Most diseases can be prevented and even cured by water changes. I have dealt with ick, the best way to be rid of it is to crank the temperature up to the high 80-90 range for about a week using a heater. It works especially well with tropical fish and I have used it on goldfish as well. Another technique is to slowly increase the salinity by adding aquarium salts, I don't remember the exact formula. I have used the meds but found that raising the temperatures or the salt way works best.
Most bacterial and fungus problems are from dirty water or stressed fish from dirty water. It doesn't hurt to keep some of the tablets on hand that they sell in Wal-Mart. If your fish look healthy now they should remain so unless you add more fish. Some addition of some aquarium salts can help during stressful time.
The gravel or filter media needs to be from a running tank as the bacteria will die after a while. Though supposedly the bacteria arrives in your tank through the air, so it must always be present somewhere.
It does sound like they were spawning. It's the only time they chase each other, they also try to bump the belly of the female which is necessary to push the eggs out. They will often stop to eat the eggs. Any shift in water temperature to warmer will often trigger a spawn. When I do my water changes I add water slightly warmer than the tank temperatures, and sometimes they will spawn.
I always seem to have more male goldfish than females. When males are in breeding condition they will have what looks like salt granules on their gill covering, don't mistake that for ick. You can also tell when they are spawning, the males chase the females.
When cycling your tank water changes can be as frequent as daily, I can't remember the numbers at the moment of ammonia and nitrites that are extremely toxic, I will look it up, as long as numbers stay in the safe area it's best to let the cycle go until ammonia than nitrites are zero and nitrates are going up.
After the tank is cycled I recommend about once a week changing about 50% to keep them clean. There's also a number where nitrates will become a problem, as well as them feeding algae. You can have low nitrates but lots of algae. There is one plant I use regularly in my smaller goldfish tank that the fish will eat as well as it using nitrates. I will get my fish book later and share all this stuff.
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Your tank should be fine where it's at. Goldfish are good at adapting.
Most bacterial and fungus problems are from dirty water or stressed fish from dirty water. It doesn't hurt to keep some of the tablets on hand that they sell in Wal-Mart. If your fish look healthy now they should remain so unless you add more fish. Some addition of some aquarium salts can help during stressful time.
The gravel or filter media needs to be from a running tank as the bacteria will die after a while. Though supposedly the bacteria arrives in your tank through the air, so it must always be present somewhere.
It does sound like they were spawning. It's the only time they chase each other, they also try to bump the belly of the female which is necessary to push the eggs out. They will often stop to eat the eggs. Any shift in water temperature to warmer will often trigger a spawn. When I do my water changes I add water slightly warmer than the tank temperatures, and sometimes they will spawn.
I always seem to have more male goldfish than females. When males are in breeding condition they will have what looks like salt granules on their gill covering, don't mistake that for ick. You can also tell when they are spawning, the males chase the females.
When cycling your tank water changes can be as frequent as daily, I can't remember the numbers at the moment of ammonia and nitrites that are extremely toxic, I will look it up, as long as numbers stay in the safe area it's best to let the cycle go until ammonia than nitrites are zero and nitrates are going up.
After the tank is cycled I recommend about once a week changing about 50% to keep them clean. There's also a number where nitrates will become a problem, as well as them feeding algae. You can have low nitrates but lots of algae. There is one plant I use regularly in my smaller goldfish tank that the fish will eat as well as it using nitrates. I will get my fish book later and share all this stuff.
.
Your tank should be fine where it's at. Goldfish are good at adapting.
