goldfish

[chessington]

Hi My daughter got a goldfish last week, well two, one died. Do they have to have a tank with filter and pump as we don't have that? We only have one fish now and have to keep changing the water everyday to keep it fresh. We have a plastic plant in there with coloured gravel which we have washed well in water, no detergents.
thanks in advance

[andy-hughes]

You don;t need to change the water every day.

Give your fish a small pinch of food morning and night, and change the water when it starts to cloud - weekly should be ample.

When you put your fish into another container, make sure the water you fill it with is room temperature.

Wash out the gravel throughly - this is where fecal matter and decayed food will collect, and don;t forget to rinse the plane thoroughly.

Re-fill the bowl with room temperature water, and re-introduce your fish gently - you should handle him with a small net to avoid scale damage.

Follow this proceedure, and your fish should live for years.

If they don;t die initially, usually through shock, then they will survive with care for a long time.

Good luck.

[chessington]

Thanks very much Andy, I will try that

[Schutzengel]

Hi, Is your goldfish in a tank or a bowl. A bowl is not really suitable. The previous respondent is quite correct in what he/she says. However, the water should be treated with Aquasafe or similar to remove the chlorine etc., which is harmful to fish. The instructions for quantity of water treatment to litres of water is on the bottle. Sorry you lost one of the goldfish. Hope this one survives OK.

[wildwood]

As a rule for a tank without filter/pump, the size of the goldfish should never exceed 1" of fish per 1 gallon of water providing the water surface area exceeds any of the tank's sides, so a skinny high tank should not have as much fish in it as one that holds the same amount of water but is lower than the front. The surface area is where the oxygen is absorbed from the air so the bigger the better. With pump and filter the water movement increases so you could at least double the fish inchage (is there such a word?:-) as the oxygen exchange on the surface is much increased.

Perhaps the tank is exposed to too much sunlight, that causes the water and tank to becoming murky quicker.
If the tank is positioned in a conservatory or inside a heated room, the water will be warmer so the fish will eat more so the water will become polluted quicker.

If you have a small piece of �" flexible hose you may find it satisfying to hold the end in the water just above the gravel and give the other end a quick suck and when the water goes up, hold that end in a bucket - you can so suck up the excrement and rubbish that generates the nasty nitrates in the tank. You still need to change at least some of the water regularly as fish also urinate and pollute the water that way.

[chessington]

Thanks for the replies both of you, much appreciated