DutchBoy
05-14-2008, 02:54 AM
OK - so my story begins this past Saturday afternoon when my father-in-law presented my now 4 year old son with two pet goldfish in a 1-gallon bowl. To say that I was mortified is an understatement. For the sake of keeping my own sanity, I was ready to assume grandpa was just ignorant and meant non harm. I know he genuinely wanted to do something nice for my son, but...
Within 12 hours I had my first floater, and the one left in the bowl was in a murky water so deep you couldn't even see her. Honestly, rarely have I every smelled anything so putrid in my life. At any rate, I immediately went to the Petsmart nearest me and bought an Aqueon 16g glass tank and a couple new goldfish. Being ignorant myself, I hope I didn't overload but at least the guy who sold me my fish did stress not to get any more than that. It came with a filter, thermometer and everything. It is supposed to be a biological filter.
So I bought my tank home, rinsed and filled it with my 25lb bag of gravel, filled it with my de-chlorinated tapwater, and let it rip. This was Sunday...
Yesterday morning the second of grandpa's goldfish stopped eating...you can probably tell where this is going. About an hour ago, it swam to the bottom, laid there and gave it up. :scry:
So here's where I stand right now. I went back to Petsmart this afternoon and bought a thermometer and ammonia testing strips. Right now the water temp is around 77 degrees, and when I tested the ammonia, it was somewhere between .01 and .05. It didn't seem to be quite dark enough on my chart to be the .05. The two goldfish I have left have been eating well, swimming all over the place and whenever they see me get near they swim up and prance by. They seem to be doing fine as of right now...
I haven't tested the pH yet because from what I understand, altering it in some way might cause them more stress than is necessary; it's just plain old dechlorinated tap water in the tank. When I got my fish, the dude told me the water in the area was ok pH-wise, nothing too extreme, so my primary focus right now has been on ammonia content. I tested that today for the first time, did about a 10% water change this morning.
Now, I'm ready to wait the 4-6 for the cycle to kick in, so maybe I won't be stressing anymore.
Is there anything I'm missing, oh wise ones? I don't think I can stand to lose another one...when I saw the first one go, I didn't hesitate to do whatever I could think of to save the other little one, but with her gone now...I guess my mama raised me right; I hate to see even the little goldfish perish.
Anything else I should be watching? Doing? Or am I doing all I can and now just playing the waiting game?
Within 12 hours I had my first floater, and the one left in the bowl was in a murky water so deep you couldn't even see her. Honestly, rarely have I every smelled anything so putrid in my life. At any rate, I immediately went to the Petsmart nearest me and bought an Aqueon 16g glass tank and a couple new goldfish. Being ignorant myself, I hope I didn't overload but at least the guy who sold me my fish did stress not to get any more than that. It came with a filter, thermometer and everything. It is supposed to be a biological filter.
So I bought my tank home, rinsed and filled it with my 25lb bag of gravel, filled it with my de-chlorinated tapwater, and let it rip. This was Sunday...
Yesterday morning the second of grandpa's goldfish stopped eating...you can probably tell where this is going. About an hour ago, it swam to the bottom, laid there and gave it up. :scry:
So here's where I stand right now. I went back to Petsmart this afternoon and bought a thermometer and ammonia testing strips. Right now the water temp is around 77 degrees, and when I tested the ammonia, it was somewhere between .01 and .05. It didn't seem to be quite dark enough on my chart to be the .05. The two goldfish I have left have been eating well, swimming all over the place and whenever they see me get near they swim up and prance by. They seem to be doing fine as of right now...
I haven't tested the pH yet because from what I understand, altering it in some way might cause them more stress than is necessary; it's just plain old dechlorinated tap water in the tank. When I got my fish, the dude told me the water in the area was ok pH-wise, nothing too extreme, so my primary focus right now has been on ammonia content. I tested that today for the first time, did about a 10% water change this morning.
Now, I'm ready to wait the 4-6 for the cycle to kick in, so maybe I won't be stressing anymore.
Is there anything I'm missing, oh wise ones? I don't think I can stand to lose another one...when I saw the first one go, I didn't hesitate to do whatever I could think of to save the other little one, but with her gone now...I guess my mama raised me right; I hate to see even the little goldfish perish.
Anything else I should be watching? Doing? Or am I doing all I can and now just playing the waiting game?