Why you should never read Goldfish forums.

[magog_83]

A few years ago I had two goldfish called Charles and Cromwell (I shared ownership with my friend Joanne). They lived for about 2 years, I cleaned them out every week, replaced their oxygen plants, bought them a little Roman ruin to swim through and never forgot to feed them. I thought they were pretty happy, as fish go (dad even fed them ant eggs etc that would have eaten in the wild), but after reading some forums for professional goldfish owners I now think they must have been wallowing in fishy despair, dreaming of the open pond before expiring thirty-eight years before their time due to my horrid negligence D:

All this brings me to the fact I have new goldfish and now every time I look at them I feel horribly guilty for ruining their lives. My mum's friend has a pond and it had become overstocked so she was giving away 'some of the little ones' for pets. Knowing I miss having a pet, she offered two to mum and I duly got my fish bowl down and cleaned it out and got it all ready. Then we went to collect the fish, only to find Moby Dick and his portly cousin waiting for us in a freezer bag full of pond water (Mum's friend: "What do you mean? Those are small! ...sort of")

After putting them in their now absurdly tiny fish bowl, we had to zoom off to the garden centre and get a proper tank for them, along with more gravel, three new plants and some food more suitable for fish that have lived outdoors. At that point, my debit card started weeping at me so that had to do. So here they are, now in their filtered tank and still I feel like Goldfish Forum Users are judging me and my fish are in a pit of watery despair (that's too small and lacks 'surface oxygen space'). Owning goldfish was never this guilt-inducing before.



They're already five years old, what if I accidentally kill them within a year?? DDD:

Disclaimer: The tank is wider than that. It's the perspective! Also I couldn't afford the even bigger one.

Comments

[sighnomore.livejournal.com]

well, you are trying the best you can within your budget! Don't feel guilty *hugs*

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

Thank you :) I keep looking and them and going DON'T DIE, GUYS. Probably having my giant face peering worriedly through the glass every ten minutes isn't helping their stress levels though :/

[ella-bane.livejournal.com]

Your subject line is the most fantastic I've seen in a long time.

You won't kill them! How are those users to know what goes on in a goldfishy BRAIN?

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

I have tried to recreate their pond environment with three weedy type plants. I keep peering in at them all frowny-faced, which is probably freaking them out and giving them a complex.

I had no idea such a thing as goldfish forums even existed, but they DO and their standards are exacting indeed D:

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

:) Thank you - I really do hope so. At least they will be able to rely on regular food here I suppose! I honestly never realised there was such an art to keeping goldfish, I just thought you made sure they had room to swim about, cleaned their tanks out, fed them and they were happy. Apparently not :/

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

If you need to feel guilty about something, this seems like a good enough subject as anything else because they are goldfish, for god's sake.

Seriously, I agree with everyone else. If they are bringing you pleasure, be happy. And stay away from the internet. Dangerous stuff there on the internet;)

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

I know they're just fish, but I wouldn't want any pet of mine to suffer because of some negligence on my part, however unwitting, I would feel terrible!

They seem happy enough at the moment, so I will just take the advice below and hope they stay that way :)

[arrghigiveup.livejournal.com]

*pops out of lurkerdom* As fish go, goldfish are pretty hardy. Try to get an air pump; that'll make up for lack of surface oxygen. They're not fussy about temperature or water chemistry either, so you don't have to worry about that, though a teaspoon or so of salt in the water can help with disease prevention. The only thing you really need to watch is the water changes. Goldfish produce an immense amount of waste, so you want to do very frequent water changes, especially because you have a small tank, and especially because your tank is new and hasn't "cycled" (i.e., established the bacteria that'll break down ammonia and nitrites).

Some fish really do need a lot of care and careful water temperature/chemistry tweaking. Goldfish, thankfully, are not one of them. Just remember, the people on professional fish forums usually have an eye towards breeding and raising show-grade fish. Also, the serious goldfish enthusiasts usually get goldfish that are a great deal fancier (and hence more delicate) than what you have there, so they're naturally going to need more attention. And it's pretty easy to tell if something is wrong. As long as your fish are lively, have a healthy appetite, and aren't showing drooping/clamped/frayed/bloodstreaked fins, they're doing fine.

...assuming they do well, keep an eye out for affordable larger tanks. Goldfish can grow to be frigging huge sometimes, and because of the amount of waste they produce, they need more space than most.

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for this reply! It's so helpful <3 They have got a water filter in there at the moment, but I will have a look for an air pump. I put three plants in as well and I have to say I've been relieved how now they're in the tank they haven't come to the surface blowing bubbles once. They seem much happier now and have been rooting around in the gravel. They're even less easily startled now than they were, when I sat down in front of the tank earlier they swam over and hovered by the glass staring at me, it was a little weird but hopefully they weren't thinking evil thoughts or anything ;)

Is once a week okay for the water change? That's what we were told when we bought the tank, they said to take out a third of the water and clean the filter in the water we'd just taken out, then top up the tank with clean.

[arrghigiveup.livejournal.com]

Welcome! Air pumps are generally more useful with goldfish than plants, cos you can't keep a heavily-planted tank with them. That habit they have of rooting around in gravel tens to uproot things *disgruntled* =P. Once a week water change is fine for later, but for the first month or so consider doing twice a week, because the tank needs time to establish that bacteria I mentioned in the filter and gravel, and until then, it's good to compensate with regular fresh water (check out http://www.firsttankguide.net/cycle.php).

As for the staring, heh, they do that. Eventually, they'll recognise that your approaching the tank at certain times of day usually means food, and then they'll start doing the adorably frantic "feed me, feed me!" dance. Make sure you don't overfeed though (2-3 times a day, each time only as much as they can finish within 2-3 minutes). If you want, you can even train them to hand feed. It involves a couple of weeks of doing nothing but standing around with your hand stuck in the tank and a cube of freeze-dried worms in your fingers, but eventually they'll lose their fear and come eat directly from your hands. It makes water changes a really ticklish exercise though, cos after that, they'll start poking at your hands every time they're in the water XD

[cadetsandkings.livejournal.com]

If you move the filter closer to the top, as long as the surface of the water is moving around, that's how you oxygenate the water. Bubbles don't mean more oxygen; the surface movement does. :)

[archaeologist-d.livejournal.com]

Those are huge. I was thinking 1/5 the size.

[magog-83.livejournal.com]

I was expecting the usual teeny goldfish, but these are several inches long. I hope they'll be happier in their new large tank now!

[cadetsandkings.livejournal.com]

DON'T WORRY. I did this recently. I understand the feeling judged. :O

I recommend the practical fishkeeping forums. I wouldn't really feel I could trust anyplace else.

Post on Freecycle- you'll need at least 250L for them, probably more, if you're keeping them for a long time. We got our 100L tank on there from a woman in our village. Tanks are NOT cheap!!

The most important thing you'll find you need to do is ensure the water quality is good, and that your filters are going through the nitrogren cycle. Since you're doing a cycle with fish in the tank it'll take you two or three months to establish the filters, during which time you'll need to be quite vigilant about changing the water. If you get a test kit from eBay or Surrey Pet Supply (online) I recommend the API kit. It's very easy to use once you have done it a few times. This will help you ensure that you don't have the much-dreaded ammonia and nitrite in the water, and only a bit of nitrate.

Let me know if you want any advice or help :)

[cadetsandkings.livejournal.com]

And to add to my advice- if you can find out what size your tank is (volume), then get a filter that is rated for double that size... we have a 100L tank and two PF4 filters from Interpet, and our fancy goldfish are happy.

I think you might have single-tailed or traditional pond goldfish which means they need more swimming space, hence why I suggest the largest tank you can find for them (as cheaply as possible)... 250L is usually the minimum for them. Ours are the fancy chubby kind so they aren't quite as demanding space-wise since they aren't such able swimmers, don't get as large, etc.

[cadetsandkings.livejournal.com]

ALSO, if you want to speed up the maturation of your filter(s), go to your local place that sells fish and ask them for some of their filter media- take a tupperware with you so they can put tank water in it with the media to keep the bacteria alive. :)