Fish Lovers 2.0

[Dakotak]

like i said they are quite small and he will be staying there until he can go into my aunts pond this spring. i'm raising him for her for breeding. I am in progress of setting up my 29-gallon right now so i can move the shubunkin and or koi. they are both about four inches long and the plecostamus is about one inch.

i do water changes every other week, and i'm not sure about the parameters. last time i got it checked, a few weeks ago, the ammonia was slightly higher than it should be, and i did a partial water after that.

i feed him koi pellets, in all, for all the fish i normally give around 6, but i forgot to feed him two nights ago, due to family issues and stess (believe me, its not a normal occurence or else all my animals would be dead ) so i gave them eight last night.

The pellets contain

Crude protien min. 35%
Crude Fat min. 5%
Crude fiber max 4%
Moisture max 12%
Ash Max 10%
Poshphorus 0.8% min.

I can list all the ingrediants, but it will take a while. let me know if you want me to.

The pleco should not be in with the goldfish unless it is a bristle nose or rubber nose pleco. Not only will the pleco try and eat the slime coat off of them but most plecos can get really big and will need a bigger tank I believe. Another one of the members here who have knowledge on them would be able to assist you better with that.

With a Koi and shubukin in a 40 gallon you should be doing at least weekly water changes of 60% or more. Do the pellets float? If they do try and soak them. I think what is happening here is the waste build up can effect their swim bladder and if they are gasping at the surface for food then the air can get inside of their bellies and cause issues as well.

Also its ok if you miss a meal or two. Fish can survive quite awhile without food so don't over feed. That will only make the waste go up in the tank and make things worse.

If you can get the water checked that would help greatly. If you take it to a pet store be sure to use a glass container as plastic can mess with the results. Get the number results and not just and "its ok".

So more water changes of 60% or more.
Starve for a day or two, then feed the peas(one pea per fish). See if that helps.

[Firefly_Dreamer]

like i said they are quite small and he will be staying there until he can go into my aunts pond this spring. i'm raising him for her for breeding. I am in progress of setting up my 29-gallon right now so i can move the shubunkin and or koi. they are both about four inches long and the plecostamus is about one inch.

i do water changes every other week, and i'm not sure about the parameters. last time i got it checked, a few weeks ago, the ammonia was slightly higher than it should be, and i did a partial water after that.

i feed him koi pellets, in all, for all the fish i normally give around 6, but i forgot to feed him two nights ago, due to family issues and stess (believe me, its not a normal occurence or else all my animals would be dead ) so i gave them eight last night.

The pellets contain

Crude protien min. 35%
Crude Fat min. 5%
Crude fiber max 4%
Moisture max 12%
Ash Max 10%
Poshphorus 0.8% min.

I can list all the ingrediants, but it will take a while. let me know if you want me to.

The pleco should not be in with the goldfish unless it is a bristle nose or rubber nose pleco. Not only will the pleco try and eat the slime coat off of them but most plecos can get really big and will need a bigger tank I believe. Another one of the members here who have knowledge on them would be able to assist you better with that.

With a Koi and shubukin in a 40 gallon you should be doing at least weekly water changes of 60% or more. Do the pellets float? If they do try and soak them. I think what is happening here is the waste build up can effect their swim bladder and if they are gasping at the surface for food then the air can get inside of their bellies and cause issues as well.

Also its ok if you miss a meal or two. Fish can survive quite awhile without food so don't over feed. That will only make the waste go up in the tank and make things worse.

If you can get the water checked that would help greatly. If you take it to a pet store be sure to use a glass container as plastic can mess with the results. Get the number results and not just and "its ok".

So more water changes of 60% or more.
Starve for a day or two, then feed the peas(one pea per fish). See if that helps.

Nvm Jaws died 3 minutes ago. Thanks to everyone for the help. Oh, i tested everything. the nitrates of +3 were safe and i had none of the -2 . No clorine. the ph was at 7.6 .

and it is a high-fin pleco, because they don't sell any other in cold water where i'm from and when i was in need of a plecostamus, because the snail wasn't doing his job, only one store was selling them. My dad has had high fins in with comets and shubunkins that have lived anywhere from 9- 12 years with the plecostamus who is currently still alive but over in england with a relative before he came over here to marry my mother (technically my step dad). I've even had a plecostamus with my tropical fish when i used to live in a bigger city (i was about 4 when i got them and 8 when i got rid of them) and i had to get rid of them. i had had those mollies and angels and gouramis with the pleco and he never ate slime off of them to my knowledge. and they were still alive when i gave them to our neighbohr who kept tropical fish as a hoby and grew plecostamuses and sold them once they got as big a a Fluval U3 filter.

and my shubunkin is fine. i'm happy at least he's okay. i fell in love with both of them at the pet store, so its very hard for me. Although my dad who is currently very ill had a look and said that jaws had a swollen belly when i chose him. i just guess i didn't know it was an issue until he was floating upside down, because i know a lot but i'm still inbetween a novice and intermediate fish caretaker. I'm still learning about diseases (and i've saved my dad's fish before by spotting early signs of ich of his clown loach) Anyway i'm going to switch Karat, my shubunkin over to flake food. I'll still give him a pea a week as someone suggested.

[Dakotak]

Sorry you lost him.
Pelcos can live with them for a long time but its a ticking time bomb. Like swimming with sharks. You may not get bit right away but it will happen one day. It's up to you if you want to keep them together but I don't advise it as many goldfish have been lost to a pleco attack. Keep the pleco fed and happy.

You still should up your water changes since you are over stocked with just the shubukin in the 40. 50% a week would be a good idea since goldfish and plecos make so much waste.

Flakes are not the best. They cause the fish to gulp atth surface taking in air and can result in swim bladder.
Some good goldfish foods are:
Pro-gold (only available at goldfish connection . Com. My goldfish love it)
Repashy soilent green
Saki Hikari is a really good brand that have diffrent types of food for goldies.
Omega One
Also veggies and brine shrimp are very good for them. If you don't want any of these then just get a food that sinks to avoid surface gulping.

[Cardinal]

Sorry you lost him.
Pelcos can live with them for a long time but its a ticking time bomb. Like swimming with sharks. You may not get bit right away but it will happen one day. It's up to you if you want to keep them together but I don't advise it as many goldfish have been lost to a pleco attack. Keep the pleco fed and happy.

You still should up your water changes since you are over stocked with just the shubukin in the 40. 50% a week would be a good idea since goldfish and plecos make so much waste.

Flakes are not the best. They cause the fish to gulp atth surface taking in air and can result in swim bladder.
Some good goldfish foods are:
Pro-gold (only available at goldfish connection . Com. My goldfish love it)
Repashy soilent green
Saki Hikari is a really good brand that have diffrent types of food for goldies.
Omega One
Also veggies and brine shrimp are very good for them. If you don't want any of these then just get a food that sinks to avoid surface gulping.

New Life Spectrem also has some pretty good foods, not to sure if they sell gold-fish specific.

[Dakotak]

Sorry you lost him.
Pelcos can live with them for a long time but its a ticking time bomb. Like swimming with sharks. You may not get bit right away but it will happen one day. It's up to you if you want to keep them together but I don't advise it as many goldfish have been lost to a pleco attack. Keep the pleco fed and happy.

You still should up your water changes since you are over stocked with just the shubukin in the 40. 50% a week would be a good idea since goldfish and plecos make so much waste.

Flakes are not the best. They cause the fish to gulp atth surface taking in air and can result in swim bladder.
Some good goldfish foods are:
Pro-gold (only available at goldfish connection . Com. My goldfish love it)
Repashy soilent green
Saki Hikari is a really good brand that have diffrent types of food for goldies.
Omega One
Also veggies and brine shrimp are very good for them. If you don't want any of these then just get a food that sinks to avoid surface gulping.

New Life Spectrem also has some pretty good foods, not to sure if they sell gold-fish specific.

I forgot about NLS. Thanks Cardnial.
I dont feed NLS so I forget about it.

@emokitteh
Also if you get a pellet you get should soak it for about a minute to get any air out of it. Another bad thing about flakes is that they don't have a lot of nutrition and what little it does have leaches out into the water.

[Firefly_Dreamer]

Sorry you lost him.
Pelcos can live with them for a long time but its a ticking time bomb. Like swimming with sharks. You may not get bit right away but it will happen one day. It's up to you if you want to keep them together but I don't advise it as many goldfish have been lost to a pleco attack. Keep the pleco fed and happy.

You still should up your water changes since you are over stocked with just the shubukin in the 40. 50% a week would be a good idea since goldfish and plecos make so much waste.

Flakes are not the best. They cause the fish to gulp atth surface taking in air and can result in swim bladder.
Some good goldfish foods are:
Pro-gold (only available at goldfish connection . Com. My goldfish love it)
Repashy soilent green
Saki Hikari is a really good brand that have diffrent types of food for goldies.
Omega One
Also veggies and brine shrimp are very good for them. If you don't want any of these then just get a food that sinks to avoid surface gulping.

New Life Spectrem also has some pretty good foods, not to sure if they sell gold-fish specific.

I forgot about NLS. Thanks Cardnial.
I dont feed NLS so I forget about it.

@emokitteh
Also if you get a pellet you get should soak it for about a minute to get any air out of it. Another bad thing about flakes is that they don't have a lot of nutrition and what little it does have leaches out into the water.

I just thought it would be best because i have loads of leftover flake that i paid about 3 dollars for for my old fantail oranda goldfish that died, not from going blind (because it got stuck behind the filter of my old 10 gallon tank which i have since emptied and washed out and now use it for rodents), but from my other fish attacking him.

Oh and just some good information, my room is a zoo.

I have 4 running tanks, one that is empty and needs to be cleaned because my dad used it when he was setting up a new tank, to keep his fish in, and then after he took the fish out he left the water sit for about 4 months, at which point it looked disgusting so i syphoned out the water, a tank with gerbils in, a parakeet, and a dog, all of which i pay vet bills, and food costs, although my parents help with medicine.

i have a 5 gallon with two female betas and my old snail from one of my bigger tanks

a 29 gallon with a bunch of comets in (they are very cheap and live a while. they are sold as feeders here and are often overcrowded, so i save what i can, although a lot of times i end up with about 2 out of every 10 i buy dying from stess or disease)

and two 40-something gallon tanks, one coldwater, one tropical, both bowfront.

- in my coldwater i just have the shubunkin and the pleco.

- In the tropical i have two kissing gouramis a yellow cichlid, a hybrid (accidentally bred) that looks like the cichlid exactly, but is more shaped like one of the kissing gouramis, two angelfish, and i think thats it. Its actually both my dad's and my tank. his idea was the cichlid, which killed a knife fish i bought, before my dad decided on two angels. I was afraid they'd be two crowded.

I like our pleco in that tank. he's so curious. If you are sitting on our couch next to our tank, if he's not eating, he'll slyther across the bottom of the tank to the coner or wall nearest to you and stare at you. You can literally see in his eyes and face that he's just as curious about you as you are about him. He even earned a name (which is rare in our house. normally the plecos don't have names, like the snails and ghost shrimp). Its hippopotamii (as in hippo pot o my). He has the strongest character out of all the fish i've owned.

My dad has quite a few of his own tanks as well. he pays for the food for that tank, though because i am still a kid, therefore i have no full-time job. in the summers i work for my grandpa doing yard and housework, and babysit my sister. I can afford to take care of my pets, with my summer job as a 3rd clarinetist in city band. on the downside i don't get to go out shopping for new clothes or get toys or movies or comuter stuff every year. I just love the companionship of my animals, though. its irreplaceable. it's better than anything to me, better than the soprano sax i really wanted.

Sorry i talk a lot, and i feel it nessesary to have like, an intro of all the fish i have...

is it considered hoarding? i hope its not...

[עורב לבן]

My crazy community tank betta (Crackle) has suddenly decided he likes flakes. He used to just spit them out (which is fine, because he gets frozen and live food), though he would always try to eat them. Apparently after putting them in his mouth so many times, he has finally developed a taste for them. So now I have to distract him by holding his food in my fingers (he eats out of my fingers), and put the flakes on the other side of the tank. (The other fish are neons and pygmy cories, so they feed mid-tank and at the bottom, respectively.) Crazy fish! I love bettas so much. n.n They are such characters!

My red salamander HMPK always stares at me whenever I eat something at the desk, like, "You're eating. Can I have some, please?" Greedy little gusses! <3

[Dakotak]

I just thought it would be best because i have loads of leftover flake that i paid about 3 dollars for for my old fantail oranda goldfish that died, not from going blind (because it got stuck behind the filter of my old 10 gallon tank which i have since emptied and washed out and now use it for rodents), but from my other fish attacking him.


I know how it feels to throw old food out. I had a huge bottle of flakes I threw out but the flakes are just no good for them. New life Spectrem runs about $7 for a big bottle and so does Omega one, I had extra money this month from my part time job so I splurged and got the good stuff this time.

Oh and just some good information, my room is a zoo.

I have 4 running tanks, one that is empty and needs to be cleaned because my dad used it when he was setting up a new tank, to keep his fish in, and then after he took the fish out he left the water sit for about 4 months, at which point it looked disgusting so i syphoned out the water, a tank with gerbils in, a parakeet, and a dog, all of which i pay vet bills, and food costs, although my parents help with medicine.

I hate to take over my brothers betta tank. He never cleaned it. I have 2 parakeets, they are so cute. Vet bills and food are very costly but good job on keeping up with them!!

i have a 5 gallon with two female betas and my old snail from one of my bigger tanks

Betta sororities should have at least 3-4 females to establish a pecking order. We have a lot of betta keepers here so they could help you more with that.

a 29 gallon with a bunch of comets in (they are very cheap and live a while. they are sold as feeders here and are often overcrowded, so i save what i can, although a lot of times i end up with about 2 out of every 10 i buy dying from stess or disease)

That is awesome you want to help them!! But comets,commons and shubukins need 55 gallons for one fish, all three of those can get up to a foot or longer. You are very overstocked I am afraid and even though you don't mean to, are doing more harm than good. I know you mean well but you should not put anymore goldfish in that tank and when you can put them in your friend's(sorry if it's not your friend) pond they would love that or possibly give them away. The only goldfish you could put in that is 2 fancy goldfish with good filtration. You would be at max stocking level with two fancies.

Also a lot of pet stores will over stock because:
1. They hugely over filtrate their tanks.
2. They buy fish in stock to sell, the fish normally are not there longer than a few weeks so by the time they are bought they do not have the effects of over stocking. IF the fish do have effects of over stocking its normally from the "breeder" who house them in over stocked conditions from hatching to sell date. That can be a few months.
When you stock your tank at home you expect the fish to be there for awhile right? So you have to make sure the tank can handle that for as long as the fish lives, and depending on the fish that will be a long time. Goldfish can live up to 20+ years. The pet stores don't keep them for nearly that long.


My dad has quite a few of his own tanks as well. he pays for the food for that tank, though because i am still a kid, therefore i have no full-time job. in the summers i work for my grandpa doing yard and housework, and babysit my sister. I can afford to take care of my pets, with my summer job as a 3rd clarinetist in city band. on the downside i don't get to go out shopping for new clothes or get toys or movies or comuter stuff every year. I just love the companionship of my animals, though. its irreplaceable. it's better than anything to me, better than the soprano sax i really wanted.

I feel the same. I don't get new clothes or stuff like that. 90% of my closet is hand me downs from my cousins. XD
I save money for the stuff I really love. My pets.

Sorry i talk a lot, and i feel it nessesary to have like, an intro of all the fish i have...

is it considered hoarding? i hope its not...

As long as you can provide a healthy place for them all and re-home them if needed then no. Its not hording. I have a lot of pets myself.
We also welcome chit chat about our fish.

My text is in Blue.
May I introduce you to Kokos goldfish?
Its a forum dedicated to goldfish. A lot of the members there have been keeping goldfish for 18+ years and its where I have learned all of my knowledge of goldfish. I also go there to get advice when one of my goldfish is sick. They have saved my lion head, Shiro from death. <3 Its a very nice place and full of stuff to learn.
http://www.kokosgoldfish.invisionzone.com/forum/

[~*~Montague~*~]

I have a baby girl (No I'm serious she's a baby) Green betta fish named Louisa, aka Baby Lousia fish of BLF. I got her when I performed as Louisa in the Sound of Music over the summer, hence her name. She lives in my living room.

[flyteck]

Anyone have any treat ideas for beta fish? Just looking to give my boy something special c:

ALSO:
Anyone know any hardy small fish that can fight off larger fish? I'd like to put some in my 15 gallon, but I'm 100% sure my big minnow will eat them. And does anyone have parent-convinving tricks? I'd like to move my wild fish to an 60-120 Gallon tank and put tropical fish in the 15, but I'm not allowed to have another fish tank.

Blood worms? For a Betta treat?

/latereply

I should buy frozen or live, right? I've tried the freeze dried ones, he doesn't like them.