Help with new goldfish!

Deeanimallover

Hi all, just new to owning 2 goldfish - 1 black moor and 1 fantail goldfish. Just got them yesterday. I was given conflicting advice from the pet shop by 2 members of staff so I'm not overly confident in them!
First question is they told me to feed every second day but every article I've read about goldfish says to feed 2-3 times a day?!! Also says this on their food!
2nd question - how often to clean their tank? It's a 56L with a filter.
Thanks in advance.
P.s I really want to mind them, it's not a case if they die I can just keep replacing them! Which is kind of the impression I got from the shop! I've already got really attached to the little cuties plus 2 kids that love them too!

ted1

Deeanimallover wrote: »

Hi all, just new to owning 2 goldfish - 1 black moor and 1 fantail goldfish. Just got them yesterday. I was given conflicting advice from the pet shop by 2 members of staff so I'm not overly confident in them!
First question is they told me to feed every second day but every article I've read about goldfish says to feed 2-3 times a day?!! Also says this on their food!
2nd question - how often to clean their tank? It's a 56L with a filter.
Thanks in advance.
P.s I really want to mind them, it's not a case if they die I can just keep replacing them! Which is kind of the impression I got from the shop! I've already got really attached to the little cuties plus 2 kids that love them too!

Feed them once a day. And half change the water every 2 weeks. And be sure so get stuff to remove the chlorine.

Deeanimallover

ted1 wrote: »

Feed them once a day. And half change the water every 2 weeks. And be sure so get stuff to remove the chlorine.

Thanks, yeah I have the stuff for tap water, we have our own well water though so no chlorine in it, I wonder does that matter??

o1s1n

It's actually pretty amazing how hardy goldfish can be.

I've one that's about 12 - 13 years old now and is still going strong.

Didn't have to do anything special, just fed him once in the morning and once in the evening. And changed a third of the tank every two weeks.

Make sure you keep the filter clean and the water oxygenated.

Deeanimallover

o1s1n wrote: »

It's actually pretty amazing how hardy goldfish can be.

I've one that's about 12 - 13 years old now and is still going strong.

Didn't have to do anything special, just fed him once in the morning and once in the evening. And changed a third of the tank every two weeks.

Make sure you keep the filter clean and the water oxygenated.

That's a great age! Sorry stupid question but how do you clean the filter? Do you mean changing the filters inside or do you take it out and rinse it every so often??
Do I need something to oxygenate the water? I assumed the filter does that??

m8

The best advise on feeding is to make sure they eat every scrap you give them within a few minutes as the food will foul that tank faster that anything else. A buildup of uneaten food could be dangerous to them. If you follow this rule you can feed more that once a day but it's not necessary even if you go away for a few days they will be grand.

o1s1n

Deeanimallover wrote: »

That's a great age! Sorry stupid question but how do you clean the filter? Do you mean changing the filters inside or do you take it out and rinse it every so often??
Do I need something to oxygenate the water? I assumed the filter does that??

I've just a regular filter pump thing in mine, it's actually a pretty cheap one that came with the tank. It's been getting a bit noisy lately so I'm looking to get another one. That oxygenates the water alright. You can see all the little bubbles throughout the water and it keeps it moving.

The back of the filter pump pops off and you can just clean out the algae if there's any buildup.

There are also a couple of passive filters in the tank itself that I remove and clean.

Sleepy

Read back over this forum. You've been scammed by whatever idiot you dealt with in the pet shop. A 56l tank isn't suitable for a single goldfish, never mind 2. They're incredibly dirty fish and really are only really suitable for ponds as they need huge volumes of water to be kept humanely (circa 250l for a single fish, 300+ for two).

Alkers

Sleepy wrote: »

Read back over this forum. You've been scammed by whatever idiot you dealt with in the pet shop. A 56l tank isn't suitable for a single goldfish, never mind 2. They're incredibly dirty fish and really are only really suitable for ponds as they need huge volumes of water to be kept humanely (circa 250l for a single fish, 300+ for two).

Agreed but you will likely get a year or two out of a 56l tank if the fish are juveniles currently.

I would be more worried about having added the fish to a non-cycled tank.

Unless the OP is will to to go and buy water test kits, I would recommend changing 25% of the water ever day or 50% every second day for a month until your filter colony is established and then you can reduce water changes to 20% per week.

When changing water, if you use a gravel vac you can clean the stones at the bottom of the tank to remove any accumulated waste or uneaten food. If there is any buildup of algae on the tank surfaces you can scrape them off with a stanley blade from the inside before changing the water.

You do not need to clean out the filter media regularly, if you clean this with tap water you will kill all the good bacteria that keeps the water safe for your fish. The only maintenance the filter requires is maybe every six months (or more frequently if the filter output slows), take half of the filter media out and gently clean it out a bit in some old tank water. Never use tap water and never clean the whole filter at one time.

Deeanimallover

Sleepy wrote: »

Read back over this forum. You've been scammed by whatever idiot you dealt with in the pet shop. A 56l tank isn't suitable for a single goldfish, never mind 2. They're incredibly dirty fish and really are only really suitable for ponds as they need huge volumes of water to be kept humanely (circa 250l for a single fish, 300+ for two).

Yep I realise that now! However I also read (elsewhere) that if you give them a huge tank they will obviously grow bigger? They are small now anyway they are fine at the moment.

Deeanimallover

Re: changing the water, like I said we have our own well water so there is no chlorine in it, it's treated also for lime, I'm just wondering about the treatment stuff you put in the water would I need to use as much as it says on the bottle? It says 1ml treats 9 litres so if I'm only changing say a litre do I need to use any or would I still use just a drop??
See attached photo of the type I'm using.

Alkers

Deeanimallover wrote: »

Re: changing the water, like I said we have our own well water so there is no chlorine in it, it's treated also for lime, I'm just wondering about the treatment stuff you put in the water would I need to use as much as it says on the bottle? It says 1ml treats 9 litres so if I'm only changing say a litre do I need to use any or would I still use just a drop??
See attached photo of the type I'm using.

Yes you should follow the directions on the bottle. You will only be dosing the whole tank once at the start. After that you only need to dose the fresh water that you are adding to the tank after taking some water out during a partial water change.

I use two 20l ballygowan drinking water bottle when doing water changes (260l) tank. I fill them both from the tank, using a gravel vac. Then dispose.

Then I refill from the tap and kettle to get the temperature to 25C (goldfish don't need to be this warm) and add water conditioner to the containers, mix and then pour back into the tank. So I am only adding conditioner to the 40l of water in the two containers before they go into the tank, not the whole tank.

Yours will be a smaller operation, a bucket or two should be enough.

Deeanimallover

Alkers wrote: »

Yes you should follow the directions on the bottle. You will only be dosing the whole tank once at the start. After that you only need to dose the fresh water that you are adding to the tank after taking some water out during a partial water change.

I use two 20l ballygowan drinking water bottle when doing water changes (260l) tank. I fill them both from the tank, using a gravel vac. Then dispose.

Then I refill from the tap and kettle to get the temperature to 25C (goldfish don't need to be this warm) and add water conditioner to the containers, mix and then pour back into the tank. So I am only adding conditioner to the 40l of water in the two containers before they go into the tank, not the whole tank.

Yours will be a smaller operation, a bucket or two should be enough.

Yeah I know I've only to treat the water I'm replacing but what I'm asking is how much to put in for 1 litre? If the dosage is 1ml for 9 litres ? Don't want to overdose it!

Yeah 56L is definitely too small for 2 goldfish, people don’t realise but they really only should be kept in huge tanks.

It’s also important to understand the nitrogen cycle within the tank and how to keep it balanced - it can take up to a month to establish the necessary bacteria within the filter in order to get this going. They’ll break down the toxic ammonia from fish waste/uneaten food to nitrite (also toxic) and then to nitrate (less toxic but can be taken up by plants like fertiliser).

Alkers

Deeanimallover wrote: »

Yeah I know I've only to treat the water I'm replacing but what I'm asking is how much to put in for 1 litre? If the dosage is 1ml for 9 litres ? Don't want to overdose it!

In your example, if you're doing a 20% water change which is about 14l, I would put in 2ml.

14ml / 9 roughly equals 2. You're not going to be able to measure much more accurately than a ml in any case.

Sleepy

Deeanimallover wrote: »

Yep I realise that now! However I also read (elsewhere) that if you give them a huge tank they will obviously grow bigger? They are small now anyway they are fine at the moment.

They really aren't. There isn't the water volume in that tank to sufficiently dilute their excrement or the filter capacity to build up enough bacteria to deal with it.

What you read elsewhere has it backwards: giving them a tank that's big doesn't make them grow larger, it's giving them one that's too small stunts their growth (though their internal organs continue to grow at a normal level and eventually rupture when the rest of the fish's body isn't big enough to contain them). A healthy, well kept common goldfish can be expected to grow to approx 30cm while moors / fantails would grow to 20-25cm. They've a long lifespan too - over 30 years isn't unusual.

Look, most of us on this forum have been where you are now. Most of us have killed fish through ignorance and listening to bad advice in pet stores. The trick is to learn from your mistakes. Return the goldfish to the store or re-home them with someone who has room for them and re-stock your tank with something more suitable: some white cloud mountain minnows or zebra danios will do well in an unheated tank in an average Irish home. Add a filter and you could keep guppies, mollies etc.

Do your research though. If there's a type of fish you want to keep, read up on them. Don't just take the advice of the person whose job it is to sell them to you: google how to keep them healthy: is your tank big enough for them, are they compatible with other fish you have / want to keep, do they need any particular foods, what PH balance is ideal for them (match your fish to your water, don't try to adjust your water to keep fish that like a different PH, it's an absolute rabbit-hole) etc.

Ryath

Deeanimallover wrote: »

Re: changing the water, like I said we have our own well water so there is no chlorine in it, it's treated also for lime,.

I'm assuming by treating for lime you mean a water softening system that uses salt. Water softened this way isn't suitable for aquariums. Do you have an outside tap at the well with unsoftened water?

Deeanimallover

Ryath wrote: »

I'm assuming by treating for lime you mean a water softening system that uses salt. Water softened this way isn't suitable for aquariums. Do you have an outside tap at the well with unsoftened water?

Yes its softened with salt, all the water goes through it