I am panicking now... I know nothing about fish tanks and I don't know how to save my fishes!?

Question

okay, I just read the post about the amonia... but here is the thing, I don't know anything about fish tanks and fishes. I bought my goldfishes last week, and my husband was going to be caring for them... he is out of town, and I need to save them... or I will loose them all. My fish tank is small, with a filter systam and light. From what I understood, I only needed to change the water once a month. Now I am supposed to change the water??? How do I do that? Can I use a cup and get some of the water out and just pour some more water in... I am so dumb. I really know nothing about fish... and the worst is that I bought the fish for my 4 year-old girl, and I already had to lie yesterday to her when I found one of the fish dead. I told her that I took it to the vet and that in couple of days her fish would be back... now I have a fish that cannot swing properly and is curved, bent from the suckin filter he got stuck... I feel hopeless... I don't know what to do... I am panicking here!

Answer 1

Okay. First addressing the fish getting stuck in the filter. Try cutting off a length of old pantyhose if you have any handy, and rinse it without any soap, soak it in water for a couple hours.

Then use that length, making sure there's no detergent or anything at all left on it, to cover the filter intake. Not enough to stop the water from flowing through, but so that more fish don't get sucked into it.


The tank hasn't "cycled" yet, which means there aren't good bacteria that help you filter yet. So, how to change the water... do you have a suction hose for it?

If not, you can just get a cup, and take some of the water out until there's half the water left in the tank with the fish.

Then, get a (very very very clean, with NO soap residue)bucket of the same amount of tap water, and add a dechlorinator -- one of those water conditioners you can get at a fish store. However much it says on the bottle, it varies from brand to brand. Then once it's mixed into the "new" water, add the "new" water plus conditioner to the tank.

The clean part is really important, because soap and other chemicals can poison a fish incredibly easily. You can go also to petstores and buy a bucket specifically just for using with fish water changes, which is what I'd personally recommend.


Change out half the water, like I just described, once every other day or so. That should start helping clear up the problems, though the curved up one might be a little far gone...

Feed them once or twice a day at most, only little bits, and make sure they're not being overfed their flakes or pellets.


Also, for the full info, if you have time to read it over, I'd really recommend going to Koko's Goldfish and either posting, or just reading over all the little segments she's got on the main page.. it really helped me out when I started and didn't know anything just a couple months ago. :)

Good luck!

Answer 2

First of all.....YOU CAN DO THIS:)
Second of all about the water......
You don't have to change all the water, you can do a partial water change just as you said, even with a cup. you can also use one of theo aquarium vacumn things:) but make sure the water you replace it with is NOT chlorinated. You can make sure of this by either letting the water sit for an hour, or you can buy this stuff called stresscoat from you local pet store.
as far as the filter goes, i have a carbon filter, and so, i do not change the actual filter, i rinse the filter pad off in the dirty water I took out of the tank, b/c the filter pad will naturally grow good bacteria that will help wiht the amonia levels. if you clean the pad with tap water, the chlorine will kill teh good bacteria. I change the carbon out of mine once a month.
also, if you have a light in your tank, you might consider buying some anchoris. It is a plant that you can buy at petsmart, or petco that can survive under low lighting. You don't really have to do anything to take care of this plant, and it will naturally filter out amonia. Some people use this plant in ponds where they don't use a filter. And they also keep gold fish in these ponds.

Answer 3

First let me tell you that goldfish are dirty fish meaning they cause a lot of amonia to build up in the tank. If you really want to take good care of your fish it would be good to do the pantyhose/nylon thing recommended by previous post. Also, I highly recommend getting a gravel syphon. Never remove more than half the water from the tank. If you go to PetsMart they can show you how to hook up and use the syphon since they use it on their tanks. It is a good investment that makes caring for your tank easier.
Second, only put one inch of fish per gallon of water. This allows all fish to have their own space and oxygen as well as cutting down on amonia in the tank.
Third, you can buy water treatments such as beneficial bacteria, heavy metal removers, amonia neutralizers etc...
Honestly, I totally recommend PetsMart for more advice on how to care for fish. They know their stuff. The only thing I would warn against is using ANY kind of undergravel filters. I don't want to leave you a 10 page essay so if you want more details on any of this just email me: [e-mail]

Answer 4

Changing water is easy you need the following:

2 buckets or other container
Water conditioner for fish to remove chlorine (optional)
Cheap gravel vacuum with the wide end shorter than the tank is tall.

1) Fill one bucket with water that is pretty close in temp to the water in the tank. (Use a finger to test)
2)Remove chlorine via water conditioner, or just let stand for 48 hours.
3)Put wide end of the gravel vacuum in the the tank, and the other end in the bucket. The bucket must be lower than the tank.
4)Now press the wide end into the gravel repeatedly. You should be packing gravel into to it.
5)Once you have a couple of inches of gravel. Pull it up an inche or 2. The gravel will fall out, and water will start going into the bucket.
6)You should now be able to clean the gravel.

PS- You should read up on gold fish care. I'm willing to bet you are over feeding, and over stocked.

Answer 5

you're able to be turning the sunshine off at night, fish are in simple terms like people and prefer to sleep in darkness, remember they dont have eyelids so cant close there eyes and close out the sunshine.

Answer 6

I'm reading this while I reply. You need to read this quickly. If you have a filter you're not supposed to change the water every month. You change the filter pad. The water is cleaned by the filter. Also, I have one of those algea eating fish swimming around with my goldfish. Well, nine goldfish, only two are mine and they're named Dante and Delacroix.

Just go out and buy some more filter pads. You should know what they look like. They can be found in any pet store.

Answer 7

i will have to say, i don't know about goldfish, but you can go to the website: www.junglelabs.com and there is all kinds of useful information there on aquariums. they are definetly a trail and error pet project.

Answer 8

This is what happens when you get living animals without researching them first.

Answer 9

Your fishes? You mean your fish? :-) Poor fish, maybe you should swing by petsmart and that way they'll tell you what you need to do and if you need to buy anything you're already there. Good luck.

Answer 10

Take all the fish out (flush'em their gonna die anyway) tell your little one they all went to the vet and Daddy will pick them up on his way home ;) then call daddy and tell him how many fish to get before he comes home....