Welcome to Steve's Goldfish Homepage! I just improved my site! Take a look and remember to sign the guest book! In this page I will try to have lots of cool topics on Goldfish for everyone, beginner or lifetime keeper!
Index
1.Goldfish diseases
2.Water changes
3.Topic of the week!
4.Topic of the month! 
5.Maintenance Checklist
6.Want to join a goldfish mailing list?
7.Testing the pH of your water.
Goldfish disease:
1.Fin Rot causes your goldfish to have frayed or decaying fins, often shortened, and with or without a white rim, is caused by a bacteria infection. The best treatment for this is one that contains Furazolidon. Treatment can be administered in the regular tank.
2.Cotton Mouth disease whose symptoms look like cotton, or a white discoloration most often around the mouth. Sometimes, however, it can be also be seen on the body of the fish. Use Aquarium Pharmaceuticals E.M tablets to cure it.
3. Septicaemia causes your goldfish to have lesions, ulcers, and reddened streaks on body or fins, often accompanied with dull listless behavior and poor appetite. This disease is usually caused by poor water conditions. Do an immediate partial water change, feed your goldfish Tetra Medicated fish food for bacterial diseases, and treat with Aquarium Pharmaceuticals T.C. or E.M. tablets.
4. Ich causes your goldfish to have very small white dots on the body that look like salt grains. Often it helps to raise the temperature (slowly!)to 80 degrees and keep it there for 10 days (this speeds up the life cycle of the ich parasite). Remember, at higher temperatures there's less oxygen in the water - so add an extra airstone while the temperature is this high. Adding aquarium salt to the water helps (again, add slowly, dissolving in a seperate container of water from the tank and pouring in an area of high circulation), 1 T per 5 gallons is a good rule. You can buy aquarium salt at your local fish store, it is very cheap. Finally, you can treat the entire tank with a medication containing Malachite Green Solution.
WATER CHANGES are the key to keeping healthy goldfish.
You need to do a regular water change at least every two to three weeks. Change at least 15-20% of your water and remember to age your new water before you put it in your tank (or you can use dechlorinator). Be sure the new water is the same temperature and pH. Scrape off all the algae in your tank and vacuum the gravel with a hydro vacuum. Clean all your filters by swishing them gently in the water you just vacuumed out (if you rinse them in the sink the chlorine will kill the beneficial bacteria your filter cultivates!)
Another thing you should do every time you do a water change (or in a new tank, more often than that!) is test the water. Test kits are fairly inexpensive, and they can help you diagnose problems before your fish pay the price! Ammonia is very toxic to fish, and should never be over .5-1 ppm. If it is, do partial water changes until it reaches zero (if you're cycling a new tank, it may get very high - still change the water to relieve stress on your fish - they cycle may last a little longer, but not much). Nitrite is also very toxic to fish, and often follows Ammonia (the bacteria that eat Ammonia convert it to Nitrite - then Nitrate). A Nitrite reading of .5 ppm or higher is dangerous, and you should do partial water changes until it reaches zero. Nitrate is not as toxic to fish as the first two, but if the levels get too high then you have a problem - since this is the end product of the Cycle, if you have high Nitrate then either you haven't been doing enough water changes or your filtration isn't working as well as it should. Try to keep Nitrate below 20 ppm. Finally pH. Goldfish can adapt to wide extremes in pH, as long as their acclimated very slowly. Its much easier to adapt the goldfish to your water than to try to change the water chemistry and keep it stable. But, below a pH of 6, the beneficial bacteria will not work to keep your tank clean, and that is a problem.
Topic of the week! Black Moors!
Black moors are a wonderful, hardy goldfish for a lot of people.Although some people say Moors are usually for more experience fishkeepers, many people, like me, have great success in keeping Moors. There are several types of Moors, two are Broadtail and Veiltail. Broadtails are usually bigger then most other Moors and have a much nicer tail then the others. I have been keeping Moors for a long time and it seems that veiltails are a bit more challenging to keep because they need more special attention and care or they always get a disease. Moors should not be kept outdoors due to its delicate fins and eyes. If you were thinking of breeding them, you should move only the bad looking ones and only leave the blackest and youngest ones so you can get the best looking moors in town! If you think you are up to keeping moors, I wish you the best of luck!
April '98 TOPIC OF THE MONTH!!!! __________________________________________
Have you been noticing your goldfish floating in the tank and not swimming very well? If you have its most likely that your goldfish has Swim Bladder problems. Lots of people have been asking me about this problem. Swim baldder Disorders are very common, unfortunately, and often due to dietary problems. Try not feeding your goldfish for several days - if this helps it regain its balance, then in the future you must be careful to feed it sinking foods or foods high in vegetable or water content like frozen peas (thawed and shelled), blanched lettuce, Spirulina flakes, frozen brine shrimp and bloodworms, and don't forget to soak even the flakes! Try to avoid feeding pellets altogether. And especially, avoid overfeeding!
Overfeeding makes Swim Bladder problems worse, besides which overfeeding contributes to a very short life for fish. If changing the diet doesn't help your fish's floating problem, its Swim Bladder may have been infected by a parasite or bacteria, and if possible, you should consult a vet.
My personal Maintenance Checklist
Daily checklist:
- Turn on aquarium lights in the morning and make sure all equipment is working.
- Check to be sure your goldfish have no signs of sickness.
- Feed one to two times a day with a variety of quality fish food.
- Check the temperature of the water (it should remain very stable).
- Turn off the aquarium lights in the evening (fish need sleep too!).
Weekly checklist:
- Be sure your goldfish have no sign of sickness, are eating well, and show no dull or listless behavior.
- Do a water change of at least 10-15% of the tank volume, vacuum the gravel at the same time.
- Check to see if filter sponges are clogged and need to be washed or replaced.
- Scrub algae off of decor and glass (they make special sponges for cleaning algae off aquarium glass, and a regular plastic bristle cleaning brush is ideal for cleaning decorations - don't use any soap!!)
- Test water quality for Ammonia and Nitrite. If they are high, you should continue changing the water (either immediately if very high, or over the next few days if lower) until they are zero. If Nitrates are high, do water changes daily until they are below 20 ppm.
- Trim any dead leaves off your live plants, if you have them.
Monthly Checklist:
- Change 20-30% of water, vacuum the gravel at the same time.
- Scrape algae off tank walls and decor.
- Check water quality with the test kits.
- Replace airstones.
Yearly Checklist:
- Strip down off your tank. Start every thing from scratch. (best if using UGF)
- Replace all filter inserts (best if you have double filtration to replace one at a time - one a month or so)
- Replace gravel if necessary - all at once if you're stripping down the tank, but in stages if not (use a thin piece of plastic to separate new gravel from old and replace 25% of it a month)
- Clean the inside tank with hot water.NEVER USE SOAP TO WASH YOUR AQUARIUM!!
Ever want to join a goldfish mailing list? Well now you can! This mailing list can provide lots of info on goldfish and you can learn so much from other people. I've been on this mailing list for a while now and its great! All you have to do is e-mail the mailing list manager at goldfish@www.us.net and type in "subscribe me" in the subject heading. I hope you subscribe, I'd love to see you there! If you do subscribe e-mail me and tell me what you think of this mailing list.
Someone was asking me about whether its safe to try to change the pH level of your water in an established goldfish tank. Well, if your tank has been up for a long time, and your goldfish are healthy, then they have adapted to the pH and you shouldn't try to change it - wide swings in pH would stress the fish out and in the long run, its better to adapt the fish to the water than try to change the water chemistry.
Aquariun Services web site.
Below is an example of several goldfish types. These are a few goldfish. The black one is a Broadtail Black Moor For a few more pictures of interest click
Interesting pictures
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Marty
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