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Author Topic: new fish  (Read 385 times)
betty55
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new fish
« on: August 13, 2011, 04:41:44 AM »
we recently purchased a shubunkin to join our existing 3 goldfish that we have had for 3 years now, it was fine for a couple of weeks, but we noticed odd behaviour in the other 3 gf one spent most of the time hiding behind the pump, with the other 2 squeezing in when they could, the new fish seemed fine, yesterday the shubunkin was on the bottom of the tank and on further investigation we discovered it was indeed dead, I always thought that fish floated when dead, there was no apparent reason for it's sad death that was visible, we thoroughly cleaned the tank and the other fish have now returned to their pre shubunkin behaviour and seem fine, but we are still a little concerned about the cause of the death any thoughts would be welcome
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fantailer
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Re: new fish
« Reply #1 on: August 13, 2011, 06:51:17 AM »
How big is your tank? Maybe the fish were nipping it through the night I had a fish who died like that.
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BronzieTheMoor
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Re: new fish
« Reply #2 on: August 13, 2011, 03:33:13 PM »
How big is the tank? For four, you needed 100 gallons. Undecided
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Nossie
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Re: new fish
« Reply #3 on: August 13, 2011, 05:02:07 PM »
This happens all the time on this forum. I'll give you all the things that caused the problems:
- Overstocking.
Commons need big tanks since they are fast swimmers, think a minimum of about 50 gallons for these three fish.
- Introducing new fish without quarantining it for 3 weeks first.
He could have brought some unwanted disease/parasites with him, and they won't be gone from the tank easily if they're present... :/
- Adding more fish without checking the water quality.
If your tank is far too small, every single addition will have a really bad impact on water quality. Meaning, an ammonia spike, this probably killed the Shubunkin, and may in fact kill more of your fish if you cleaned out the tank, gravel and filter completely after his removal.

What you should do:
- Get a bigger tank.
As mentioned, a minimum of 50 gallons because of tank measurements. A 75 gallon would be ideal, and then you could add a couple of new fish to a maximum of 5-6 commons, comets or shubunkins. You could then keep the current tank for quarantining new fish or plants.
- Buy a water test kit for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.
Test the water and make sure the parameters are as follows: pH between 6,5-8,5 ammonia 0, nitrite 0 and nitrates between 0-40ppm.
-Buy a biological filter booster like Stability from Seachem and add this weekly with every water change.
You should change 50% of the water every week, and rinse the filter media every second weeks in the tank water you remove from the tank.

With these measures, your fish should be just fine! Hope it works out. And please get back to us about the current TANK SIZE!!
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BronzieTheMoor
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Re: new fish
« Reply #4 on: August 13, 2011, 07:30:27 PM »
Yeah, Nossie. 75 is ideal right now with the three remaining.
But we REALLY need to know the size of the tank! Smiley
We can't really make a good guess without it.
But I'm assuming it has to do with overstocking.
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Nossie
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Re: new fish
« Reply #5 on: August 14, 2011, 03:03:43 AM »
Why would you think so? You don't need to think that each comet/common needs 50 gallons, but think about the size of the tank, and then calculate roughly 10-20 gals a fish. So in a 50 gal, you could safely keep 4 common goldfish, in a 75, you could keep between 5-6 etc.
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fantailer
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Re: new fish
« Reply #6 on: August 14, 2011, 05:02:19 AM »
Nossie are you sure your head is not conntected to computer or something because you know a lot! Cheesy
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BronzieTheMoor
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Re: new fish
« Reply #7 on: August 14, 2011, 09:19:20 AM »
Well,  yeah, I was saying to ADD another or two. I kind of went overboard. Sorry! Sad
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Nossie
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Re: new fish
« Reply #8 on: August 14, 2011, 12:47:03 PM »
fantailer: Honestly, I've just been reading books... over and over again xD I simply remember those things I'm interested in pretty well xD And for the record, I prefer books in front of information online Wink They just seem more valid! (But I don't mind looking for stuff on here either, I just take it with a grain of salt...)

Bronzie: No worries Smiley I'm just checking, rather so that the newbies on here won't get terrified you know like they misunderstand how to calculate the amount of fish they can keep in their tanks etc.
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