Was recommended fish & Tank from pet store
2006-10-10 05:58:53 · 16 answers · asked by toffee apple 1 in Pets ➔ Fish
Goldfish produce extreme amounts of waste. A beneficial bacteria will eventually build up in you tank that will help break down the waste to a less harmful form, but until that time you are going to have very high levels of ammonia. Go back to the pet store and purchase a beneficial bacteria product such as Stability (my personal recommendation, available at Petsmart stores), Cycle or Stress Zyme. This will help jump start the bacterial growth in your tank. You can also purchase ammonia detoxifiers (such as ammolock, amquel, etc.) to tide you over until the beneficial bacteria is able to really do its job.
In the mean time, resist the urge to clean out the tank entirely, that will destroy any beneficial bacteria that has begun to develop. Do small water changes, 10-15% twice a week for the first 3 or 4 weeks. After that you will be able to resume a typical 25-30% water change every 2-4 weeks (depending on tank size).
2006-10-10 06:05:26 · answer #1 · answered by Colleen S 2 · 3⤊ 1⤋
What size tank and fish? It is recommended that you have a minimum of 1 gallon tank capacity per (mature) inch of fish. What you are smelling is ammonia. That you can smell it that quickly leads me to believe you do not have a large enough tank. Because goldfish produce such large amounts of ammonia, biological filtration is not going to be enough.
Get an ammonia sponge or add one to your filter media and change it often. Also make sure you have adequate filtration and something in the tank that creates bubbles that break the surface tension of the water. You should also perform bi-weekly 10-25% water changes.
2006-10-10 06:51:22 · answer #2 · answered by Olex 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Unfortunately, what's happened is that the waste from your 3 goldfish has overloaded the beneficial bacteria that are in your filter.
I'm not really that surprised that a pet store sold you everything all together, but you really ought to have started with perhaps one goldfish until the bacteria had had chance to colonise the filter.
The only thing that you can realistically do is to change some of the water. It should be with water that has been left to stand for about 24 hours as this would have allowed some of the chlorine to dissipate. (Sadly, chlorine has a detrimental effect on the gills of fish. Instead of being nice pink, filamentous gills, they will become 'clubbed' due to the effects of the chlorine in the water.) I don't know if you have one, but it would help the fish greatly if you oxygenated the water. This will allow the chlorine to dissipate at a faster rate. (The 'clubbed' gills are not so adept at extracting oxygen from the water as they would normally.)
As saz has just indicated, overfeeding will only compound the situation by adding extra detritus (muck) to the system.
2006-10-10 06:12:38 · answer #3 · answered by micksmixxx 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
It shouldn't smell. Mine don't.
You need to make sure your tank and filter are large enough for the fish load. Here's a good goldfish caresheet.
http://thegab.org/Articles/GoldfishBasics.html
Go easy on feeding. If there is debris in the tank, do a partial water change and vaccum. Make sure to dechlorinate and match the temperature of the change water to that of the tank. For now, Prime would be a good dechlorinator to use because it helps detoxify ammonia. Here's a good article on what happens the first 4-6 weeks in a new aquarium and how to keep the water from getting toxic.
http://thegab.org/Articles/WaterQualityCycling.html
Biospira is a good product for speeding up the cycling process.
2006-10-10 10:54:02 · answer #4 · answered by Betty H 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
In only three days! That's hard to believe. You filters can't be working, or they have been extremely over feed. I use charcoal filters that I change out once a month on my 20 gal. tank. I siphon off 1/4 of the tank and add 1/4 fresh treated (chlorine removing chemicals,etc.) water each week. If your water smells or is cloudy after this, there are tablets you can get to add to clear it up.
2006-10-10 06:09:34 · answer #5 · answered by JAN 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I was wondering why i have a thick layer of bubbles on the top of my 10-gal fish tank??? When I put my hand in the tank they go away... Are the large amount of bubbles going to hurt my fish??? What do I do to prevent the bubbles??
2006-10-10 07:11:19 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Just one of them things,goldfish do stink,try getting one of them sucker fish things that eat all the crap off the bottom of the tank it helps keep the stink down.
2006-10-10 06:08:34 · answer #7 · answered by candyfloss 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
it isn't the biking technique itself that kills fish. it is the incontrovertible fact that the tank isn't cycled to start with. So ammonia can boost and poison the fish. genuine now - your fish is in an un-cycled 'tank', and you're preserving it alive with water variations. in case you progression it to a bigger tank with a clear out, it is not any worse off, and you will nevertheless save it alive with extra suitable water variations, untill the tank cycles. it is declared as biking with fish, yet as long by way of fact the tank is extensive and the fish is small, or you do a great number of water variations, then the fish wont die. Ian
2016-11-27 19:21:51 · answer #8 · answered by wanamaker 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The goldfish should have been alive before you out them in the tank.
2006-10-10 06:07:40 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
I'm no expert but my two goldfish get a bit smelly if they get too much food and also if they are in too much light/sunshine.
hope that helps, if not go back to the shop and ask them to help.
2006-10-10 06:12:00 · answer #10 · answered by saz 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋