Black Moor Goldfish

[Vixxx666]

Hi, I bought 2 black moor goldfish and 1 fantail goldfish on Friday. I immediately noticed one of the Black Moor's wasn't very active and just sat on the bottom of the tank. When I woke up from a nap yesterday it was dead.

The other Black Moor has now started to lie on it's side at the top of the tank and it looks like it's struggling to stay upright.
And the other fantail goldfish has also stopped
swimming as much.


Is this normal? Is there anything I can do to help them? I haven't had goldfish since I was very small!

[Gill Catton]

You might be better off finding a pets forum, however, for the moment, What usually kills of fish is water quality. Three fish is quite a lot to add to a tank in one go. How long was the water in the tank before you added the fish?

What worked for me when I had fish was to leave the water empty (but with gravel and plants) for a week before adding the first fish to allow the bacteria in the water and gravel a time to mature to a point where they can clean up after the fish) then I'd add a fish a week until I reached capacity or better still stop way before the capacity of the tank because then its easier to maintain water quality.

Also add a filter unless you want to regularly change the water (only change a third of the tank at a time so you don't clear out all the bacteria too) and never use tap water without adding water conditioner.

Sooo for now I'd keep changing a third of the water perhaps every two -3 days for clean water (with water conditioner added - available at most pet shops) Oh and don't feed them everyday adding food essentially adds pollution if you've not got the bacterial community sorted.

Hope this helps!

[Lance Morgan]

Gill is right. There are additives you can by to neutralise tapwater otherwise leave it for a few days. Filter is also important to keep watr clean. overfeeding can also harm fish.

[artdemole]

Could have been due to to temperature changes.

[tom00_uk]

how big a tank and what are the water parameters?

[Dogghound]

Additionally these ornimental species tend to be very sensative and in some cases heavily inbred so they are harder to look after than standard goldfish. It may be worth getting on normal goldfish to build your experience up first.

[Lance Morgan]

Dogghound is right I had a goldfish when i was a boy (won at the fair) ok stone me !. He lived in a bog standard GF bowl for 4 years until i released him in a pond. Every now and then I would top up or empty and fill the bowl with tap water. Students
Fred was fine

[~T~]

Was the tank cycled or was it newly setup? If you don't know anything about cycling a tank then I would defo look it up. Or ask on a fish forum.

But basically you need to leave the tank for a few weeks until the filter bacteria has time to establish as this is what converts the harmful toxic stuff to much less harmful stuff. During during cycling the ammonium(which is toxic to fish)from food and the fishes feces/urine will shoot up and is then slowly oxidised and thus eliminated but the by product of this is nitrite which is also highly toxic to fish is produced. The final stage is when the nitrite is converted to the much less harmful nitrate. Although this must not be left to build up as in high levels it can be dangerous to fish so regular partial water changes are needed. Once the tank is cycled this process is much quicker and as long as your tank is not heavily stocked and you perform regular partial water changes the levels will always be very low.

However just leaving a tank with just water for a couple of weeks will be useless as the bacteria needs something to feed on. Adding fish at this time will give the bacteria something to feed on but you will run the risk of killing the more delicate kinds(fancy goldfish for example). Your best bet is to do a fishless cycle as it is usually faster, builds up larger bacteria colonies from the start and fish do not need to be harmed. To fishless cycle you need to add something to create ammonia which can be fish food or something like a few prawns. It's also good to have testing kits to keep an eye on levels. As you already have fish I would suggest either taking them back to the shop until your tank is properly cycled or feeding sparingly and performing small partial water changes every few days. This will make for a slow cycle but would probably work out better for the fish.

Hope this helps.

Also to anyone keeping goldfish in bowls or thinking about it I would stress that this is a terrble environment for a fish that can grow to over 12". Goldfish in bowls barely eek by with no filtration and very little oxygen. They may look fine in there but if you observe goldfish in large tanks or ponds you will see they are extremely lively active large fish and simply do not thrive in tiny bowls.

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by ~T~

However just leaving a tank with just water for a couple of weeks will be useless as the bacteria needs something to feed on.

I found that putting in the gravel and plants (with whatever micro-organisms the came with them) was enough to kick start the bacterial part of the tank eco-system - at least it worked for me!

[~T~]

Originally Posted by Gill Catton

I found that putting in the gravel and plants (with whatever micro-organisms the came with them) was enough to kick start the bacterial part of the tank eco-system - at least it worked for me!

If you use gravel from an already cycled tank then yes it would have a small amount of good bacteria but if its new gravel then there wont be any plus new gravel should really be rinsed under the tap to remove dirt and dust. Live plants may have a small amount too though its usually the rotting leaves that will be producing ammonia starting the cycle. It sounds like you have done a slow fishless cycle that can work as long as you stock slowly with hardy fish and feed lightly but this is still very stressful on the fish and either using water and filter media from a cycled tank or fishless cycling is trongly recommended.