Goldfish - hints and tips please

Prudent

I have been lucky enough to win a vivo aqaurium. It is lovely - complete with computer which keeps you right.

It takes cold water fish, so I am assuming gold fish would be easiest. There is no guide as to how many to put in. It also doesn't mention what else (other than is in the kit) to put in. I have always seen gravel in tanks, but it makes no mention of it. I have just noticed after posting the link that the website seems to offer 'base' which seems to be like gravel.

Any help much appreciated.

This is the tank:

http://www.urmstonaquatics.com/vivo.html

Justie

putting gravel of some sort in the bottom helps to keep the poo at bay and makes the tank look better and also gives the fish something to do as they can pick up and move the stones and find food buried in there... it looks as though the filters will be quite expensive but the computer thingy will certainly help in telling you when to change the water etc. The biggest problem with fish and children is over feeding or no feeding... get a good quality food that floats and doesn't go mouldy and horrid too quickly (the blue tub ones in the supermarket are fine). How many fish will depend on the size etc as they grow to fit their environment. Go to a local petshop and tell them the dimensions and then it'll depend if you want more smaller fish or fewer bigger ones... more is good in that you can get different styles but you do have to make sure you don't overcrowd them. Fish are basically very easy to care for just keep on top of changing the water and the filter.

JennyW_2

re the quantity of fish - all depends on the size of tank and volume of water. There are loads of websites which will guide you plus you have to introduce fish very slowly, ie one at a time in order to establish correct nitrite levels. You'll obviously need gravel and you really should have a filtration system or else the fish will die swimming around in their own muck (plus it'll smell).

Have a look here:
http://www.firsttankguide.net/goldfish.php

kr15snw

Ive seen that tank before and would say probably no more than 4 fish. Are you keeping the room type things in it? Personally I think it looks a bit tacky, but everyone has their own taste!

In a standard fish tank gravel is a good idea as well as some plants and somewhere for them to hide (we have a cave that they like to go in).

Fish are very relaxing to watch, so enjoy them

Oh and when introducing fish get the tank set up and leave it for about 2 weeks before you put the fish in. This will allow the filter to do its job and get the water nice and ready. And as someone else said its a good idea to put them in 1 or 2 at a time.

kickstart_3

Re type of fish , there are loads more cold water fish than goldfish , go have a look round some places.There are some beautiful cold water fish!

onejontwo

kickstart wrote: »

Re type of fish , there are loads more cold water fish than goldfish , go have a look round some places.There are some beautiful cold water fish!

Try mountain minnows , smaller so you can get more fish and easy to look after. (Gold fish are very messy fish and produce a lot of waste!) Good luck and don't forget to use a de-chlorinater when changing the water.

Prudent

kickstart wrote: »

Re type of fish , there are loads more cold water fish than goldfish , go have a look round some places.There are some beautiful cold water fish!

Would it be better to find a more specialist shop then? I had just been thinking of a trip to the local Pets at home store. I didn't realise I would have an option beyond goldfish.

kr15snw

To be honest I wouldnt reccomend you bought anything live from any of the major chain shops. Their animals arn't generally in the best of conditions.

Last time I was in a pets at home store (bristol over christmas) every tank had dead fish in and the staff were joking about over who would do the death run today. Dont get me wrong their stuff is great, but Id never buy an animal from a major pet store. Try finding a specialist fish shop, theres plenty around! They would also be able to advise you well as its all they know

KizzyK_2

Theres an excellent online forum here for goldfish and other cold water fish

ailuro2

Well, where to start?

Of course, firstly, congratulations on winning!:D

For goldfish you need a 20Gallon tank for the first goldie, then 10Gallons extra in the tank for every fish after that, that's a lot of water.So for three goldfish you need 180 litres of tankspace. Having googled Vivo, I think your new tank will be 25 litres, which is roughly 5 gallons.

In a tank that size you could have one betta (siamese fighting fish), except they need a heater because they are tropical fish. The suggestion of white cloud mountain minnows is good- pets at home will have them,they are pretty hardy so a good beginner fish. African Dwarf frogs are another possibility, but again they need stable water parameters,and plenty of homework first.

You also need to google 'fishless cycling' hopefully you will come up with http://www.aquatic-hobbyist.com/phpBB2/index.php where I am a fishie advisor:D . Mods- please feel free to remove the link if I'm not allowed to recommend it, I'm not sure of the rules here. It's a small forum, free to use, with good,free advice. Fishless cycling is the process of growing good bacteria to deal with the fishes waste prior to adding any fish to the tank (they end up dying or with no fins due to fin rot if you don't do this:eek: very MSE as you are getting your water testing kit with the tank,and if you get the fish off to a good start you won't need to spend money buying medicine for them)