Shukura

I have a pair of young Oranda goldfish who I'm very fond of and I'd appreciate some experienced people's advice on a few things. I would also very much appreciate it if you didn't point out how much of an idiot I am, thank you. If you like you can just skip to the bottom where the questions are and avoid the essay. Some tank history; Note- I still don't have a water test kit, so please don't ask about water parameters. It's on my to-buy list for next payday. Between July and October last year I was keeping 3 goldfish in a hexagonal 60L filtered tank, and they were doing well and growing. And I thought what the heck lets get a couple more. Dumb, I know. I bought the two Orandas in October, when they were 6 months old and about 5cm long (including tail). When I got them they had some barely noticable head growth. They were homed in the 60L tank with the 3 other goldfish. While I had no serious health issues with them, I was having to do 30% water changes every two days to keep them happy. Obviously there were faaar too many fish in that tank. In January I was gifted another 60L tank and a small filter. I set this new tank up using tank water from the other tank and left it to cycle for a few weeks, then transferred the Oranda's into their new home. Since then, I've been doing 15-20% water changes twice weekly and vaccing the gravel, and I've had no problems with either tank. ((The only issue I had was when one of the Orandas got himself impossibly stuck inside an ornament I'd bought off TM. We got him out and though he was missing half his tail and a lot of scales, he's recovered very well and is totally fine now.)) The two Orandas have grown a bit - they're now more like 7cm, but neither of them have any head growth anymore, which is quite depressing and brings me to the reason for posting this. I really really want to do the best I can for these fish, but I'm a student and on a very limited budget. But I intend to spend some money and buy another tank, a bigger one. Currently I have my eyes on a 125L tank, as well as a Eheim 2010 filter. Now for some questions; 1- Is a 125L tank, in your honest opinion, big enough for two Orandas when they're full grown? If it's not, I might as well save my money a bit longer and get something bigger still. 2- Aside from increasing the tank size and better water quality, what other factors influence wen growth? 3- I read that high-protein foods help. Currently I'm feeding my fish nutrafin flakes, frozen/freezedried bloodworms, peas and gel food. And I have some Hikari Oranda gold on the way. Which foods have people found to be best? On a slightly different note, my tank decorations are all artificial, plants included. While I do love the idea of a natural tank and would love to try it, I have a few worries about it. The Oranda's tank is in my room, which is in shadow all day everyday and the only house plants I've ever had any luck at growing in here are ferns. I do have a light for the tank, but the fish refuse to come out into the open if I turn it on. Would plants manage alright without light? Does having live plants make maintence harder? And do the benefits outweigh the cons? Thanks muchly. :3

Hallo hallo. I'm new to the fish keeping business, and to these forums (I'll go post in the hello section soon), and up til now I thought I'd been doing okay. I've been researching and everything. Some tank history: I got my first batch of fish about 15 weeks ago, after letting my 120L octagonal tank settle - 2 black moors, a calico short-tailed fantail, an orange fantail and what I effectionately call a blue moor. Too many for the tank size I think but I wasn't expecting them to live. I bought these mainly as a test to see how long they'd last before I went and spent lots of money on Orandas, which are the fish I really want. For about a week everything was fine, but one of my black moors sat inside the barrel decoration and wouldn't come out, except for food and then he would only feed from the bottom of the tank. A week later, my other black moor was having difficulty swimming down, as was my fantail. I looked it up online and fed peas as a cure. But my black moor wouldn't eat them ): The fantail ate them however and the next day he was fine again. A couple of days later the black moor died and the other started having swimming problems, and he wouldn't eat the peas either. He died some time after. I think that was all caused by the dry flake food, and since then I've been soaking it prior to feeding and been alternating their food with peas and bloodworms and had no troubles. I've been doing 25-30% water changes and gravel siphoning weekly. For the last ten or so weeks my three remaining fish have been happy and active and growing nicely. :3 Last friday (15thOct) I finally gave in to the urge and bought myself three 8 month old Orandas from a breeder. They were shipped down to Chch from Auckland and were a little sad looking for a bit when I added them to the tank (I didn't quarantine them as I have no spare tanks, for which I'm regretful), but seemed to perk up over the weekend and were soon swimming around with my other fish. This morning however while I was watching them I noticed that one of my new baby orandas has some kind of growth on his head, towards the back of his wen that wasn't there yesterday. It's white and looks kind of fluffy like a fungus. It's really tiny, but then so is the fish (4-6cm ish). He also has a small tear in his tail fin and on his pectoral fin, but no more spots on him anywhere . Is this ich? I really don't want to have to add any chemicals to the tank if I can get away with it, but if it'll save my little fish I'll do it D:< If this is ich, what's the best product for curing it? And how long do I have before it kills my fish? D: Also should I change the water or anything? I last changed it on thursday before my fish arrived. I took some photos but have lost my camera cable (go figure). I'll try find it asap.