A few months ago I got a pets at home my first fish tank for my son to look at and tell me what he wanted in it, take care of it and feed whatever we put in it.
First we put some shrimp in it but they got a bit boring for him and once they all pasted over ( not sure why ) my mate gave me his 4 fancy guppies to rehome while he was getting his tank sorted. They were great and are still alive but now back in his tank.
The guppies were great and held his attention but were too small so we decided to get him a beautiful lemon goldfish.
This is we're I think I messed up, I considered the filter cycled so removed it from the tank and washed and cleaned the tank only. I bought new gravel and built the tank back up with the filter, new gravel, the old piece of wood and some grass from my 60l tank as decoration.
The next day I bought goldie the lemon goldfish and went through my introduction technique ( an egg cup of tank water every 5 minutes for about 45 minutes ,) once he was in the tank he hid at the back which was to be expected but 4 days on he very rarely comes near the front of the tank, doesn't look like he's eaten much and hides in the grass or under the filter.
I checked the water condition and ammonia was about 0.10 ppm, nitrite was 0ppm and nitrate was about 15-20 ppm. I understand goldfish are rather dirty fish so had planned to change 5 litres a week with regular gravel hoovering to maintain good healthy water conditions.
Goldie looks to be very health with his back fins standing high and proud of his body ( something my dad used to say as a quick guide to a fishs health )
But could I have too high a ph in the water from cycling the filter with tropical fish ?
could the wood be playing a part in his lack of movement by adding rare ph levels ?
Could it be he's lonely in the tank ?
I've reduced the filter flow as I thought too high a current could be too much for him but that doednt seem to make a difference.
Help, what am I doing wrong ?
First we put some shrimp in it but they got a bit boring for him and once they all pasted over ( not sure why ) my mate gave me his 4 fancy guppies to rehome while he was getting his tank sorted. They were great and are still alive but now back in his tank.
The guppies were great and held his attention but were too small so we decided to get him a beautiful lemon goldfish.
This is we're I think I messed up, I considered the filter cycled so removed it from the tank and washed and cleaned the tank only. I bought new gravel and built the tank back up with the filter, new gravel, the old piece of wood and some grass from my 60l tank as decoration.
The next day I bought goldie the lemon goldfish and went through my introduction technique ( an egg cup of tank water every 5 minutes for about 45 minutes ,) once he was in the tank he hid at the back which was to be expected but 4 days on he very rarely comes near the front of the tank, doesn't look like he's eaten much and hides in the grass or under the filter.
I checked the water condition and ammonia was about 0.10 ppm, nitrite was 0ppm and nitrate was about 15-20 ppm. I understand goldfish are rather dirty fish so had planned to change 5 litres a week with regular gravel hoovering to maintain good healthy water conditions.
Goldie looks to be very health with his back fins standing high and proud of his body ( something my dad used to say as a quick guide to a fishs health )
But could I have too high a ph in the water from cycling the filter with tropical fish ?
could the wood be playing a part in his lack of movement by adding rare ph levels ?
Could it be he's lonely in the tank ?
I've reduced the filter flow as I thought too high a current could be too much for him but that doednt seem to make a difference.
Help, what am I doing wrong ?
