New Fluval Edge

[rolson]

Hi,

I'm new to this forum. I have a question about my Fluval Edge Aquarium I recently aquired as a birthday gift.
My son has had a goldfish now for a year and half. I've been keeping it alive in a half gallon (yes half gallon fish bowl). I know! Way too small.

Anyway. I've recently moved the goldfish to my Fluval Edge to give the guy some more room. Up until now I've been feeding it flake food, but now that it's in the Edge the filtration agitates the water and make the food sink before the goldfish can get to it. I'm worried it's going to starve. Should I switch over to pellet food?

I've tested the water and the ammonia levels are at 0 ppm. This is the 2nd day the gold fish has been in the aquarium and its starting to exhibit some unusual behavior. It now just sits at the bottom of the tank and hides behind the fake plastic piece of driftwood I bought at the pet store. Sometimes when I go to turn on the light, or do a feeding it will swim REALLY fast and "skittish" like its nervous. I don't know if its just that the change in environment as overwhelmed the fish or what.

Advice is most certainly welcome.

-Rolson

 

[Warehouse]

Hi Rolson and welcome to the forum. The chances are that the fish is suffering because the water parameters are not good. The filtration system needs to be "cycled" so that it can remove harmful ammonia or nitrite from the water. There are some fantastic guides at the beginners resource centre here. (edit: just re-read that ammonia is 0)

When the goldfish was in the small tank, did you have a filter system in there? If you did then you need to move some of the media over to the new tank filter to help speed up the process. Otherwise you will need to do big water changes every day as you are in what's called a "fish in cycle", which is also covered in the beginners guides. Did you treat the water before putting it into the new tank to remove the chlorine?

 

[Bobtastic]

^^^
Agree.

I'm not familiar with any sinking Goldfish food, but I would imagine there is some out there. I have two and they are forever sifting through the gravel in their tank so I'm sure he'll be able to find any foods on the substrate.

Read through the information as it's extremely useful. I would also say if in doubt do a water change. But he could just be nervous of his new surroundings.

 

[kporteo]

Goldfish are should be fed from the bottom of the tank, i tend to feed mine algae wafers and sinking pellets, and every other week he gets some bloodworm to keep his GI system working well.
If goldfish are fed from the surface they swallow too much air and tend to end up with bouyancy problems such as swim bladder.

How big if your new tank?

K

 

[Essjay]

How big if your new tank?

Hi,

I'm new to this forum. I have a question about my Fluval Edge Aquarium I recently aquired as a birthday gift.


-Rolson

The Edge is 23 litres. This tank is still far too small for a goldfish. It may be a lot bigger than the bowl it was living in, but a goldfish really needs a minimum of 80 litres just for the one. If it's a common goldfish or a comet, it would be much better off in a pond.

 

[rolson]

My goldfish came from a small fish bowl which did not have a filtration system on it. I did daily water changes. The substrate was blue colored pebbles.

In the new aquarium (6 gallon) I have aquarium sand as the substrate, because I thought it would look nice (which it does), But I've also heard that it can irritate the gills of the fish if they take some in while eating off the bottom. I've been watching the fish closely though and it does spit the sand out while its foraging along the bottom.

I'm also confused about my water condition, because I've been testing it for ammonia and it always comes back as 0 ppm which I'm guessing is good and I'm following testing instructions directly to the T. The initial filling of the tank was with tap water, but I conditioned the water with the conditioner that comes with the tank.

 

[rolson]

I basically didn't do this. http/www.wikihow.com/Do-a-Fishless-Cycle


Instead I followed the instructions that came with the tank. I let the tank filter run a few days while adding the cycle liquid that came with the tank.

And I bought a test kit which I think only tests Ammonia This is the test kit I bought. Should I have bought something else? http/www.aquariumguys.com/ammoniatest2.html I did a test of the water and it showed 0ppm for the Ammonia so I figured it was okay for the fish.

 

[rolson]

What kind of dechlorinator do you recommend?

 

[rolson]

Also, what kind of testing kit do you recommend?


I plan on picking up an aquarium vacuum and doing a water change tonight, so I'd like to know these things so I can pick up on the way home from work.

Thanks for your input.

Also for a small tank like this...once I get the water thing situated, what kind of bottom feeders for a tank this size, would you recommend? Would getting a shrimp help in the cleaning of unwanted waste?

 

[Essjay]

The tank is much too small for the goldfish, so anything else in the tank is out.

If you want something to eat left over food, I don't think there'd be any with a goldfish, they are very greedy fish and yours would probably eat every scrap of food. If you were thinking of something to eat the goldfish's poo, then there is nothing that would do that, not even shrimp. And anything else in the tank would eat food and make even more poo.

The ammonia test is fine, API is the make most people here use. But you also need a test for nitrite as well. Once you have enough bacteria to 'eat' the ammonia and turn it into nitrite, the level of that will build up until the nitrite-eating bacteria have grown. Nitrite is also toxic, and like ammonia it must be kept under 0.25 by doing water changes.

If you had a dechlorinator sample come with the tank, use that till it's gone, then get Seachem Prime dechlorinator.


But please think about getting a bigger tank or rehoming the goldfish and getting more suitable fish. Goldfish need a tank of at least 20 galls for one fish. The Edge is 6 galls.