Is my goldfish acting normally?

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PakisGoldfish

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Hello,
I don't know much about goldfish and i want your help! I bought a goldfish yesterday and i really love it. It doesnt move much, it stays at a olace most of the time and when i go near it it starts swimming and going on the top. When i fed it for second time (today) it came and took the flake from my fingers. Now it likes biting me. What does that mean? Is it hungry or is it playing? If it is hungry i think i can't feed it more because i read that i should feed him 1-3 flakes a day. If it is just playing can i play with it this way or there is danger of polutting the water?? Thanks for your help!!!
 
goldfish are always hungry and will eat all day every day if given a chance. However, if you have a newly set up aquarium, you should only feed the fish every second day until the filters have established.

Goldfish will try to eat anything that resembles food, including your finger if you put it on the surface with the food. As long as you don't have anything like moisturising cream, perfume, grease, oil, soap, etc, on your hands the fish will be fine with you putting your hand in the tank.

If the fish is resting it will hang motionless in the water or among plants. The rest of the time they can move around or just hang about in the water column.
 
Thanks for your reply!! I really appreciate it!! So my fish is alright? The water is a little blury.. is it cuz of the fish waste or the decorations? And one more question... shall i change 50% of the water every day? Because i don't have any filter yet!!
 
You need a filter asap, and a test kit. You need to do a water change whenever you see ammonia and/or nitrite above zero. The amount of water to change will depend on how high the levels are as you need to do a big enough water change to get them to zero.


Could we have some more information please as that will enable us to help you better.

How big is the tank?
What decor do you have in it?

Live plants will help because they use the ammonia excreted by the fish as fertiliser. However, goldfish eat live plants so something cheap and fast growing eg elodia aka erigeria would be helpful - you may well need to buy more as the goldfish eats it which is why I suggest cheap plants.
 
Without seeing the fish in a video I can't say it is perfect, but if it's swimming about and eating food, it sounds like it's ok.

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If the water is milky cloudy it is from the fish food breaking down in the water. Do a 50-75% water change every day until you get a filter and it has established. An established filter is a filter that has several groups of beneficial bacteria living in the filter media, and the bacteria can break down ammonia into nitrite into nitrate. The filter takes about 4-5 weeks to cycle/ establish. If the water looks cloudy then do a 75% water change. If it looks clear do a 50% water change.

Do a gravel clean each time you do a water change. Get yourself a basic model gravel cleaner like the one in the following link. It will allow you to clean the gunk out of the gravel without removing the gravel from the tank.
http://www.about-goldfish.com/aquarium-cleaning.html

Make sure any new water going into the tank is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank. The easiest way to do this is to get a couple of clean buckets that have never been used for soaps or chemicals. Use a permanent marker and write FISH ONLY on the buckets and keep them specifically for the fish. Fill one bucket with tap water and add the dechlorinator, then aerate the water for 30minutes or more. If you don't have an air pump then stir the water up for a couple of minutes and allow it to stand for a couple of hours or longer, before using it in the tank.
The second bucket is used for draining the tank water into. The old dirty tank water can be poured onto the garden.

Because you will be doing water changes each day, you should fill the bucket up after using it for the water change, add some more dechlorinator, stir it up and leave it until the following day when you do another water change. The dechlorinator will then have 24 hours to get rid of the chlorine/ chloramine from the water.

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Only feed the fish once every second day. The food that fish eat is used for moving and growth. They do not need to eat to stay warm because they get their body temperature from the water they are in. This means fish can go for weeks or even months without feeding. Once the tank has a filter and it is established, you can feed the fish each day or even twice a day, but not until the filter has established/ cycled.
 
Most people on here will tell you that goldfish need a large aquarium, at least over 100 gallons because goldfish do get large depending on the species. I think black moors or shubunkin can do well in 55 gallons but I will get flack for that. They need a filter. Goldfish are very messy and like all fish can not tolerate high ammonia levels. Without a filter you should be doing 75-90% water changes daily. How big is this tank? Even after you get a filter you need to monitor ammonia and nitrite levels closely and do 50% at least every two days until the filter has cycled which can take a minimum or 4-6 weeks, probably longer. After the cycle is complete, do 50-75% weekly.

A bowl is not appropriate. I’ll explain by saying that the idea that goldfish don’t grow bigger than their environment will allow is a myth. At least partially. Their growth is stunted by which I mean their bodies grow slower than their organs. And their life is cut short. Most goldfish if cared for properly live for 25+years. Some species, koi in particular live significantly longer. I read about a koi in Japan that is over 200 years old!

I have 4 shubunkin in a 300+ gallon pond. They are always searching for food in the warmer part of the year. In the winter they stay at the bottom and don’t eat until the weather gets warm. I’m not willing to get more fish because the pond is stable and once they start breeding this year I will have to remove all the babies. Fish have evolved to eat whenever there is food in front of them because in the wild, they never know when their next meal will come. Without a filter I would only feed every 3 or 4 days to avoid the build up of ammonia as much as possible, which as I said is fatal to fish.
 
Some species, koi in particular live significantly longer. I read about a koi in Japan that is over 200 years old!
I would take that 200years with a pinch of salt, unless it's a stone statue of a koi :)
 
I still don't believe it. A 70cm koi that is 215 yrs old, nope. That is a small koi carp. I have seen them 3 foot long swimming in the Canning River and at the local pond shop, and the fish at the shop were 20yrs old.

The fact it took them 2 months to count the rings on the scales makes me a little suspicious too. All they have to do is photograph the scale, magnify it and start counting. It shouldn't take 2 months to do that.

It's the Japanese government and press making her appear as something special to encourage spirituality :)

Yes I'm a cukey conspiracy nutjob :))
 
Fish don't have a feedback mechanism that tells them when they're full, unlike humans and other mammals; if there is food (or what they think is food, like your fingers), they'll carry on eating. So your fish isn't hungry, but it's not really playing either.

It's okay to let the fish nibble your fingers a little bit, as long as your hands are clean but with no soap on them at all, but it's not good to be putting your hands in the tank too much.

Staying in one place could be for lots of reasons; how big is your tank? Does it have any plants or hiding places?

If your tank is new, it won't be what we call 'cycled' (that means having a colony of good bacteria that live tin he filter, that eat some of the fish's wastes for you). That means the fish's wastes will build up in the water, and could make your fish feel very sick, or even kill it, so (if you don't have test kits) you'll need to change nearly all the water, every day, making sure the new water is warmed and dechlorinated.
 
Thank you both so much!!

To be honest my tank isn't 100 litres... i have only one fish and i bought a small tank (around 20cm×10cm n 12cm high). The pet store told me that it is enough for one goldfish. It is a normal goldfish... i didn't buy grave yet because im afraid of it ..what to buy? Natural or not?

Now, hopefully i have no problem with the water... i don't live in a town so water is clear... there is also a river some kilometres away (if i can't keep the fish happy i will let it there).

Thanks for your advices!!!
Btw: That 200 year old goldfish is almost half than me
 
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Please don't ever put your goldfish in the river!

Can you find a plastic box or something for the fish? Fish don't have to be in a glass tank; that's just so we can look at them.

If you can put in a pond (but NOT the river), that would be best; in the meantime, anything that will hold water, that's not poisonous will do; the bigger the better. Change as much water as you can, as often as you can, and if you can get some pond plants or water weed, that would help a lot. You can't really have too many plants.
 
I tried to send you a photo and video but there is an error... too heavy for the server...

Anyway... i guess my tank is too small. My goldfish isnt too active, only when i go near... but i can't understand...i changed his water around 7hrs before and i worry if the decoration is not good...it is plastic... can that be the problem?
 
the plastic ornament is fine and won't be causing a problem.

The fish probably just needs time to settle down. Just let him be, keep doing water changes and feed once every second day. When you can afford a bigger tank, then get one.

If you are desperate for a bigger container go and buy a 100litre plastic storage container and put the fish in that.
 

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