Fish advice please....??

[Wolfsnaps]

I have worked in pet stores and have owned tanks in the past. Reading this post I have seen some great advise and some not so good advise.

Goldfish are actually very large fish. They can grow 6 inches to a foot! They do not grow to the size of their environment. Their growth might stunt a little but then they die. Yes, I too have heard of goldfish living in bowls for years. That is the exception and not the norm. If your goldfish keep dying, you do not have the exception.

If you are deadset on a goldfish, a TEN gallon tank is what I would reccommend minimum. Goldfish require at least 2 gallons per inch of fish. So, a five inch goldfish needs a ten gallon tank. I would only put two goldfish in a ten gallon tank.

Also, with goldfish, you NEED a filter. If you keep them in bowl, expect to do watre changes every two to three days...and who has time to do that really? That is just setting yourself up to fail. Trust me, a water filter is the way to go. This si the only thing that will clean a tank. You STILL have to do water changes, but those are typically just monthly. NO FISH (bottom feeders, cat fish, plecos) will eat the poop of another fish. They just eat leftover food and algea. Also, plecos grow to HUGE proportions (even the dwarf kind should not live in a bowl).

Overfeeding is the best way to kill a fish. The food turns the water rancid/toxic pretty darn fast. I honestly think the fish food cans say to feed three times a day so you buy more fish food. LOL. Once a day is plenty. You can even go a day here and there without feeding and your fish will be just fine. Only feed what they can eat in a few minutes and net out the rest.

Goldfish can live to be ten years or older. But how many of you have ever heard that? Goldfish are such an abused pet because they are not properly cared for. Walmart has no business selling live fish as the employees are not trained to know how to care for them and teach customers. I guess that means they sell more fish. How sad.

Goldfish are quite hardy but they need ROOM. CLEAN water. Chlorine drops like aquasafe neutralize the chlorine in tap water and is a must for ALL FISH. Do not use distilled water as it is dead water and has no nutrients for the fish. Tap water is fine as long as you use the chlorine drops. Spring water works too. IMHO buying bottled water is a waste of money.

If this is too much for you, bettas can happily live in a bowl their whole life. They still need chlorine drops too. You can usually only have one in a tank. Males kill males and females kill males too so do NOT house a male and a female. Someone will die. You can sometimes have females together but sometimes they kill each other too so to play it safe, one betta per bowl.

Bettas need regular water changes since they don't have a filter (and prefer not to). To change the water, dump half of the old water and the fish into a second bowl. Dump the rest of the water out. Fill half way with fresh, chlorine free water. Then dump the old water and the fish back into the primary bowl. Basically, you are changing only half the water. To change all the water is chancing putting the betta into shock. I have had a betta live for five years. Also, hikari makes a very good betta pellet. They eat about 3 to 6 of these a day. THATS IT! :)

A trick that can be fun for kids is to show the betta a picture of another betta or a mirror. Once the betta sees "another betta" is flares out and does a war dance that helps it exercise and prevent things like fin rot.

Wow, this is really long. Sorry. Hope this helps!

[mtka]

I have 2 goldfish that are 6 years old and have given me babies for the past 2 years. This is there first winter outside in the pond, although the newest 20 babies are inside in a 55 gallon tank. I still see poor goldfish given away as prizes and people have no idea that they require a lot of equipment and care. Goldfish are messy messy fish and require a good filter and a lot of cleaning. Go with another kind of fish if you don't want to spend a lot of money on supplies.

[wendylv5]

I never feed my fish 3 times a day, just once. Tab water can be hard, we mixed half tab with half spring water and that helped us. They shouldn't be dying so quickly though. I know alot of people who have beta's and they say they a low maintenance. Good Luck!

[Raysha]

well, I may be going against the grain of what most of everyone else learned.
I found a site fourm that helps new fish owners called Aquariacentral.com, it was on this site that I learned the BEST way to take of my betta which CAN be housed with other NON-agressive fish. I like to keep mine in a five galon tank with a algae eater and two tetras. Some Breaders have theirs in 20 gallon tanks with an entire comunity of fish.
When it comes to cleaning please don't clean with dish soap it can be very harmful for any fish that you put in the tank after that. Even if you dry and throughly rinse it there is still residue in the tank and it will also kill ALL th helpful bacteria that help to keep your fish alive. The same is to be said for the gravel, I have NEVER cleaned my gravel after the intial set up of my tanks because that is where all the helpful bacteria lives. Simple water changes with a gravel cleaner to siphon out the waste is all you really need, not full water changes but small changes (25%-60%) to maintian ammonia and nitrogen levels. The cholrine tablets are a good thing, but so are other Water conitioners handle more than just the chlorine in your water(heavy metals for example) and works right away, Tetra is a good brand to go with.
As for the best place to buy that is really up to you some people have really good luck at Wal-mart, but others don't. Same can be said for Petco and Petsmart or any fish retailer.
For size the gallon bowls are ment to house only one fish (a good starter for a betta), while the two gallons and higher handle different amounts of fish. It also depends on what type of gold fish that you get at the store. Most goldfish that people see can live just fine in a gallon bowl, while others grow to five inchs long or longer and need a 50-75 gallon tank if housed in multiples. try a rosie feeder fish if you want a small cheap fish.

A side note the bigger the tank the easier it is to maintian contray to normal thought.
* a little tip on the water conditioners some actually help maintian a slime coat that naturaly occurs on fish, this helps with stress and overall health of the fish. These are the ones that I REALLY like and had the most sucess with.

Sorry for the long post I try to help anyone with fish problems the best I can and have a bad habit of writing more than I probably should. I guess that is what I get for being a Fish lover huh?