Beginner's Questions

[Drewmyster]

Greetings all, my name is Drew,

I've just become a Goldfish keeper, and I have a basic 27L tank with filter and lighting.

In the tank I have 2 Goldfish and 1 Calico.

I have 2 main concerns;

The tank has become cloudy, and I don't know how effective my new filter will be (though it is made for the tank).

The fish are coming to the surface, possibly indicating lack of oxygen in the water, how can I rectify this?

Sorry if these questions seem basic, but I've been unable to get answers elsewhere.

I await your answers.

Thanks.

 

[Elrohirthehasty]

Greetings all, my name is Drew,

I've just become a Goldfish keeper, and I have a basic 27L tank with filter and lighting.

In the tank I have 2 Goldfish and 1 Calico.

I have 2 main concerns;

The tank has become cloudy, and I don't know how effective my new filter will be (though it is made for the tank).

The fish are coming to the surface, possibly indicating lack of oxygen in the water, how can I rectify this?

Sorry if these questions seem basic, but I've been unable to get answers elsewhere.

I await your answers.

Thanks.

3 goldfish is way too many for that size of tank. For the amount of waste goldfish produce, one goldfish needs at least 10 gallons for itself. Which is not to say you cant get away with one in the tank you have, but only one! It's good that you at least have filtration, most basic coldwater goldfish setups dont have any! The fish are most likely having problems with too much ammonia in the water because they are living in extremely crowded conditions. I would keep just one. OR you could get a small 50 watt heater and a colorful male betta, he would love the space!

 

[Drewmyster]

What about the fish coming to the surface, has it anything to do with lack of bubbles which cause oxygen?

As I watch them, they have been up there for some time now and haven't come to the bottom of the tank.

 

[Drewmyster]

Also, should the internal filter be completely submerged in the water, or should it be just out to allow for some water flow or bubbles, hence oxygen?

 

[waterdrop]

The above advice is correct, but meanwhile you are in an emergency situation and need to be changing out probably 50% of the water each day, starting right away. In fact on after the first change, you should probably wait about 1 hour and then change another 50% so that you get a double change to get things started.

The return water needs to be treated with conditioner (to remove chlorine/chloramine from the tap water) and you should roughly match temperature (your hand is good enough for this.) Temp match is not so critical with goldfish but would still be a good thing.

The fish are at the surface more because of ammonia stress than oxygen problems. Once you've begun these emergency procedures, you can breathe a little easier and turn your attention to your next most important tasks. Try to figure out what you are going to do about re-homing them as of course as mentioned above they need much more space. You can check for help in the coldwater section to see if your particular fish would stay small enough that you could keep one or two, but unless you hear that specifically, I doubt it, but I don't know goldfish well.

Next, if this is going to go on for a while, and if you intend to keep some sort of fish for a while, then you should go ahead and be finding a good test kit. Most of us here like the API Freshwater Master Test Kit, which will work fine for cold water or tropicals. Another popular one is the Nutrafin Mini-Master Test Kit. These have the important tests of ammonia, nitrite(NO2), pH and nitrate(NO3) and are more accurate and cost effective than paper strip tests.

Try to find time to read the pinned articles at the top of this forum. In particular you want to become familiar with the "nitrogen cycle" and learn about the differences between "fishless cycling" and "fish-in cycling." Cycling is the process of growing two specific species of bacteria in the filter (takes about a month or two) in order to turn it into a working "biofilter" which is what it needs to be before it will keep your water in shape without you doing all these water changes.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Colin_T]

The milky cloudy water is caused by too much food and a filter that isn't established. That is to say the filter doesn't have enough (if any) good bacteria in it to break down the fish food and waste in the tank.

Reduce the feeding, only feed the fish once every couple of days.
Do a partial 30-50% water change each day. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine before it is added to the tank.
Depending on what type of filter is in the tank will determine how you fix the gasping problem. If the filter is operated by an airpump there should be bubbles coming out of it and these will create surface turbulence. If the filter is a small water pump with a sponge attached to it, then aim the outlet towards the surface. This will create surface turbulence.
High levels of ammonia will cause the fish to gasp at the surface. Reducing the amount of food and increasing the water changes will dilute the ammonia and help fix the gasping problem.

It will take about a month before the filter is fully established. Until then do daily water changes and feed sparingly. If you can get an ammonia and a nitrite test kit, then these will help you monitor the water over the next few months. Get liquid test kits rather than paper test kits.

Although your tank is small and does have 3 fish in it, they should be ok for a while (as long as you keep the water clean) but you will need to look for a bigger tank in the future.