just bought 2 goldfish I have had them for 3 days. The water is cloudy?

Question

I have just bought 2 goldfish and a national geographic tank - the one with the perescope. I have had them for 3 days and the water has steadily turned cloudy, they are just hovering at the top acting as if they were gasping for air. what shall I do.?

Answer 1

do not feed them too much...
change the water ONLY half tank
is there enough room for two because goldfishes are dirty...

Answer 2

Return that little tank if you can and use that money to buy a tank that is big enough. Goldfish need a minimum of 10 gallons each so you would need at least a 20 gallon tank with a filter that does at least 200 gph. They can live for more then 20 years but usually only live 1 or 2 because most people keep them in something way too small with not enough filtration and not enough water changes. The fancy type, with the double tails, can grow around 8 inches and the single tails can grow around a foot.

The cloudiness can be caused by a few things, ammonia build up from either an over stocked tank (like you have) or overfeeding, or free floating beneficial bacteria that cycle your tank. They are hovering at the top because they need more oxygen and a bigger tank will help, they could also be doing it because the water is toxic from too much ammonia. Don't use stuff like zeolite to remove the ammonia all that does it take it from the beneficial bacteria that need it to survive. Do just a simple water change anytime the ammonia or nitrite get too high, they should always be zero in a cycled tank but you should have 10-20 nitrate. It can take up to 6 weeks to cycle a tank so plan on doing lots of water changes for a while unless you don't care that the fish die, in which case you shouldn't have bought them then. I'll add some link to help you figure out the cycle and how to properly take care of goldfish.

Answer 3

i spent 4 years working with aquatics and its a real common thing.
Few things to remember;
take them out of the kitchen (if in there)
out of direct sunlight
dont use untreated tap water
dont over feed

in a kitchen there are lots of gasses ie Teflon from self cleaning ovens, none stick pans etc which are harmfull to fish.

sunlight = algea if the water is greenish this is prob the prob

tap water contains fluride and chlorine which are harmfull to fish so use a dechlorinator (from pet shop ) or use bottled mineral water.

sounds crule but one flake of food per fish per day is a good feed any more will sink and cause probs, add a live plant for food supliment.

on the up side if all these factors are ok every new tank goes through a bacteria bloom, this is a brown/gray cloud that is needed for the fish to live. it will settle down within a week and all will be clear! after that do not ever change all the water in the tank! 10 - 20% water changes once every two weeks is good.
sorry if the spellings bad thets all people seem to pick up on when i write on here, im not good at that stuff, but i hope this is of some help!

Answer 4

You are feeding the fish too much! Although it may say on the tub of food to feed a pinch 2-3 times a day this is too much. Feed the two fish a good pinch of food once every other day.

In the meantime get the water changed but remember to only use water from your bathroom taps as this contains less chemicals than kitchen water. Also allow the clean water to stand in the fish bowl for 15 - 20 mins as this brings the temperature of the water up and so your wee fish won't go into shock!

A good product to use a few dops of when you've changed the water is 'stress coat' this chills your fish out and stops them from getting too stressed when you change the water :)

Answer 5

The goldfish is a type of fish that eats much and so it turns the water cloudy in few days. All you have to do is either clean more often the filter or buy a more powerful one. For the other problem you need to give them more oxygen. This can be done either by buying more airstones and put them in different places of the aquarium or buy a more powerful airpump and put a big airstone so that your goldfish will have enough air to breathe.

Answer 6

could be the food making the water cloudy so maybe change it. or maybe the gravel wasnt cleaned enough.before it was put in.

you need a proper filter and also an air pump, a trip to the library will help you regarding proper fish care, i have kept both cold water fish (goldfish) and tropical, and cold water are always the most demanding to keep but are the more interesting, good luck (to the fish that is lol)

Answer 7

The water will always turn cloudy aftyer a couple of days unless the water is aerated which is not practical in a gold fish bowl.but I suppose you could fix one up in a larger tank.So keep changing the water but let it stand for a couple of hours before putting the fish back.It can be a difficult job to keep goldfish alive in these ordinary bowls.

Answer 8

one or both of them is sick
change the water clean the tank with warm water
add a tonic to fresh water and don't feed for 24 hours then give a little of food, see if the water stays clear or goes cloudy again keep changing the water and dosing them with tonic not feeding etc see how it goes hopefully they will get better soon.

don't know whats a geographical tank did you was the stones you put in the tank clean it could be the chalk of them

Answer 9

Change the water just a little bit. And feed less. They don't eat a lot so once a day is enough. If you see that food is falling to the gravel, it is to much.

Sounds like they need more oxygen. Get a better filter, and/or add a oxygen strip and air pump.

Answer 10

It sounds as though you may be feeding them too much, they will only need feeding once or maybe twice a day at the very most, if the water is turning a milky white colour then there will be too much un-eaten food in the tank.
Change the water and follow the instructions on the feed packet-don't spoil your fish. Treat them well and they can live to 40 years!

Answer 11

firstly i hope you don't have the heater on, secondly when u bought the tank did you by a solution for the tap water, when u fill the talk up with tap water you ate meant to add some hot for example 50 and 50 if you had them in a bag you are meant to stand the bag on the top of the water for this fish to get used to it. wash the gravel as well as dirt and chemicals may still be on the gravel. make sure ur filter is always on and regularly clean the filter out. buy a magnet cleaner for the tank, this is where u place one on the inside and one on the outside, and simply pull it around over the glass this helps to remove the algae, Ive also got a sucking loach in my tank along with the fish as the loach eats the algae.

if you didn't not clean the gravel then i would remove the fish from the tank placing them in another container with water in ti and clean the gravel and tank. fill toy tank back up add some of the tap water solution that can be bought from most pet shops, add you fish and keep an eye on them

i ope this is of help to you but if u need any more then please email me