Goldfish/uncycled Tank

[LionessN3cubs]

I am now the unwilling and unconsulted owner of a too big goldfish, in a too small, entirely uncycled tank


The goldfish is about 2+ inches long. He had a tank mate that was in the feeder fish tank at the LFS apparently..and daddy and the boys saved it from being fed to another fish...only to have it die a death in my house. Talk about traumatic. The big one doesnt look to be doing so hot either...just hanging out in a corner at the bottom...and eating the gravel. Positive side, the boys now understand why Mom has spent SO much time making sure the water in the big tank wasn't poisonous and they're mad at dad for the fish dying and not me! whew

Sooooooo I've read the pinned article on fishless cyclling. Luckily I do have some media I can transfer from my "mostly" cycled big tank. The filter in the 1.77 gallon aquarium is teeny tiny so I can't actually add a piece to the filters...but I cut a slice off and let it float in the water. I also took one of my smallest decorations and added that too.

I've been changing the water every day...25-50%...ammonia levels are still very high 3+

anything else Im missing? I'm betting on this tank just ending up being a spare emergency tank ::::sigh:::

Here's the 100 dollar question. I've spent a ton of dang time on this 10 gallon aquarium cycle and I did NOT do all this just so we could keep a goldfish in it. I KNOW the 1.77 is too small for a goldfish and no, the pet store wont take it back I asked. ...That said....I have 2 filters running in my 10 gallon. A huge sponge filter and a HOB filter ...do you think there MIGHT be enough bacteria on the sponge filter for me to remove the HOB one and place it on the teeny tiny tank just so I can keep this fish alive....or will it unbalance the cycle in my 10 gallon too badly so that I have to start all over again?

 

[ox5477]

The filter in the 1.77 gallon aquarium is teeny tiny so I can't actually add a piece to the filters...but I cut a slice off and let it float in the water

This will not do anything as you need water movement over the media to keep a constant supply of chemical to the bacteria to kept them fed. Hence why filters has pumps that suck or push water through the media.

I would recommend buying a small internal filter and using this strip u cut off the main media the insert in the filter. This will help prolong things and doing small daily wc's will help as well.


What species is the goldfish? Many decorative species of goldfish will get too big for this tank and will need atleast a 10G (usually much more volume, but atleast the 10 gives almost 10x the water volume to dilute waste of the fish). If you want to help it out, I would recommend buying a 10G tank (You should be able to find them for $10 or less...) and put in there. Being coldwater fish, they don;t need a heater, room temp is fine, and a light isn't necessary as long as you keep it in a room that is well lit during the day. This isnt the best you can do for this fish, but if you are really trying to help it and keep it alive, this is the bare minimum you can do for it

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, agree with all of ox's suggestions:

The piece of media can be kept alive in the goldfish bowl because its wet but it won't help much at all with no filter to move water, ammonia and O2 through it and the bacteria in the middle will being dying off from the start.

A glass box (a tank) itself is often overlooked as a cheap solution to a mild emergency like this. Its only a short-term solution but you should/could just grab a cheap $10-12 10-gallon (or a 5.5 or so if you don't have space) and then you could make use of that sponge filter that is too big for the current goldfish bowl-thing. You've got all the skills now to pull this off and its easier because of no heater.

This is only quite short term and if I were you I would work very hard to find a way to rehome this fish and stop it from changing all your plans. Alternatively, if the family can't part with it, there are a minority on here who will say it is not so cruel to keep a single goldfish in a 15 or 20G (but most are going to get on you about it probably.)

You realize probably that this may give me an advantage in the fishless race as you may get a mini-cycle in your main tank now.

~~waterdrop~~

Just wanted to add that in all seriousness I do wish you the best in dealing with this new setback.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Oh Lioness!!!

I hope you've severley reprimanded hubby

really it means you'll have to decide if you wanna keep goldie or re-home him.

if you want to keep him you know you've got to do it right, which means a 15/20 gal tank minimum (preferably more) and a proper filter long term, short term he needs the 10gal.

While I can understand you don't wanna mess up the fishless cycle, if you want to keep goldie you have to put his needs before you're desire to keep tropical fish and get the fishless cycle done. so the best thing to do would be to remove the heater from your 10gal, do a 90% water change and transfer him to that tank. While it's not cycled it's at least on it's way and small daily water changes should keep things in check for what is hopefully the last few days of the cycle. Remember when the tanks cycled you can always move goldie to a new home, add a heater and reclaim the 10gal for trops. Once you've got one filter with mature media in you can just clone them to set up new tanks.

 

[waterdrop]

Oh, another suggestion to mention:

Probably you'll go with different rooms for the two tanks but isn't your main tank a 10 gallon? If it is I just wanted to mention that they make iron stands that would fit a 10 on top and a 10 under, at least those used to be extremely common so I would think many used would be about and probably new ones. This doesn't give you a cabinet for equipment/supplies under tank but if you use HOB & internals anyway, wouldn't matter much. Just thought I'd mention that as a space-saver in case it helps.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[LionessN3cubs]

Thanks for the help....guess I'll have to figure out what Im going to do.


Are there ANY fish that are suitable to this 1.77 gallon tank? A mollie or something maybe? Its already starting to cycle with the mature media I put in there and when decide what Im going to do with Flyer (the fish's name...and yes he's orange, black and white and YES we're hockey fans LOL) I'd like to keep this tank cycled as a back up...so would it be better to cycle it and put a fish in there to keep it cycled...or just keep feeding it ammonia every day like I have been the big one ? will that work?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

personally i don't think there's much you can keep in a 1.7 gal tank really, maybe a trio of endlers, some people would say a betta but i think it's a bit small.

what you should bear in mind with the small tank though is that it's gonna be really unstable, the smaller the tank the harder work it is to keep things running smoothly.

personally i would just leave it, store it somewhere as it will do in an emergency for a hosiptal tank or something like that.

 

[backtotropical]

Hi Lioness,

Rather than cycling the tank and keeping it cycled, there is an easier way.

Keep it empty as Miss Wiggle says. If you need to use it as a hospital tank etc, just fill it with water and take a small piece of mature filter media from your main tank's filter and transfer it to the filter on the small tank. Instantly cycled without having to keep fish in it (which will inevitably cause problems when you need it as a hospital tank) or add ammonia every day.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

BTT