Our goldfish died, other one is sick, brand new tank...what's going on???

[denisekayt]

Hi there, nearly two weeks ago we bought a brand new fish tank, rinsed it out, put in rock (rinsed the rock before putting it in), etc. I only used tap water to rinse, no soap or other cleaners. It's a small 5 gallon tank, but does have the charcoal type filtration plus spinning wheel thingy (sorry, not sure of the techinical term for it).

Up until yesterday everything seemed hunky dory, then this morning Garfield (the gold and black fantail) was dead. My DH and DS found and removed him.

This afternoon when I came home from work I got to looking at the tank and other fish (an Oranda goldfish, all white except for the red head). The other fish has little white specks all over his tail, and the rocks in the tank have brown, rust colored spots all over them that were not there just a day ago. There also appears to be a whole bunch of white specky stuff in the water and there's a cloudy film on the top of the water.

We removed fishy number two and placed him in a clean bowl, but I'm not sure if he'll recover or not or even what to do for him to help him out...he's acting ok so far just covered in white stuff.

WHAT is going on? Does anyone know what this is and what caused it? I'm afraid that even if I clean out the new tank and start over we'd just wind up two weeks later with the same thing.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

 

[LBAK]

Did you dechlorinate the water? Chlorine from tap water is harmful to fish.

 

[denisekayt]

Did you dechlorinate the water? Chlorine from tap water is harmful to fish.

Yep, we put in the liquid stuff that's supposed to dechlorinate and make the tap water safe for fish.

 

[disneynutt1225]

Sounds like "Ick". Does the white stuff look salty? Get some Ick treatment ASAP and you might be able to save him.

 

[Serena]

With such a small tank, any slight difference in chemicals messes with it.

It sounds like the white flecks is Ick. There is some medicine to cure it, but it may be too late. I don't know. Your pet store would be able to tell you more.

Do you let the tap water sit for a couple days before putting it in the tank? The chlorine in the water can really hurt the fish.

I found the bigger tank I had, the least problems.

 

[Crankyshank]

I would take a sample of the water to your local pet store and have them test it. They'll be able to tell you what you're doing wrong.

 

[Papa Deuce]

With such a small tank, any slight difference in chemicals messes with it.

It sounds like the white flecks is Ick. There is some medicine to cure it, but it may be too late. I don't know. Your pet store would be able to tell you more.

Do you let the tap water sit for a couple days before putting it in the tank? The chlorine in the water can really hurt the fish.

I found the bigger tank I had, the least problems.

That and other gasses in the water. It is ALWAYS a good idea to keep water aside from the tap for 3 - 5 days before adding to a tank. Also, you may have a PH problem, or a water hardness problem. "Most" fish can do ok with a 7.0 PH provided they get there gently. If they were more than .5 in PH away, there can be almost instant death if they go to a new tank. The shock can kill them.

Also, goldfish prefer slighltly COOLER water, like in the low to mid 70's, not the 80's, where many people have their tank set at.

 

[denisekayt]

Thanks for the fast replies! I love Disboards I KNEW I'd get helpful, quick and friendly advice here!

Great idea on the tip to take a sample of the water into the pet store. I knew Petco would do that, but had forgotten!! I guess DS and I better get going. Hopefully it is just ick and then we'll have a solution!

Thanks again!

 

[Poohlovr]

Ick is not caused by the chlorine--it's caused by a change in water temp.

Did you float the bags (with the fish in them) in the aquarium before you put them in the tank? You need to do this for about 20-30 minutes, minimum (this allows the water in the bag to adjust to the same temp as the tank water) before you pour the fish in the tank. You can also (after this "floating" period) tear a hole in the bag and exchange small amounts of water in the bag for water in the tank (pour a little out of the bag and add a little water from the tank into the bag).

You can try the Ick cure and hope it works.

Good luck.

 

[Jabber_Jaws]

I have been taking care of fresh water, and salt water tanks for 12 years now. Here are some things to try.

You said it was a new tank you set up. The first thing you should do is test you tap water for heavy minerals, PH, hardness. ( You can always get RO water at your local grocery store out in front. Usually 30c a gallon. )

Now with new tank set up the will be what is called a cycle. This is when Ammonia, nitrate and nitrite will run high in the tank. ( This is from the fish pooh ) It takes a little while for all those levels to go to 0. Now goldfish are very hardy, but you should start out with 1, and wait a week and add another.

Next comes the acclimation process. When you bring the fish home from the store you need to float the bag in the tank for at least 15 mins. ( this is so the fish will get use to the water temp. Next you should upen the bag and add 1/2 cup of your tank water to the bag. ( Never ! mix the pet stores water with your tank water. It could have parasites in the water that you don't want in your tank. ) Close the bag up and let it float for another 15 mins. Again add 1/2 cup of your tank water to the bag, and let it float for 15 mins. After you have done this take a net and transfer the fish from the bag to your tank. ( Again making sure you don't add the pet store's water. )

After all this you should have a health swimming fish. Just don't over feed. I hope everything goes ok for you.

 

[Puffy2]

Get beda (beta?) fish, they live a very long time.

 

[denisekayt]

Thanks for all the great replies....we took a sample of water into Petco and the only thing they said was wrong was a little bit high on nitrates (but they said that's to be expected the first 6 weeks in a new tank). They did say that what I described sounded a lot like Ick, and I bought some meds for that.

I guess this took me by surprise because I think we did the whole buy new fish, introduce them first to the tank in their own bag, etc. correctly and they've been living in there happily for the last 2 weeks. We even knew about the 70 or so cooler water temp for these little guys! It was basically overnight that everything went south.

We put fishy number two back in the regular tank since it seems everything is ok except for the Ick, and he can't get cured if he's not in with the now medicated tank water (sorry, he doesn't really have a name yet, he's the fish DS picked out and I think he's had about 5 different names in the past two weeks ).

Wish us luck!