Anyone has fish as pets???

[BCYL]

My gf's sister recently got a goldfish as a birthday gift... But we know nothing about having fish as pets... so can anyone give us some ideas?

Like how often should we change the water or wash the tank? How often should we feed it? Anything special we need to do?

As you can tell, we really have absolutely no ideas... any help would be great!

 

[WhiteKnight77]

Well one goldfish can live in a goldfish bowl with no problem. You will need to get a dechlorinator to remove the chlorine from the water and floating goldfish food is what you want to feed it. You can change 2/3rds of the water every week to get rid of fish waste and refresh the water. As long as you keep your place around 70 F or so you shouldn't have any problems. It's other fish that you start getting into needing heaters, larger tanks, and chemicals to keep the pH balanced with. One other thing, keep the bowl out of direct sunlight to retard algea growth.

 

[GRIFFIN1]

My fish must hate me. I have had him for 4 years, and his water has been changed twice. The tank is about 40 gallons, and I have a couple of filters on it. I also don't over feed him.

 

[brunswickite]

i tried tropical fish, in a 29 gallon tank, had bout 10, they all got popeye and died, i bought all the chemical things you have to put in the water, fed them every day, made sure temp was right, the tnak just stunk, and the fish kep dieing, now it sits there empty.

 

[cainsdive]

Na, I get tyerd of flushing them

 

[GroundZero]

goldfish are a dime a dozen and fo the most part don't last long.
don't overfeed, freeze them and keep the tank/bowl clean and you will be o.k.
could last a week or a year, but it will die. most likely within the first month.
use distilled water for the bowl, don't leave it in direct sunlight (this is like a magnifying glass and will cook it if it is sunny) feed once a day( same time is better) and have fun...
peace out

 

[4Lclovergirl]

One miss conception with goldfish is they don't need airation, but it's not true. So try and get a small filter (penplax) or some kind of airstone. Doens't have to be something big or expensive. Also, treat your water with declorinator, and any tropical or goldfish food would be good. Oh, and as said before, make sure to change the water often, that's the quickest way to kill a fish, is overload of toxins from their waste.

 

[BCYL]

but the water gets dirty very quickly... is there any reason why??? maybe it's the rocks we put in there?

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: GRIFFIN1
My fish must hate me. I have had him for 4 years, and his water has been changed twice. The tank is about 40 gallons, and I have a couple of filters on it. I also don't over feed him.

A 40 gallon tank for 1 fish?! What fish is that?

 

[HappyPuppy]

Fish are pets?

 

[WhiteKnight77]

I once had one fish in a 30 gallon tank. Oscars are aggressive and will fight if there are others in the tank and the fact they will grow to about 15" in length. It was actually small for my fish and it grew to 12". You can't keep other kinds of fish in with Oscars as they become food. A dozen goldfish would last maybe 3 or 4 days.

 

[GroundZero]

Originally posted by: HappyPuppy
Fish are pets?

untill they are sushi

 

[Basilisk6]

Originally posted by: 4Lclovergirl
One miss conception with goldfish is they don't need airation, but it's not true. So try and get a small filter (penplax) or some kind of airstone. Doens't have to be something big or expensive. Also, treat your water with declorinator, and any tropical or goldfish food would be good. Oh, and as said before, make sure to change the water often, that's the quickest way to kill a fish, is overload of toxins from their waste.

In general, tropical fish food is not good for goldfish. They have very simple digestive system, and tropical food is too acidic for them. And BCYL, the water gets dirty quickly because goldfish are very dirty fish. They don't have stomachs, and any food they eat passes through their body within a rather short period of time.

 

[MaxDSP]

My first fish were goldfish, but at least 6 died no matter what I did (water changes, diff. food, placement, etc) I bought 3 different kinds of fish a couple of years ago, and 2 of them died after about 1.5 years but the third one is still going. I thought it was gonna die soon but the thing keeps on ticking...

 

[spanky]

i used to have fish. i fed them to my turtle.

 

[gotsmack]

Originally posted by: brunswickite
i tried tropical fish, in a 29 gallon tank, had bout 10, they all got popeye and died, i bought all the chemical things you have to put in the water, fed them every day, made sure temp was right, the tnak just stunk, and the fish kep dieing, now it sits there empty.

Add 1 tablespoon of uniodized salt for every 5 gallons of water. It is good for the fish. but rememebr DO NOT ADD MORE SALT WHEN YOU REPLACE EVAPORATED WATER!