newbie queries...

Hi,

Firstly, is there a faq? - I hope I'm not asking questions that get
asked all the time.

A few months ago I bought a smallish tank setup for my small son (it's
above the level where he can tap on the glass, and he's surprisingly
responsible about his fish). It's 18*12*15 (l,w,d) and to start with I
put two goldfish (a plain yellow one and a slightly fancy one which I
think is a comet) and three white cloud minnows in the tank; it's got a
fluval one filter and some plants (which need restocking, the fish eat
them!) one of the minnows died a couple of weeks after we got them but
the others were all fine and happy (although I would like at least one
more minnow because they seem happier in numbers.) I've also got a few
trumpet snails - the burrowing ones that help keep the gravel clean.
Anyway, after a few months and the fish all doing well, I've put in
another goldfish (a little calico ryukin, who is lovely) and a small
sucking loach who had been acclimatised to a coldwater tank (yes, I know
about the loach, but I'm prepared to give it its own tank if it gets too
big and stroppy). I'm aware I shouldn't put any more fish in the tank (I
want to get a three foot one in the summer - have you guessed the fish
are really for me and not for the little one?) anyway, my queries are
these:

what are the goldfish doing when they suck up a piece of gravel and then
spit it out?

is it usual for goldfish behaviour to change when you add another fish
to the mix? they're much livelier and seem constantly hungry (I'm not
giving in to their "feed me" stuff, though). They're swimming around in
a boisterous gang. The new ryukin chased the minnows to start with but
has now stopped.

am I getting the cleaning right? I take out and replace either a quarter
of the water weekly, or half fortnightly. every six weeks I take the
fish out of the tank, remove and keep half the water, and take the
gravel out and swill the tank out (I don't overclean the gravel, just to
remove the goo, which with goldfish is revolting.) and wipe down the
front and sides of the tank with wet cotton wool. (I'm going to be
leaving the back of the tank now, for the loach.) then I refill the
tank, half with old and half with new water. the fish seem happy and
don't react badly to being removed - is the cleaning
adequate/appropriate?

is fishkeeping addictive? I'm getting a bit worried!

sorry for the slightly huge post, and thank you very much for any help.
--
sophie

Sophie

A couple of things, and I hope you aren't too shocked about these:


1) You are massively overstocked. Your tank is roughly 14 gallons.
Goldfish require approx 10 gallons each. If you do have a comet, he can get very
long!

2) You should be testing the water quality with an ammonia, nitrite and
nitrate tester (and a ph tester too) - probably why your minnow died.
This will ultimately show you if your water changes are enough (I suspect not)


3) I'd suggest getting a gravel vac and vacumming the gravel to keep it clean
rather than removing the fish.

4) Snails do not keep tanks clean. Yes they will eat decaying food/plant (which
is a good thing)
but will excrete ammonia - additional load on tank.

5) Goldfish sucking up gravel are removing small microscopic food from it.

the tank is overstocked. dont mix GF with other species.
http://puregold.aquaria.net/pg/care/...htm#essentials
change water according to the nitrate levels..
http://puregold.aquaria.net/pg/care/care.htm


sophie wrote:


Hi,

Firstly, is there a faq? - I hope I'm not asking questions that get
asked all the time.

A few months ago I bought a smallish tank setup for my small son (it's
above the level where he can tap on the glass, and he's surprisingly
responsible about his fish). It's 18*12*15 (l,w,d) and to start with I
put two goldfish (a plain yellow one and a slightly fancy one which I
think is a comet) and three white cloud minnows in the tank; it's got a
fluval one filter and some plants (which need restocking, the fish eat
them!) one of the minnows died a couple of weeks after we got them but
the others were all fine and happy (although I would like at least one
more minnow because they seem happier in numbers.) I've also got a few
trumpet snails - the burrowing ones that help keep the gravel clean.
Anyway, after a few months and the fish all doing well, I've put in
another goldfish (a little calico ryukin, who is lovely) and a small
sucking loach who had been acclimatised to a coldwater tank (yes, I know
about the loach, but I'm prepared to give it its own tank if it gets too
big and stroppy). I'm aware I shouldn't put any more fish in the tank (I
want to get a three foot one in the summer - have you guessed the fish
are really for me and not for the little one?) anyway, my queries are
these:

what are the goldfish doing when they suck up a piece of gravel and then
spit it out?

is it usual for goldfish behaviour to change when you add another fish
to the mix? they're much livelier and seem constantly hungry (I'm not
giving in to their "feed me" stuff, though). They're swimming around in
a boisterous gang. The new ryukin chased the minnows to start with but
has now stopped.

am I getting the cleaning right? I take out and replace either a quarter
of the water weekly, or half fortnightly. every six weeks I take the
fish out of the tank, remove and keep half the water, and take the
gravel out and swill the tank out (I don't overclean the gravel, just to
remove the goo, which with goldfish is revolting.) and wipe down the
front and sides of the tank with wet cotton wool. (I'm going to be
leaving the back of the tank now, for the loach.) then I refill the
tank, half with old and half with new water. the fish seem happy and
don't react badly to being removed - is the cleaning
adequate/appropriate?

is fishkeeping addictive? I'm getting a bit worried!

sorry for the slightly huge post, and thank you very much for any help.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

sophie wrote:


Hi,

Firstly, is there a faq? - I hope I'm not asking questions that get
asked all the time.

http://fins.actwin.com/mirror/begin.html
http://puregold.aquaria.net/pg/care/...htm#essentials

what are the goldfish doing when they suck up a piece of gravel and
then spit it out?

Looking for food.

is it usual for goldfish behaviour to change when you add another fish
to the mix?

Yes

is fishkeeping addictive? I'm getting a bit worried!

Yes. Welcome to the insanity.

-Donald
--
"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy
enough people to make it worth the effort." -Herm Albright

"Donald K" wrote in message
...
is fishkeeping addictive? I'm getting a bit worried!

Yes. Welcome to the insanity.

-Donald

And Donald is obviously the most insane of us all!
--
**So long, and thanks for all the fish!**

Happy'Cam'per wrote:

"Donald K" wrote in message
...
is fishkeeping addictive? I'm getting a bit worried!

Yes. Welcome to the insanity.

And Donald is obviously the most insane of us all!

Hey, I resemble that remark!

No, I'm not addicted.

It's just that my little girl pointed out that I had some tank space and
then she pointed out a cute little clown pl3co all alone in the LFS
tank.

Well, we didn't have a clown pl3co yet and there was room in the tank...

He just sorta followed me home. And is in QT right now. (Looking much
happier than he did at the LFS).

"Opps, it happened again..."

-D
--
Axiom #2:
"Ability to type on a computer terminal is no guarantee of sanity,
intelligence, or common sense."

In message ,
writes
the tank is overstocked. dont mix GF with other species.
http://puregold.aquaria.net/pg/care/...htm#essentials
change water according to the nitrate levels..
http://puregold.aquaria.net/pg/care/care.htm

Hi,

thank you for the reply and the links! I'd worked out that according to
the surface area/inch of fish rule that this was as many fish as I could
put in the tank, but I hadn't thought it was overstocked. If it is, I'm
certainly going to be a little annoyed with the aquatics shop, as they
assured me that this would be fine. They have a reputation as a very
good shop, too. :-(
As I've said, I will get a bigger tank in the summer - will things not
be ok until then?
nor had I realised that goldfish shouldn't be kept with other fish; the
friends I caught the bug from have kept goldfish with white clouds for
years with no problems... is there a specific reason not to do this?

thanks again,


sophie wrote:


Hi,

Firstly, is there a faq? - I hope I'm not asking questions that get
asked all the time.

A few months ago I bought a smallish tank setup for my small son (it's
above the level where he can tap on the glass, and he's surprisingly
responsible about his fish). It's 18*12*15 (l,w,d) and to start with I
put two goldfish (a plain yellow one and a slightly fancy one which I
think is a comet) and three white cloud minnows in the tank; it's got a
fluval one filter and some plants (which need restocking, the fish eat
them!) one of the minnows died a couple of weeks after we got them but
the others were all fine and happy (although I would like at least one
more minnow because they seem happier in numbers.) I've also got a few
trumpet snails - the burrowing ones that help keep the gravel clean.
Anyway, after a few months and the fish all doing well, I've put in
another goldfish (a little calico ryukin, who is lovely) and a small
sucking loach who had been acclimatised to a coldwater tank (yes, I know
about the loach, but I'm prepared to give it its own tank if it gets too
big and stroppy). I'm aware I shouldn't put any more fish in the tank (I
want to get a three foot one in the summer - have you guessed the fish
are really for me and not for the little one?) anyway, my queries are
these:

what are the goldfish doing when they suck up a piece of gravel and then
spit it out?

is it usual for goldfish behaviour to change when you add another fish
to the mix? they're much livelier and seem constantly hungry (I'm not
giving in to their "feed me" stuff, though). They're swimming around in
a boisterous gang. The new ryukin chased the minnows to start with but
has now stopped.

am I getting the cleaning right? I take out and replace either a quarter
of the water weekly, or half fortnightly. every six weeks I take the
fish out of the tank, remove and keep half the water, and take the
gravel out and swill the tank out (I don't overclean the gravel, just to
remove the goo, which with goldfish is revolting.) and wipe down the
front and sides of the tank with wet cotton wool. (I'm going to be
leaving the back of the tank now, for the loach.) then I refill the
tank, half with old and half with new water. the fish seem happy and
don't react badly to being removed - is the cleaning
adequate/appropriate?

is fishkeeping addictive? I'm getting a bit worried!

sorry for the slightly huge post, and thank you very much for any help.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

--
sophie

In message , Donald K
writes
sophie wrote:


Hi,

Firstly, is there a faq? - I hope I'm not asking questions that get
asked all the time.

http://fins.actwin.com/mirror/begin.html
http://puregold.aquaria.net/pg/care/...htm#essentials

what are the goldfish doing when they suck up a piece of gravel and
then spit it out?

Looking for food.

is it usual for goldfish behaviour to change when you add another fish
to the mix?

Yes

is fishkeeping addictive? I'm getting a bit worried!

Yes. Welcome to the insanity.

thank you!
I'm starting to wonder where it will all lead. also how much of the
house I could sensibly devote to aquaria once I've had a little more
practice!

thanks for the answers,


--
sophie

Sophie,

Fish shops have a habit of giving bad info. Goldfish lovers have no hidden
agenda
giving out information, fish shops do. They want your cash.

I know of quite a few people who have kept White Clouds with goldfish.
I'd suggest doing regular water changes for the time being and definitely
getting
the test kits. You want to get a larger tank ASAP though otherwise your goldfish
could
stunt.

sophie wrote:

is fishkeeping addictive? I'm getting a bit worried!

Yes. Welcome to the insanity.

thank you!
I'm starting to wonder where it will all lead. also how much of the
house I could sensibly devote to aquaria once I've had a little more
practice!


Think "fish room". ;-)

Plus a pond, of course.

-D
--
"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy
enough people to make it worth the effort." -Herm Albright