What did I do wrong ? (thinking about tying again with goldfish)

Did you put your goldfish in the tank with tropical fish? If so, that could
be your problem.

Goldfish have diffrent feeding and temperature requirements than tropical
fish. You should never mix goldfish in a tank with tropical fish.

"Alan Silver"
wrote in
message ...
Hello,

I am a tropical fish keeper of many years' standing, and have a pretty
good understanding of fish care.

Some time ago I decided to get some goldfish. I used a 48"x12"x15" tank,
running a Fluval 2 filter, with regular water changes. Our water is soft
and neutral.

Well, despite introducing the fish slowly and monitoring ammonia,
nitrite and nitrate (which all went as expected), the fish only lived
for a couple of months before dying. No obvious diseases, just went all
floppy and died.

We had about eight 2-3" fish, fairly ordinary comets. These were
introduced slowly, not all at once, so I don't think it was the cycling
that did it. Anyway, I monitored levels.

I'm now thinking about trying again, but I can't help wondering where I
went wrong. I know people who get goldfish at a fair, thrown them in a
small bowl, over feed them, rarely change the water (and do 100% changes
when they do) and the fish live for ages. I took great care to give them
a good home and they died. The fish were good quality, from a reputable
shop where I buy my tropicals.

Any tips ? I know this is all very vague, but I can see what I did
wrong. I assume that keeping cold water fish is similar to keeping
tropical fish.

I'm thinking of a 24" cube for a tank. Got a nice spot for one of those.
How many fish would be comfortable in this ?

TIA

--
Alan Silver