In case you were wondering why your goldfish dies in a week

amother

OP ↓

Yesterday at 4:23 pm

This has been on my mind for a while lol. My goldfish lived for 8 years and grew to 10 inches long, so its a bit startling to hear people's fish die in a couple weeks! So here's a very simple guide to keeping any surprise goldfish alive!

The most common reason goldfish die is due to ammonia poisoning. Fish food and bodily waste produce ammonia when they break down in water, which quickly kills your fish. And goldfish produce a lot of waste and eat a lot of food by fish standards!

So, how do you prevent ammonia poisoning?

The short version: larger tanks, frequent water changes, and a filter or pump for extra oxygen.

The long version:

1. More water! A fishbowl becomes toxic more quickly than a tank because there's less water. In my experience, you can't realistically keep a fish alive for long in less than 5 gallons if water. Goldfish will do better in 20 gallons while they are young, but will outgrow that in a couple years.

2. Frequent water changes! Every week change 20% of the water, and 50% whenever your fish starts to act sick, stops eating, or is resting at the surface, and 90% or more if your fish is lying on the floor, on its side, or refusing to eat.

3. Filters or air pumps! There is a good bacteria that eats toxic ammonia and turns it into less toxic nitrites, and another that turns nitrites into nontoxic nitrates. But these bacteria need oxygen to survive, and oxygen can only be absorbed into the water if the surface is moving or bubbly. After a few weeks of oxygenation from a filter or pump, you won't have to change the water more than 10-20% once a week.

3.5. Dechlorinators! If you choose to oxygenate your tank or bowl, treating the water with a bit of dechlorinator every time you do a water change will keep the good bacteria colony from being damaged from chlorine in your tapwater. You can buy these from a regular pet store.

Anyway, I hope this is helpful! I love fish and I want to save other people and their kids the heartbreak of another dead fish Smile

amother

Carnation ↓

Yesterday at 4:44 pm

My grandma had a 14 year old goldfish in a tiny simple glass bowl, it was basically the shape of the bowl... We bought it a big tank, followed all the instructions about water temperature etc. and it died the next day! Confused

amother

Nasturtium ↓

Yesterday at 4:48 pm

Besidesfor cleanliness, goldfish can get stunted in a small tank which can cause other issues.

amother

↑ Nasturtium

Yesterday at 4:49 pm

amother Carnation wrote:

You probably shocked it. Was it a fancy goldfish? They don't need as much room.

giftedmom

Yesterday at 4:52 pm

Listen if I wanted to go all that trouble I’d have bought the fish myself. I’m not going to go all crazy because my kid brought a fish home from daycamp. Which is why I usually flush them to spare myself the heartbreak. This summer was an exception because my kid got exact instructions and was following them. But along came the idiot cleaning lady and overfed it when I wasn’t looking because she felt bad for it. When I hid the fish food she dropped in random pieces of bread. So ofcourse the fish died.

amother

Cerulean

Yesterday at 4:54 pm

My goldfish is over 5 years old and doing fine despite two near death experiences. Never did items 3 and 3.5. As it grew, it moved from a bowl to a larger tank and we change the water when it gets kinda murky.
It’s from a pet store, maybe those are better quality?

amother

Maize

Yesterday at 4:55 pm

When I was in high school, some of my classmates bought goldfish as a prank and placed them in a kiddie pool in the classroom. I felt so bad about it that I took as many of the fish home as possible. Some did not make it, but the majority of them lived for years!

amother

Cerise

Yesterday at 4:57 pm

Over feeding is a large cause.
each goldfish need approx. one-2 flakes a day.

amother

Phlox

Yesterday at 5:05 pm

amother Cerise wrote:

Over feeding is a large cause.
each goldfish need approx. one-2 flakes a day.

I found this to be true

amother

Hunter

Today at 12:32 am

We had salamanders for months and the key was keeping their water fresh and cool. They ended up dying because someone moved them near our urn and it got too warm.

amother

↑ Carnation

Today at 12:44 am

amother Nasturtium wrote:

You probably shocked it. Was it a fancy goldfish? They don't need as much room.

Nope it was a free one from a fairground in the 1990s! I imagine it was shock, but we were so careful to follow all the rules! Maybe after fourteen years anything is going to be a shock!

amother

↑ OP ↓

Today at 12:45 am

I also want to say that when buying fishtanks is out of the question, big plastic storage bins from walmart also work! Its not ideal, but sometimes the kids bring home a fish from school or camp or a purim party and buying a heavy and expensive glass aquarium at short notice is unfeasible. I "rescued" a lot of fish this way, they often lived in the plastic bins for years until I could rehome them and they mostly did ok.

amother

Feverfew

Today at 1:25 am

What size tank was your goldfish in (and how many other fish were in with it) that it grew to be ten inches???

We’ve kept goldfish alive for years in average size tanks and I don’t think any of them reached greater than 4-5 inches (now our koi on the other hand…)

white roses

Today at 1:34 am

I heard that overfeeding is an issue, but its challenging when you have lots of fish, and you put enough for each of them, but some can over eat from the others portion.

amother

↑ OP

Today at 1:37 am

amother Feverfew wrote:

It was a shubunkin goldfish or maybe just a spotted comet goldfish, and later a regular comet goldfish (the comet grew to 6 inches before dying). They grow to regular goldfish sizes as far as I know. I had two in a 20 gallon aquarium for maybe 2 or 3 years, once they'd grown to about 4 or 5 inches I moved them to a 45 gallon aquarium. There the shubunkin continued growing.

I used to wonder if he was part koi but he was definitely goldfish shaped lol. I've seen pictures of regular goldfish that have grown 10-12 inches, so I think some just naturally grow large like that Very Happy

amother

Lotus

Today at 1:39 am

We also had one live in the tiny plastic bowl it came in for months. Moving it to the aquarium we got killed it.

Iymnok

Today at 1:48 am

Goldfish are the dirtiest fish. There are other fish that are much easier to maintain and don't gunk up the filter.
Feed them 2-3 times a week, pellets the size of their eye.
They could go a week without a feeding, as we do over pesach.

amother

Aconite ↓

Today at 7:51 am

My dd bright home a goldfish a year ago.
I hate it. It is disgusting. It grew huge. The tank constantly needs to be cleaned.
I would love to get a fish that doesn’t grow so big that needs less maintenance and doesn’t grow so big. Or I’d love no fish at all.
But what do you do with a fish once you have it.

mommy3b2c

Today at 7:58 am

My son got a goldfish at his 8th birthday party . Now he’s 9.5. The fish almost died once but we resuscitated it . It lived in a fish bowl for almost a year and was just fine . Its a stinky, smelly fish but my son loves it . I can’t believe I might have to deal with it for another 13 years lol.

amother

NeonBlue

Today at 8:43 am

I have also had them for a while. My husband gets the credit for taking care of it.
Interesting fact- when I bought it they called the very cheap goldfish "carnival fish". They said that they breed large quantities of it and don't focus on quality so many of them are genetically sick. They are together with their siblings and cousins and I guess they don't do dor yeshurim. Many don't even have a chance to survive part a few weeks.