Oh No....My Fish!....Help, Please!

[fatkitties]

Originally Posted by sunnicat

You all know about cats AND fish??? I'm lost!

This is one smart bunch of people here at TCS!

Sorry for the loss of your little fish. Hugs to you!

And for me, dogs, horses, and reptiles! Although I don't have any horses or reptiles at the moment. I don't know a whole lot about fish, everything I posted there I just learned in the past couple months from my fish guy at Petco. He's had fish for years and years, and is a walking encyclopedia about fish! As soon as I have more money, I'm getting some more fish. My tank was through cycling a long time ago, I've just been broke! It looks empty, bit 29 gallon tank with 4 fish in it!

Amber

 

[kittylover4ever]

Oh Sarah, I"ve never been able to keep any kind of fish alive.........

 

[flisssweetpea]

Sarah I'm so sorry to hear about your fish. We treat the water with TapSafe to make it suitable for the fish. There is also medicine you can put in the water in case there was an infection in the tank here is a link to the stuff we use http://www.petspantry.tv/acatalog/Pe..._Kits_261.html
I'm not the expert on fishcare though - hubby does that.

 

[esrgirl]

I've heard others mention this, but I wanted to stress it even more- you need snails, bottom feeders, and most importantly live plants. With this balance you won't even need to clean your tank- it will become self-sustaining. When my husband left for work over the summer the cats knocked the filter out of wack and it wasn't working. For almost four months the larger tank went without filtration. There was no buildup in the tank whatsoever, because of the plants. Goldfish are yucky fish, but they should not eat algae- it will poison them. They should eat live plants, plus fish food. As someone else mentioned, the number of fish rule doesn't apply to goldfish because they are large and dirty and take up more oxygen. The problem with goldfish is that you can't really have other fish because goldfish are tiny carps, they live in cold water. You could throw them in a lake and they'd probably be fine, but my platys, mollies, and guppies would not. Most freshwater fishies live in nice, warm water- about 80 degrees. If you find that they keep dying try different fish, like the ones I mentioned above. The platys and mollies are quite hardy fish and they are also quite personable (my husband thinks I'm nuts here), but I love my fishies!

The book, "Setting up a freshwater aquarium: An owners guide to a happy healthy pet" by Gregory Skomal is a great book that even lists illnesses. We got it at Petsmart.

 

[arlyn]

Actually algae and other greens are good for goldfish.
They are really an omnivorous fish, they need plant material as well as animal material.

Aquarium or fancy goldfish need temps between 70 degrees F and 80 degrees F
Generally, the fancier the breed, the higher it's temp requirement.
I do not recommend snails unless you have fish or animals in your tank that will eat either snail eggs or young snails.
Snails don't need a mate, they can propagate quite well by themselves and can choke out the oxygen supply in no time.
For coldwater bottom feeders I recommend Dojos/Weather loaches, they burrow into gravel to eat uneaten fish foods.
Some Algae eating fish for janitorial services can be kept quite well in an unheated aquarium. My recommendation there is Otocinclus.

Good, fast growing, hard to kill plants that do well in unheated tanks are Anacharis.

 

[rosehawke]

Originally Posted by Arlyn

<snip>...Good, fast growing, hard to kill plants that do well in unheated tanks are Anacharis.

Anacharis is a mid-light plant. You need at least 2 watts per gallon or you will end up with a mess of dying weeds. Most of the "lighting" (if you can call it that) that comes in aqurium hoods equals less than 1 watt per gallon.

Good plants that will grow in low light, and are pretty carefree are anubias, java fern and java moss. I've heard one planted tank enthusiast say you could probably grow java moss in a closet

. These plants are also unpalatable to most fish if you'd rather they didn't eat them, but they will contribute to the biological filtration in the tank. While I wouldn't put these particular plants into cold cold water, I've some anubias and java fern that I had in a goldfish tank kept at room temperature and they survived fine. That particular tank has since been converted to a tropical tank and the java fern and anubias are still fine. Of course, as with anything, YMMV.