Goldfish
- Thread starter Mr. Fishy
- Start date
Thank you Newman..
Last night I put some mashed up peas in the tank, I didnt see him eat one, unless he did it after i went to bed. today Sparky seems a little better, no pinecone, no bloating.
he seems to be swimming a little straighter. still slow, but not as much to the side. Hes definitely hungry cuz everytime someone comes close to the glass, he comes right up front and looks at us. we have the light turned off. because whenever we were about to feed them we would turn the light on.
Since you said fasting for 3 days, we dont want to feed hm right now , hence light off so we dont signal "food is coming" and stress him out.
I am looking forward to hearing what you feel is a good over the counter flake food. as soon as the store opens, we will get it. Im on Long Island, so our local Petland opens at 12 noon.
If you feel live food is better for him. pls give your advice. but am i correct in assuming that live food could contain parasites.. thats the last thing Sparky needs, right ?
oh well, hope to hear from you soon.
Last night I put some mashed up peas in the tank, I didnt see him eat one, unless he did it after i went to bed. today Sparky seems a little better, no pinecone, no bloating.
he seems to be swimming a little straighter. still slow, but not as much to the side. Hes definitely hungry cuz everytime someone comes close to the glass, he comes right up front and looks at us. we have the light turned off. because whenever we were about to feed them we would turn the light on.
Since you said fasting for 3 days, we dont want to feed hm right now , hence light off so we dont signal "food is coming" and stress him out.
I am looking forward to hearing what you feel is a good over the counter flake food. as soon as the store opens, we will get it. Im on Long Island, so our local Petland opens at 12 noon.
If you feel live food is better for him. pls give your advice. but am i correct in assuming that live food could contain parasites.. thats the last thing Sparky needs, right ?
oh well, hope to hear from you soon.
Ok, well, last night i did more research on good fish food. and i found that alot of people buy Hikiri gold fish food.--pellets.. it seems to have alot of vitamins in it. and it wont cloud up the water. And we put more "cycle" in and more "Furan 2" ., The cycle balances the good/bad bacteria and the Furan 2 kills a variety of infections in the water.
Sparky is looking alitte better today, he doesnt list on the side anymore, but he is obsessed with sticking his nose or eating , the bubbles on the top of the water.
again. looking forward to any advice.
Sparky is looking alitte better today, he doesnt list on the side anymore, but he is obsessed with sticking his nose or eating , the bubbles on the top of the water.
again. looking forward to any advice.
Ok, yes I was about to suggest the hickari goldfish foods lol
Use those as a staple every day diet.
Now to counter what I said before. every other day is good but what's better is everyday, and only feed a 'tiny' portion. like 1/3 of what you would normally give. say you normally give 10 pellets/flakes per fish, try to give just a little sprinkle in the morning.
This leaves the evening for another feeding time, but now you'll want to feed something different. The evening feeding time is when I usually feed the blanched veggies, the freeze-dried or frozen (or live food if I have it)
Also as a tip it's best to let all your fish fast one day of the week. that means no feeding at all for that day to let them clean out their digestive tract. Remember to also feed green peas 1-2 a week (in the evening or w/e)
This is how I would feed your tank:
One day- Fasting. NO food given
Second day- morning: Hickari goldfish pellet Evening: raw sweet pepper slice for pleco(leave the slice overnight), 2 leaves of blanched spinach for goldfish.
Third day- morning: Hickari pellet Evening: 2x Hickari Algae disks for Pleco (throw these in after lights out. plecos are nocturnal and the goldfish will not steal the food this way), 6-7 frozen green peas for goldfish (soak them in a bit of tank water to un-freeze them and then squeeze them to remove the shell. feed the mushy part)
Fourth day- morning: Hickari pellet Evening: large blanched romaine lettuce leaf for pleco(again you cn choose to toos this in for the night, after lights out, but it's up to you and whether the goldfish try to steal and eat all of his food), Frozen/or/ Freeze-dried Bloodworms for goldfish.
Fifth day - morning: Hickari pellet Evening: 2x Hickari algae disks for pleco, 6-7 green peas for goldfish.
Sixth day - morning: Hickari pellet Evening: blanched cucumber/zucchini slice for pleco, Omega One Freeze-dried Tubifex cube (one) for goldfish.
Seventh day - morning: Hickari pellet Evening: blanched broccoli for pleco/goldfish, and feed live food if you have any (ie. live blackworms or brine shrimp...NO TUBIFEX) Feed live food sparingly. for weeks where you don't have live food, it doesn't really matter. once a few months should keep them happy.
That's just an example and you can rearrange it if you want...
There are stocking issues in your tank, if it is indeed a 20 gallon...I can discuss those If you feel like it
Use those as a staple every day diet.
Now to counter what I said before. every other day is good but what's better is everyday, and only feed a 'tiny' portion. like 1/3 of what you would normally give. say you normally give 10 pellets/flakes per fish, try to give just a little sprinkle in the morning.
This leaves the evening for another feeding time, but now you'll want to feed something different. The evening feeding time is when I usually feed the blanched veggies, the freeze-dried or frozen (or live food if I have it)
Also as a tip it's best to let all your fish fast one day of the week. that means no feeding at all for that day to let them clean out their digestive tract. Remember to also feed green peas 1-2 a week (in the evening or w/e)
This is how I would feed your tank:
One day- Fasting. NO food given
Second day- morning: Hickari goldfish pellet Evening: raw sweet pepper slice for pleco(leave the slice overnight), 2 leaves of blanched spinach for goldfish.
Third day- morning: Hickari pellet Evening: 2x Hickari Algae disks for Pleco (throw these in after lights out. plecos are nocturnal and the goldfish will not steal the food this way), 6-7 frozen green peas for goldfish (soak them in a bit of tank water to un-freeze them and then squeeze them to remove the shell. feed the mushy part)
Fourth day- morning: Hickari pellet Evening: large blanched romaine lettuce leaf for pleco(again you cn choose to toos this in for the night, after lights out, but it's up to you and whether the goldfish try to steal and eat all of his food), Frozen/or/ Freeze-dried Bloodworms for goldfish.
Fifth day - morning: Hickari pellet Evening: 2x Hickari algae disks for pleco, 6-7 green peas for goldfish.
Sixth day - morning: Hickari pellet Evening: blanched cucumber/zucchini slice for pleco, Omega One Freeze-dried Tubifex cube (one) for goldfish.
Seventh day - morning: Hickari pellet Evening: blanched broccoli for pleco/goldfish, and feed live food if you have any (ie. live blackworms or brine shrimp...NO TUBIFEX) Feed live food sparingly. for weeks where you don't have live food, it doesn't really matter. once a few months should keep them happy.
That's just an example and you can rearrange it if you want...
There are stocking issues in your tank, if it is indeed a 20 gallon...I can discuss those If you feel like it
Newman, thank you soo much. will definitely do feedings as you suggested. and yes, please give stocking suggestions as well..do we have too many fish now ? Big Sparky is about 4 inches long, Little sparky about 1 .Then of course Hoover (pleco)
Newman, today Big Sparky is swimming at the top of the tank , near the bubbles ,he seems to eat the bubbles..--whats that about ?
hes not listing to one side though and I dont see any pineconing on him.
As I said, we put medicine in the tank. yesterday and today..
Newman, today Big Sparky is swimming at the top of the tank , near the bubbles ,he seems to eat the bubbles..--whats that about ?
hes not listing to one side though and I dont see any pineconing on him.
As I said, we put medicine in the tank. yesterday and today..
Newman, I wanted to tell you what we just saw.. sorry to be gross..but ,big sparky just made 2 small red colored poops... maybe some blood coming out ? this is the first time we saw him make a poop since got sick.. is this a good sign ? maybe he did eat some peas ?
is the red poop a good sign. and why is he at the top of the tank near the bubbles ?
is the red poop a good sign. and why is he at the top of the tank near the bubbles ?
red poop is weird colored and it's the color I've seen before with bad diet >_< Red color can reflect whether the food you give them is red or has dyes in it..
Good poop should be dark brown, dark green or in the case of eating peas and lettuce greens it should be bright green. And no air bubbles mixed inside the poop... if there are then there are problems.
at least yours don't have the long stringy white poop of doom *ugh*
Switch to a different diet and start feeding veggies asap (after you've fasted him for a few days)
Another suggestion is to get some sort of high quality flake food like Spirulina 20 flakes and feed that one week as the staple and then alternate it with the hickari food back and forth between diff weeks. I've been feeding Spirulina 20 as the staple diet to my goldfish an I have not seen anything but healthy colored poop.
Back to sparky, him eating the bubbles all the time is a bad idea. it indicates that he's gulping for air and is suffocating. you can try to increase aeration in your tank but it might be too late since ammonia.nitrite poisoning can be a quick acting killer...this is why you must be testing your tank water each week...
In terms of stocking, is it a 20 gallon tank? US gallons?
Good poop should be dark brown, dark green or in the case of eating peas and lettuce greens it should be bright green. And no air bubbles mixed inside the poop... if there are then there are problems.
at least yours don't have the long stringy white poop of doom *ugh*
Switch to a different diet and start feeding veggies asap (after you've fasted him for a few days)
Another suggestion is to get some sort of high quality flake food like Spirulina 20 flakes and feed that one week as the staple and then alternate it with the hickari food back and forth between diff weeks. I've been feeding Spirulina 20 as the staple diet to my goldfish an I have not seen anything but healthy colored poop.
Back to sparky, him eating the bubbles all the time is a bad idea. it indicates that he's gulping for air and is suffocating. you can try to increase aeration in your tank but it might be too late since ammonia.nitrite poisoning can be a quick acting killer...this is why you must be testing your tank water each week...
In terms of stocking, is it a 20 gallon tank? US gallons?
as long as its about goldfish, i'll put in my mesure for fish. first, add 5 fish points for every goldfish, 1 for every tropical. now, compare fish points to the gallons in your tank. if the fish points are over the gallons, subtract gallons. if you have 6 tropicals in a 5 gallon, subtract 5 from 6. you get 1. get rid of this many fish or you will have to get a dead fish out later. if you have less fish points, like 4 trops in a 5 gal, then subtract the fish points. this is how many fish you can hold. this is bioload measure, not size measure.but, add 5 if you get a goldfish. the goldfish can also only come in if its 10 gallons or more.
I'm sure this is off subject by now but the small tanks as goldfish tanks I think it everywhere. but it's not nearly as bad as the LARGE tank I saw at petco the other day as I went to get a new collar for my pup. it was about a 250 gallon tank divided lenghtwise into 3 parts, small comets, medium comets, and large comets. bout 1 inch to 3 inches long but in each section there had to have been a few hundred goldfish. granted each section had it's own filter but OMG u couldn't see much more then 3 inches through the cloudy water, and if it was clear u still probly couldn't see more then 6 inches in it cause of the fish. and some people wonder y I try not to shop there.
I mostly do cichlids now but also have done tropicals, but I've found that new-life spectrum is a great brand. I tried hikiri first cause it was cheaper, but my lfs told me to try the new life spectrum. within weeks my fish were more viberant, more active, and started to get a lil heavierset. and as far as I can tell spectrum does not have any hormones or steroids.
yeah spectrum is highly recommended these days(there IS a goldfish-specific formula)...I might try it out too with my fish
@ lauraf: idk, you could blanch the pepper but I fed it raw when I used to have a common pleco and it ate it just fine I scored the surface to make it more palatable. I find when boiling the pepper more oil is secreted from it but it doesn't really matter I guess because it's doubtful that the oil is harmful to fish.
And YES the green pepper works for just about any tropical pleco, or sucker-mouth fish, and herbivorous tropical fish.
@ lauraf: idk, you could blanch the pepper but I fed it raw when I used to have a common pleco and it ate it just fine
I scored the surface to make it more palatable. I find when boiling the pepper more oil is secreted from it but it doesn't really matter I guess because it's doubtful that the oil is harmful to fish.And YES the green pepper works for just about any tropical pleco, or sucker-mouth fish, and herbivorous tropical fish.
honestly, I would see if your local pet store will take little sparky, grab a heater and run with multiple smaller tropicals. goldfish are really not the right fish for what you seem to want. The reason " sparky" has these issues is because he is a carp in a tank too small to hold carp. Did you see the photos up there? that was only a 10-inch goldfish in the photo. Sparky is supposed to his up to 18 inches.
If I could tell hoover's species I could tell you if he is gonna get too big for the tank...he looks to me to be a sailfin pleco, which get around 9 inches, but I could be wrong, I have misidentified plecos before, and I will most likely do so again.
GOOD NEWS. SPARKY HAS RECOVERED !
His recovery started after we saw that he expelled a big line of red poop , then after that, his pooped was regular color , then he starting swimming slower, but better (not listing) For the past 3-4 days Hes been swimming and eating normally again. I think this was due to
1) the meds we put in the water,
2) changing the water, testing the water ,
3) putting more meds,
4) not feeding them for a day or2.
5) better fish food; Hikari Gold
I have a comment about Hikari--the type we got was medium pellets, but the floating kind. (they didnt have the sinking type) . But Sparky was use to having his food drop in front of him, cuz thats what the flakes did. So, Today, I mashed the pellets in a dish, added some water, make them mushy,then dropped them in-they sank and.. Big Spark and Spark jr. ate them !! However i have another question. I mashed up about 1/4 of a cup of food, I want to save it for another 2 feedings . should i store it ; room temp ? or put in the refrig ? I have it in a small glass with plastic wrap on top.
The meds we used:;
1) FURAN 2
2) STRESS COAT
3) CYCLE
Holy fish flakes ! so ,my 20gal hex is too small for Hoover or Sparkyand little parky ? ?? what size tank would be better ?
Im going to try upload some pics of Hoover, Big Sparky and Little Sparky.
His recovery started after we saw that he expelled a big line of red poop , then after that, his pooped was regular color , then he starting swimming slower, but better (not listing) For the past 3-4 days Hes been swimming and eating normally again. I think this was due to
1) the meds we put in the water,
2) changing the water, testing the water ,
3) putting more meds,
4) not feeding them for a day or2.
5) better fish food; Hikari Gold
I have a comment about Hikari--the type we got was medium pellets, but the floating kind. (they didnt have the sinking type) . But Sparky was use to having his food drop in front of him, cuz thats what the flakes did. So, Today, I mashed the pellets in a dish, added some water, make them mushy,then dropped them in-they sank and.. Big Spark and Spark jr. ate them !! However i have another question. I mashed up about 1/4 of a cup of food, I want to save it for another 2 feedings . should i store it ; room temp ? or put in the refrig ? I have it in a small glass with plastic wrap on top.
The meds we used:;
1) FURAN 2
2) STRESS COAT
3) CYCLE
Holy fish flakes ! so ,my 20gal hex is too small for Hoover or Sparkyand little parky ? ?? what size tank would be better ?
Im going to try upload some pics of Hoover, Big Sparky and Little Sparky.
Did you mash up the fish pellets? They should be fine at room temperature. I would recommend at least a 55 gallon tank for your goldfish. Goldfish are social animals, and would enjoy being in a large tank together. Honestly, I would get rid of Hoover, or buy 2 large tanks: one for the goldies and one for the plec and some tropical fish.
Last edited:
HERES A PIC OF THE 2 SPARKYS ; Big Sparky is practically all white with just alittle orange on the top of his head. Little Sparky has alot of orange markings.
Hoover is in the back, as usuall, sucking on the glass- we feed him 1 algea pellet , in addition to an "all he can eat" algea buffett in the tank. The coral and trees are fake, would you recommend real ones ?
Hoover is in the back, as usuall, sucking on the glass- we feed him 1 algea pellet , in addition to an "all he can eat" algea buffett in the tank. The coral and trees are fake, would you recommend real ones ?