Kelsta

Thanks, I'll give them some peas today. We feed them twice a day, flakes and pellets, plus the brine shrimp occasionally. They always eat all the food we give them, but I think they'd eat until they popped! Thanks for your help

Hi, I've got another newbie question... Somebody in my house (grrr) overfeeds our goldfish, and they're a little bit constipated. Well, I assume they are but I'm no expert! They have very fat little bellies, and often have huge looooong poos trailing along behind them, and sometimes the poop has a little air bubble in it (!?) What can I do to help them? Obviously, stop overfeeding(!) but what else? I've heard fresh food is good and Animates gave me some frozen brine shrimp to try.

Thanks Ian and Alanmin, I guess it's just one of those things. I will keep an eye on the tank in case anyone else starts looking ill. One thing I was wondering... When you buy fish like minnow and suckers from the pet store, are they generally quite young? I assumed they were all babies when we adopted them a few weeks ago, but now I'm not sure?

Hey Everyone, Just thought I'd tell you this and see if anyone comes up with anything. Last night, one of our WCMM was looking very poorly last night, and seemed to be just floating in the current, and not swimming. He went all pale and lost the red colour in his tail etc. Just looked very sick indeed. Then one of our goldfish gobbled him up and then spat him out! Our goldfish can't normally catch them, but he was unable to swim away. So hubby and I did an emergency evac into the hospital tank. He's still alive this morining but not looking like he'll be alive when we get home after work. All the other fish look fine so far. Do fish sometimes just die without you ever finding out why? Seems a bit of a mystery that he's the only one with a probelm? Thanks guys, we're still a bit new to this OOPS, forgot the details: 140 litre tank 4 medium goldfish 9 WCMM 4 Borneo suckers Last time we did a 25% water change was on Sunday...

I just wanted to say a huge congratulations and good on you for rescuing the poor goldfish. You did the right hting and I'm sure if she could talk she'd be thanking you!! It makes me so MAD that people can be so cruel and heartless! :evil:

Hi there, I have a 143 litre unheated tank at home with Fantail Goldfish and WCMM and a few Borneo suckers. Temp in the bedroom hovers around 17 degrees at the moment.

Yeah, my fantails do sometimes playfully swim up to the minnow but when they get close they just lose interest and turn away. Except if the minnow are eating and they want their food! I never really realised just how slow the fantails actually swim, as hubby and I staretd out with a small tank, but now that they have all that space in a 143 litre tank, you can see just what slow swimmers they are. And they all like to live in each other's back pockets - even though there's plenty of space to spread out now

Yeah, my Goldfish are just constantly looking for food and will try anything - they even eat their own poo then spit it back out when they realise! Eww... They could never eat the WCMM in my tank as they are so much faster than they are. My Goldfish aren't really interested in them, fortunately.

haha, thanks Caryl, that's what I thought. No worries, I wasn't particularly wanting to breed them anyway - just wondered what would happen if they did cos it would be kinda cool. Yeah we watched in horror the other night as one of our goldfish choked on a piece of algae disc we feed our suckers. We break the disc up but this piece was obviously a bit big - we had about 5 minutes of TOTAL FREAKOUT waiting for him to come right again! As soon as he stopped choking on it, he went straight down and started forgaing for more food!!!!!!!

Hi, I feel silly asking so many questions, but I'm so new to this... Will my 2 fantail goldfish eat the eggs if my WCMM decide to spawn? They are all in a 143 litre tank and numbers are as follows: 4 fantail goldies - about 4-5cm each 9 WCMM 4 borneo suckers Any chnace of the eggs not being eaten? Or is that over optimistic?

Thanks I'm in Ngaio so might check out the Kapi-Mana one - Cheers!

Hi Does anyone know of any clubs in Wellignton City? Thanks

Hi, I'm new to the site. I discovered it by accident a few days ago and I'd just like to say a HUGE THANKS to everyone for their great advice and information you've given me already. What a relief to have found a place with so many experts and old-hands to help when I have problems, or to just answer very silly questions, or to put me straight when I'm completely mis-guided :oops: I hope one day I will have experience and knowledge I can help others with too! At this point I'm still a humble beginner though! Cheers folks!

Oops, sorry Caryl, I did forget to mention the goldfish already living in the tank - forgot about the aspect - but I'm learning fast from all the knowledgable folks on this site Thanks for your advice.

Oh so ice cubes is an ok thing to do - wow I'm learning so much already from you guys Fishkeeping has always been a bit hit and miss for me up until ow because you just have to guess a lot and rely on info from the pet stores, but you guys are all so knowledgable - it's fantastic

Hi, I thought one of my WCMM was sick too because he was isolating himself and not swimming around much, had what I thought were inflamed-looking gills (could have imagined it?!) and he was gasping - none of the others were doing that - they open their mouths occasionally, but not like this one was - just gasping on the spot in a still corner of the tank. Seems OK now after a brief quarantine with some white spot treatment but his colour is still pale. I hate not knowing what's wrong... Hopig everything rights itself now as he seemed fine this morning.

I doubt this is very good for your fish, but someone I knew used to freeze her tank water in ice cube trays and pop a couple in on especially hot summer days. I think it was pointless, personally, because goldfish are fine in warmer water a long as you do proper regular water changes.

Hey, I'm new to this site, but me and my hubby have in a 140 litre tank: 4 fancy goldfish 4 borneo suckers 9 WCM minnows We are definitely cold water enthusiasts, even though the range of species is much smaller. The fancy goldfish have such gorgeous little personalities Incidentally, we've had our fish for about 6 months and I've just discoverd this site accidentally. What a lucky accident!

No, Wellington is HEAPS colder than Blenheim, even in summer (what's summer?) But your advice has been really helpful. It's good to know that you can mix Barbs with goldfish as long as we get a heater. Once our beloved Goldies settle into their new big tank we'll look at doing that.

Thanks Caryl. Perhaps we'll consider getting some Barbs once we have a heater then. We do have a fully insulated house and it gets rather warm in the tank - hovers between 17 and 22 degrees - but I'd rather not risk it in case we have a cold snap and no heating for them! Cheers )

Hi I've heard that you can keep Barbs in cold water, even though all the ones I've seen in stores are in tropical tanks. Does anyone know if this is ture? Obviously, you wouldn't want to take them from a heated tank to an unheated one, but is there such a thing as Barbs who've been raised in cold water? Confused, as usual... :-P Thanks!

Thanks everyone for all the advice - both the big tank and the little minnow in quarantine are doing really well this morning. I have a feeling that they all just needed some time to adjust to the new tank, plus the filter had only been running one day. And whatever was bothering the minnow seems to be gone. I will be careful not to overfeed during this time as well, thanks. We normally give them a varied diet of flakes, pellets, or brine shrimp. Mostly flakes and pellets. They like to be hand fed and they come up and take the flakes out of yor fingers - so cute ;o) Perhaps I overreacted... It's a big adjustment for them. But they are big, strong healthy fish and have never had health issues before. The carbon I was talking about is called 'Bio Chem Zorb' and it's in a little sack which you lay under the foam above the tray which the ceramic tubes are under. Removes chemicals (and meds) form the water and makes it really clear. Last 3-6 months as opposed to normal carbon. Yep, I agree we should be able to get Prazi more easily - afterall it's the most commonly suggested treatment for flukes. Thanks again for all your help everyone )

One more thing: Is it safe to use salt whilst the white spot treatment is in there? Do you remove the carbon for that??

OK will take a look now. Do you think it would be wise to keep the little minnow out permanently? I'd rather lose him than our entire aquarium and our beloved Goldfish! Where can I get a good Fluke treatment from? It seems it's hard to get hold of. Will the White Spot cure help flukes? If they do have Flukes, how long will they survive for if left untreated?

Thanks, will do that if they still seem unhappy after the white spot treatment - it feels like a bit of a guessing game... I don't even know if there were any parasites to begin with! Although that wee minnow was flashing a lot. Anyway, thanks for the advice