, i think you should ivest in a liquid water test kit (tests for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH). these will help you to see when something wrong with you water, and depending on if you take action in time, your fish can be saved.

For now read up on the nitrogen cycle and cycling a fish tank.

Seems like youre a busy guy, but you should have enough time for these fish in terms of taking care of them by feeding, cleaning and checking their water.

Also now that you have actual filter, remember to never rinse them or anything in them including filter media, with tap water. always clean them with old tank water. you ont want to kill the bacteria responsible for the nitrogen cycle.

Also with two big goldies in there you shouldnt have anything else in there apart from maybe one apple snail to keep the glass/decor cleaner. the smaller goldfish wont work, as youll be overstocking if ou add anything as of now.

Ill give this tank a 4 out of 5 simply because of the stocking, cycling, and the lack of water testing. important stuff right there.

 

[anshuman]

Thanks everyone for replying here and I really think i was really really lucky to have this pair of goldfish, cause they are really really strong and have put a lot in that cramped bowl . I just got lucky that they were alive just by me changing water and feeding them pellets in small quantity regularly .


As Newman has put it, I now see this two fishes roaming around slowly in the tank now and not the beserk speed with which they were swimming in past days. They may die and it will be really big shock for me as i raised them for a year.

Today I am going to get the kit , the local shop here turned out to be jerk and not telling me about any of this, I bet he doesnt even know all stuff of cycling etc. I will have to travel long distance to another part of city and buy

Newman, Should i now check the water with kit and then try to cycle the water by moving fish back to old bowl for some days? or what should i do now? I am totally lost bout this. any help regarding this by anyone will be good. Thanks.

 

[Newman]

Yah youre in a bind. first off check the water and see if ammonia is above 1ppm, nitrite is above 1ppm and nitrates are above 40ppm. the most important being the ammonia and nitrite. if either is above the 1ppm i recommend doing a water change immediately (about 25%-60% water changed out)

If you do find high levels of ammo and/or nitrite, then it might be too late already, and moving them back wont help eithr (theyll already be poisoned)

For now its best to monitor water quality every day or other day and do water changes if necessary. keep them in there. at that pace youll eventually cycle in maybe a month from now. also raise the temp gradually to 22C. goldfish can take that and it will speed up the cycle. add a heater and thermometer if you feel like speeding this up. you should always have a thermo in there anyway. the heater is just a bonus for cold winter months if those impact your room temps.

 

[anshuman]

Okay. I have real long story here. bear with me.

Yesterdays situation after my last post :

I soon started seeing the two big gold fishes move really slow, Red-cap baby was normal and moving fast but the really round goldfish ( I have now named her orangina ) started to sit at bottom, barely taking water in , not gulping much and not moving much. The red-cap baby started to dare and come near her and push her on fins and body, started poking her with small nibbles now and then I totally knew this is absolutely not a Good sign.

Orangina just moved a little away and sat at other corner. I got big bulb to replace one CFC bulb to raise temp. and started thinking. I brought some peas from market and peeled them and crushed them to feed at evening . the lill red-cap and big male ( i think he is male. long slender body) both came up to eat and he went back to orangina again and again, maybe trying to make her come up too.... they really STICK TOGETHER all time...and soon he too started to slow his movements and move around her.... i just wanted to make sure he is not getting sick or something so i moved close to tank, kinda bang my hand near the glass just to startle them ( not banging glass literally just giving small thud) ...both Male and Redcap moved away (red-cap is extremely active moving everywhere at rapid speed and ploughing the sand thoroughly as if he is searching something all the time.) Orangina didnt move to my thud.


I had to make plan B . I was not able to do Anything yesterday... but i slept as i couldnt come up with anything..

I woke up in morning did my stuff and back at home at afternoon... still orangina is slow..not moving much.. just coming at top at surface to get air (which is weird when the whole tank is totally aerated by the two filters) and coming back down to swim slowly in corner. I couldnt think what to do. i wondered should i prepare the Old round flask again and move orangina. but i wondered what if she goes in another shock due to change in water again within day.

Then i said, heck i will do it, I removed all water in the round tank even though it was newish... NOW ..here is what i did... i have this Water-Drum we use at home as emergency backup but generally used to water plants or clean room or bike etc... the water in that drum is ALWAYS weeks old and never cleaned.

I used this water all the time to refill the round flask from last year. I did same this time.... did the anti-cholrine or some water treatment bottle i have given by shop (till day i dont know whats in there) and started the small air-stone ... after 30 mins. i moved orangina back in this old round flash then I went to my business... I returned Home at evening ...and checked orangina.... and what do i see?

[Orangina in Quarantine]

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She is moving fast... gulping water as she does normally... and she was looking across the room where this new tank is ( i think she sees her buddy and redcap swimming) and wiggling like she will go to that tank.

I started to wonder what happened here. and i am still not sure... I am going to give it atleast week or two before i move her back. I may not move her till month.

Now its not some miracle ( but i am now going to call this small tank Miracle Jar). but I remember what i did. I took fresh clean hard tap-water when I was filling this new 30 gallon tank, gave it a day with filters blowing and then moved the fish in there... Thats why they really got hit hard by this change to hard uncycled water..i guess.

What i did today was using this drum water in round jar , which is kinda stagnant water. the bottom of this drum is not good. its kinda sludgy and has lots of things in it.. kinda like some bacteria which make bottom very gooey whenever i decide to clean it up, which is once in a year... so what i want to say is. this drum water maybe gets perfectly cycled to be used in tank and thats why the fish never ever got sick or in shock even though i used to change them with this drum-water very regularly...specially this past 4-5 months when they started going very huge...and I really should had used this same water in New tank I think.

The test kit hasn't come here so i really cant get proof for my theory here. maybe tomorrow. I have ordered plants and test-kit. Lets see.

Also i removed some 3-4 gallons of water in this New tank and replaced it with drum tank water, after seeing orangina happy in it. the red-cap (little tough bugger..i dont know why hasnt he got affected by all this) and big male is still okay. the male has resumed roaming tank and not sitting in corner... i guess he was doing that because orangina was staying put there .

Okay I dont know where will i be going with all this... but all i want is Not to loose this pair. Hope all this ends okay and they dont die. Will update here if you dont mind my rambling.

 

[Newman]

That really sounded like nitrite or ammonia poisoning (or both) what that means is that the presense of ammonia or nitrite in the water will hinder the fishe's ability to take in oxygen, no matter how ariated the water is. this "poisoning" is the slow suffocation of the fish. Good to hear it appears to be feeling better but i fear youre not out of the woods yet. sorry to keep saying this.

The drum water doesnt really cycle because there is no constant source of ammonia in there, but im sure theres a lot of nitrate in there (if its been sitting around for a long time with slime in there) so that wont be a good choice either as nitrate is just plain gross (smell the water and see if it stinks.) and bad for the fish as well. i'd say treated tap is your best bet, and make sure you age the tap in addition to treating it (for a day or two)

check your water asap once you get the testing supplies, and make sure its liquid testing and not simple strips.

 

[anshuman]

* I totally know i am not out of woods. It will be weeks till i feel sure bout this. Till then i will do all that i can.

* The drum water gets almost half empty in 2-3 days ( u may see in shot its already half today Then it gets filled to top again. the water doesn't smell at all. the bottom does not has any bad growth ...just really slimy. Before putting fish in this drum water, i use 1 cap of treatment solution given by the aquarium guy, it labelled cure-me , its cheap local made, it smells pungent. i put that in water , start the air-stone and maybe after hour or so put fish. doing this regularly from last year.

* yea i guessed coming up for air might be poisoning..the moment i saw it coming up to get air I was alarmed. i am glad i am not that noob.

Will see tomorrow about testing... i wish i had it in my hands today. thanks again for your kind words Newman will keep this updated.

 

[Newman]

I stil cant get a grasp on this drum water. is it rainwater? or aging tap water? rainwater would be much more acidic than what goldfish need. but if youve mized tap and that drum water before sucessfully with it having no effect on the fish then keep doing that if youre sure it works Best of luck with this, and dont be shocked if you find high ammonia or nitrite in your tank. also test the nitrates, and the pH. goldfish like pH higher than 6.9 and the nitrate shouldnt be above 40ppm.

 

[anshuman]

that drum gets refilled by normal tap-water. almost every 2-3 days, it takes some weeks before it is emptied completely to refill . otherwise, it is filled when its gets half.

 

[kenny1tothe6]

...I am linux sys-admin and programmer)

Cool! Another computer person! I got feed up with Linux when my custom built
program refused to work right on it...so I went back to *sigh* Windows. I'm in 7 right now and I must say...

I hate it. LOL Really, it's the biggest waste you'll ever buy especially running me @ $200! It would've been easier to buy a new computer, but I bought this one in May of this year, so I didn't feel like getting another one...

 

[anshuman]

^ Vista shud had taught u .... sucker ( btw i run OSx86 on all my pc and laptops here )

 

[kenny1tothe6]

LOL - it shoulda, but it didn't. I was one of the few who liked Vista! It's so pretty with the way it scrolls through windows, and the Aero theme.

I just like getting on the computer & using it, not messing around with all these settings, begging it to work! LOL

 

[anshuman]

Update: red-cap (comet) goldfish baby moved out of this tank because he was harrasing tailfins of both this gold fish. The Water test came all normal (i could only manage to get 5-in-1 test strips, or only ammonia liquid test kits.) so i put this fish back. look okay now, I have now stopped worrying bout all this, whatever happens happens.

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Orangina here is grazing in sand, i like to watch it, she can do it for long long time, i eventually get bored. the Male is swimming at top in one position, not for oxygen , just puts his head near top surface and stays in that position, as if meditating, another thing he does is put his head under leaves and stay there. as if he is trying to compensate for long rest and sleep , which he wasn't able to do in miracle jar.

Note: You will see in vid, I added small broken tree-stump like thingy, orangina loves to go through it. the big male only goes rarely through this log.

 

[Newman]

Thats good to hear, but the strips wont always be accurate, so small traces of nitrite or ammonia might not register. it would've been good in you at least had the liquid ammonia test...

Did you properly acclimate the male goldfish back into the big tank? or did you just net him you of his bowl and put him in the tank? cuz he looks kinda stressed out by the shock of new water/temp.

 

[anshuman]

he is reallly stressed out , caused i netted him. i didnt have any big bag for him to accimilate. But to make him less stressed, I first put same water from the big tank in miracle jar (half of it) to make temps same. but i guess it wasnt same and the male is totally stressed out.

What to do? i am just trying not to disturb him much and keep just one light on. how long will he stay like this?

I am learning lots at the expense of this fishes makes me kinda sad.

 

[Newman]

best to keep the light off for a day or two. the plants wont die from that and w/e light you have on in the room will be enough for them for now. see if he gets better. and really watch for ICH because its times like these that it strikes like the little parasitic ninja that it is ...

 

[anshuman]

i am going to get this tomorrow, i saw it in shop but didnt have money to get it. he had big bottle only.

Aqua Safe - Tetra - De-Chlor & Stress Remover

 

[anshuman]

I will change water tomorrow (10-20%) , so will add it when doing that. hope it helps him.