Hiya,
Im new here, and desperatly need advice!!

A couple of weeks ago i bought a 4 gallon tank with filter and pump. I followed the advice of the shop and had it set up and running for a few days before adding fish. I bought a black moor and a fantail.

Within a couple of days the black moor didnt seem right, very sluggish, spending a lot of time on the bottom of the tank. The other one continued to be fine. Another day or so after this, the fantail started being sluggish too, and another day or so after i discovered some white spots on them. I got some treatment for white spot, followed all instructions etc etc. After treating them for a week, the spots had gone from the fantail, and he was darting round, happy again. The black moor however was looking worse!! He was becoming discoloured and the spots getting worse.

That evening, for some bizarre reason, my other half popped the carbon filter back in the tank, which we had removed when we began to medicate. The next morning the healthy fantail was dead, and the black moor died the following morning.

What i want to know is did they die because they were ill? Or did that fillter have bacteria on it which killed them?

Also, i have washed out the tank, gravel, plants and filtration system with hot water - is this enough to clean it? Im going to set it back up ready for new fish. How long should i leave it before adding fish? Is it true that bog standard goldfish are easier to keep? Should i get the water tested before i add fish to ensure the levels are at their best?

Any other advice would be greatly appreciated. I dont want to get it all wrong a second time around. My kids were very upset and i feel guilty!

Thankyou x

Eddited to say im sorry ive just realised i have posted this in totally the wrog place - it shouldnt be under tropical fish at all! Im sorry about that!!

This post has been edited by angel74: Jun 19 2008, 12:12 PM

The irony is that the filter *didn't* have bacteria! When fish use their gills, they give off ammonia (and ammonia collects from other sources too) and unfortunately its a bad poison when it concentrates, actually damaging their gills in the end. When you buy a filter it is just raw hardware and not ready for fish. It takes weeks of work, -before- you get any fish, to get this filter transformed into a working "biofilter" with bacteria growing in it that can process the poisons (there is another one called nitrite (NO2)) quickly into something less noxious.

Sadly, the other problem you would have run into is that goldfish really only work out best in ponds or in the rare situation where someone has the room and money for the huge 50+ US gallon tanks they really need.

Not to despair though! You've stumbled across one of the few places where you can learn all about what went wrong, how to make it right the next time and what alternatives in fishkeeping will really give you much more lasting pleasure! So, welcome to the TFF forums and I hope you'll stay and ask lots more questions - there are a bunch of really great members here!

~~waterdrop~~

Hiya angel, welcoem to the forum and to fishkeeping, I'm sorry that you've had such a bad time so far, but rest assured you are in the right place now, you can get all the help you need and we'll get you set up with a happy healthy tank.

they almost certainly died becuase the tank wasn't cycled before adding fish, unfortunatley the fish shop have given you very poor advice on how to start up a tank, they do this a lot and a lot of people end up in this situation. have a read of the link in my sig 'whats cycling' which will explain the whole process to you, post back if you've got any questions on it.

You're told to remove carbon from the filter because carbon removes medications from the water, however it only works for about 3 days, then it becomes inert, so if it had been in the tank for more than a few days taking it out and putting it back it won't have made any difference to anything. That being said if you'd added brand new carbon to the filter that would have removed the meds from the tank, realistically though, it'll be the water quality that got them not the meds or lack thereof.

To set the tank up again, and not go through all this, you should complete a fishless cycle, there's a link in my sig which explains how to do this, it takes a couple of weeks but it means the tank is then safe to add fish.

I wouldn't recommend any goldfish for a 4 gallon tank though, goldfish get to a foot long and are big waste producers, they need a tank at least 20gallons then add another 10gallons for every additional goldfish. The poor common goldfish is the most mistreated animal on this planet,

Very small tanks are difficult to look after at the best of times, stick a big waste producer like a goldfish into it and you are bound to have problems. With a larger body of water it's much more stable, the waste is more diulted and you have more margin for error, even experienced fishkeepers often shy away from these very small tanks. I don't mean to put you off, but you would find fishkeeping a much more enjoyable experience if you swapped the tank for something a little larger, even just a 10gal would be better (although generally I advise newcommers to go for a tank around 30gallons which gives scope for a variety of fish and is much easier to look after), I would also advise you to get tropical fish not goldfish, it's no more complicated, all you need in addition to what you have now is a heater which will cost around £10. Then you've a much wider range of small fish suitable for little tanks available to you.

If you can't swap the tank then it's just a case of finding something suitable for it, but as it'll take a couple of weeks to get the tank cycled you'll have time to research and decide what you want.