Why are all my gold fish dying?

Question

I have a 10 gallon tank which has
1) Fresh water at room temperature with no chlorine because it is well water
2)water conditioning kit
3) aquarium salt for fresh water fish
4) a function filter
5) clean gravel from the store
6) I feed them everymorning a pinch of goldfish flackes ( like the fish man told me to)
* I got 6 goldfish from Petco. The fish man instructed me to float the bag in the water for 15 min before adding them to my water, and he also told me not to add his water to my tank, and that's what i did. I don't bug them or anything, I just watch them relax and swim around. But for some reason my goldfish keep dying on me. What's the problem?

Answer 1

What kind of goldfish are these? Fancy goldfish (http://www.fishlore.com/Pictures/Profiles/GoldFish.gif), which are the smallest, still need 20 gallons per fish. So for your 6 fish, you would need an 80 gallon tank.
Other goldies, like common or comet goldfish, can grow to 12-24" and are really only suitable for outdoor ponds (unless you have a 300 gallon tank :)) Fish are HUGE waste producers, literally poop machines! They need a lot of space.

I suggest you bring your remaining fish back to petco, and get some fish more suitable to a 10gallon tank (for example, a dwarf gourami and a school of harlequin rasboras or neon tetras... OR 5 yellow platies, which look like goldfish). OR get a big enough tank to accomodate your goldfish.

Also, did you cycle your tank? If you didn't, the waste produced by your fish is creating ammonia and killing your fish. Please read up on the ammonia cycle:
http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/biologicalcycle/a/nitrogencycle.htm

In the future, don't trust Petco. They tend to give advice which makes you buy your fish (so they make more money). Try fishforums.com - they can help you if you want good advice on how to properly care for your fishies.

Answer 2

There are two possible problems. One is that adding six fish to a 10 gallon tank, especially one that hasn't already been through its nitrogen cycle, will cause large ammonia spikes which poison the fish. To help your fish through this, do not add any more fish unless all the fish die, then just add one fish, but not a goldfish. Change 20% of the water daily (2 gallons) until the ammonia and nitrite portion of the cycle is over (the ammonia will spike and drop, and then the nitrite will spike and drop). You can buy a testing kit for ammonia and nitrite to monitor your cycle. It should take a couple of weeks. Good call on the freshwater aquarium salt, add some if you haven't already.

The other problem could be the well water. Well water is great for fish since it doesn't have chlorine in it, but it is often much harder than tap water and has a lot of dissolved gases (like CO2). This means that when you add it to your aquarium, the pH starts out really high, and then drops as the gases escape. This spike and drop in pH is really stressful on fish. To fix this problem, they suggest you let the well water sit for 24 hours will good airation (from an old filter, pump, or airstone) to allow the gases to escape and the pH to come down before you put it in the aquarium. Don't use a pH adjuster from the store. They won't fix the dissolved CO2 and they have a tendency to either only temporarily fix the pH, or to cause too many pH fluctuations.

That being said, goldfish are really not your best bet. They really need 10 gallons per fish because they produce more waste and are harder on the bioload in your aquarium, plus they grow very large. If you are unable to save your goldfish and they all die, I would try a different kind of fish. If you don't have a heater, I would try colorful white cloud mountain minnows, garra pingi pingi, and/or dojo loaches.

Answer 3

For a start the well water should still have been treated because of any bacteria in it and secondly you need to mix some of your tank water with the water in the bag that the fish came in so they can aclimatise to the water so they are use to the different water types and temperature. The fish could have been sick already and that is why the slightest difference in any of these things could have caused them to die. Or there was some sort of contaminate in the well water that humans can tolerate but the fish being smaller cannot. As far as overcrowding is concerned I have a 2 foot tank and I have 6 Goldfish and a Bristlenose in it. One of my fish is about 16cm long and another is about 8cm long and none of my fish are sick you just need to have a lot of oxygen in the tank and keep the water clean and uncontaminated by chlorine, amonia, toxins or bad bacteria so get yourself a water tester kit and plenty of air stones. I hope this helps ;-)

Answer 4

Whats happening is your tank hasn't completed its nitrogen cycle yet. First, you need to put some hardy fish in there like guppies, a betta, or a paradise fish. Once your nitrogen cycle stabilizes (5-7 weeks) then you should only lose a few if any fish. Also be sure to perform normal water changes (every 2 weeks) and test your water every so often. Also only add fish 3 at a time at the most. Otherwise this causes the fish to stress and fall ill to diseases or just die completely. Also I add something called stress coat made by aquarium pharmaceuticals inc. which will regenerate the stress coat use when you do something major to the fish (handle aquarium, net, change water, etc.)

P.S. It will also help to keep the bag even longer in the water. 15 minutes is the minimum and the recommended time is from 15 minutes up to an hour. Of course, an hour is somewhat ridiculous and i recommend 20-30 minutes.

Answer 5

Goldfish tend to get fairly large (depending on the breed), and for a ten gallon tank, you'll want to stick to just two or three at the most. I've found that the less you "mess" with goldfish, the better they do. I've had better luck throwing goldfish in my pond and doing nothing (other than picking out leaves and trimming lilypads). This is manily due to a natural growth of bacteria...nature does an excellent job at equalizing itself. I keep one in a tank indoors, and she seems to be happy by herself. (She's a shubunkin, a cross between a commet and a koi) Here's what you could try...Clean out the tank and fill it with fresh water, and perhaps a live plant...since you have well water, you won't need to add dechlorinator (I do the same) and let the tank run for about a month without any fish. Then buy ONE fish...if you keep it for a month...then you buy another one, and it's a good idea to keep it at only two. I clean my tank out once a month...drawing about a quarter of the water out from the bottom of the tank with a syphon (this is because ammonia hangs out at the bottom of the tank). I don't add chemicals, but I do use a charcoal filter in the water pump. I have had my indoor fish for four years, and the pond fish for almost seven.

As a side note, some Japanese koi have been recorded to live about sixty years and have grown about 2 1/2 feet long. If your'e thinking about koi, remember 1 koi needs about 20 gallons of water to itself. Shubunkins make good starter goldfish, since they are very hardy, colorful, they don't grow very big, and are inexpensive (mine cost me all of two dollars). I've attatched a website with pictures of Shubunkin goldfish...it's in spanish, but the pictures are great!

good luck!

Answer 6

waaaaay too many goldfish. try 3 at most. goldfish give off a lot of ammonia which can poison them. if you try less fish you should be good. also leave the bag float for an hour instead, and a spoon full of the water from your tank to the water in his bag every 15 mins. then once the hour is up dump the whole bag in the tank. the chemicals and ph levels in the bag and tank are going to be very different so this will help them adjust better instead of going into shock. I don't know why the guy at the pet store said not to dump the water from the bag in...
hope that helps!

Answer 7

You're really overstocked for a new 10 gallon tank and in less than a year you will need at least a 55 gallon tank for that many goldfish. They get huge and are messy fish. That many goldfish in a 10 gallon tank will make it really hard to keep the water from getting toxic and killing them.

Here's what happens the first month or so in a new tank.and how to keep the water from getting toxic
http://thegab.org/Articles/WaterQualityCycling.html

and here's a good goldfish caresheet.
http://thegab.org/Articles/GoldfishBasics.html

Unless you plan to get them a larger tank soon, I'd take them back.
You could do a fishless cycle to get your biofilter bacteria in place and spend that time researching to see what fish you like that would do well in a 10 gallon tank.
http://thegab.org/Articles/FishlessCycling.html

Answer 8

I'm gonna have to agree with the first guy. That's too much too fast. The tank couldn't take it and the water probably started getting polluted. Next time try only getting one or two, that's really the only amount of goldfish you should have for a 10 gallon tank. Other types of freshwater fish you can get more of, though. Sorry for your losses and I hope this helps.

Answer 9

Were they feeder goldfish? I work at petsmart, and we have about 8 tanks reserved for feeder goldfish. Those guys die really quickly, and usually if one dies at least 5 others die...so it just might be a bad batch of fish. We get those all the time...and the seller WILL NOT tell you if they have had bad luck with a certain batch of fish (usually, i try to tell people if i know they are buying them for pets). The best thing to do is either buy some more expensive fish or when you go into the store, spend a little time checking out the tanks...if it looks like they have quite a few dead ones, just wait another week. Ask an employee when they get their fish orders in...we get ours in on Fridays...

Otherwise, it really sounds like you are doing everything right in regards to your tank.

If all else fails...try Petsmart.. ;-)!

Answer 10

Rinse out your tank, and go buy some 'Start Right'. You can pick this up at Walmart. Even though its well water with no Chlorine it can have things in it harmful to fish. Fill up your tank and place some Start Right in it. On the back it gives how much you can put in. Note: This Dose not have to be exact. Know that putting in more than suggested will NOT hurt your fish. You CAN mix the water from the pet store with the water in your tank. It will NOT hurt your fish. I would suggest trying the Start Right. It reduces Stress, removes chlorine and chloramine, and it stimulates a natural protective slime coat.
As far as feeding, your fish stomachs are as large as one of their eyes. You feed them just once a day, but can do it whenever is better for you. I usually feed mine in the evening. And if you miss a day it wont kill them. And no you are not over crowding. Also, dont worry so much about the air filter because goldfish dont have to have it.
On a side note, you can place a slice of lemon in the water and your gold fish will eat at it. They love it. Good Luck.