Gold fishes-What did I do wrong?

Goldfish should not live in a bowl! They need a lot of water and it needs to be changed very often. A water change once every other week in a bowl will kill them. Mine live in a 30 gallon with a filter and extra air and I still do a water change at least once a week. They create A LOT of waste.

Just to give you an idea how they should grow - in my pond they grow from 1 inch to over 6 inches in less than six months.

Anytime you use bleach to clean you need to rinse well. Then either let everything sit in the sun for a day or two or use a dechlorinator.

 

One other thought is that you should never clean out everthing, meaning water and rocks. There are beneficial bacteria in the rocks that keep the balance of fish and tank. A well balanced tank will be clear, never cloudy. (it is a good idea to have some very porous ones in there for the bacteria that you NEVER wash off)

I never use bleach. Too harsh. A good filter is important too.

 

I would say either water temps fluctuated or there was still bleach in the vase.. I do agree you really shouldnt ever clean the whole vase.. They need the good bacteria in the water.. Sorry for you loss...

 

Yes, this happens sometimes with goldfish in bowls. The problem is that when you do a complete water change, esp. if you are using bleach or something like that, there is always a certain chance that something will go wrong. Maybe you did not rinse quite as much as you thought you did, this one time; maybe something with bleachy water still on it dripped into the tank before it was refilled; maybe your hands were a bit bleachy this time when you reset things; maybe there was a blip in water quality from your well or municipal supply; there are any number of things that could have gone wrong.

The solution is to get a TANK with a FILTER for the goldfish -- and it needs to be a decent size tank with a pretty effective filter, because goldfish are filthy creatures, especially when fed the amounts that many people [unnecessarily] feed them -- and that way you will never again be doing a bleach-out or total water change. Also you will have happier healthier fish with a bit better odds for the future.

Good luck, sorry bout your fish,

Pat

 

Did you put chlorine drops in the water before you put the fish in? It's really important to add the drops everytime new water is added to the tank. Sorry about your fish.

 

I have a county fair gold fish courtesy of my 6 year old grandson now that lives in a fish bowl! Have had Goldy wink for 3 years now. I keep two bowls on hand for her, when she is in bowl one I clean the other bowl and let the water set atleast overnight or add chlorine remover and let the water temp settle to room temp before adding her to the clean bowl. I never bleach the bowls.

Goldy likes her fish bowl! lol The bigger the bowl the more they will grow. My outside gold fish get huge in the fish pond.

 

Quote:That's actually supposed to be dechlorinating drops.

 

Oh yeah, I forgot about the chlorine drops! And one common mistake people make is they overfeed their fish. Fish need very little food to get by.
Just a pinch. If they eat it a pinch more. Excess food will foul the water quickly.