New guy intro, (further) mistake avoidance and a thank you.
Feb 7, 2017 19:45:08 GMT -5
Carl, devonjohnsgard, and 3 more like this
Post by gonzoid on Feb 7, 2017 19:45:08 GMT -5
Hello everybody,
Just wanted to stop in & introduce myself. I adopted a few fish through dating last year. Well, that's when our pet families merged into one household anyway. I spent most of that time with my now wife's fish firmly in the "she handles it" category. At some point late last year, I realized we were keeping our 4 yr old goldfish Lt. Shinysides in an undersized, under-filtered tank and set out to fix the problem. He was in a 5 gallon plastic tank with a hood/filter setup from Walmart or similar. I wanted better for our pet. We both think of our pets as our "kids" & she felt bad that she hadn't been treating him properly due to not knowing better.
I convinced my wife we could afford a 40 gallon & eventually get LT a couple buddies. I trolled the interwebs for goldfish info & found things to be rather all over the place as far as information. YouTube & the Google combined to create info overload. We eventually got a tank/stand & what I thought was decent quality stuff for LT's new home. I managed to get things setup & made it patiently through a fishless cycle. We rehoused LT around thanksgiving & he seemed very happy. A few weeks later, all water parameters looked good & we brought home his 1st buddy from a local pet store.
You can probably see where this is headed...2 weeks later, both fish are "off" and exhibiting flashing. We have no meds on hand and were trying to handle what I'm now sure was an Ich infestation with water changes and garlic treatments. Meds are for dire circumstances in our house and our fish suffered for it. We lost the new fish first. LT was gone by the 1st week of January.
This left us with only 1 fish remaining. Loki is a betta my wife inherited from a co-worker early last year. She was following the care instructions given by the former owner. This amounted to no water changes, no filtration and topping the 2.5 gallon tank off as needed with dechlorinated water. While trying to save the goldfish, Loki had been neglected further. I knew that our betta care just flatly could not be right. Loki was very muted and grey. The little gravel substrate in his was doing what it could for biofiltration thankfully. No ammonia, no nitrite when tested with the API master test kit. Nitrates were off the chart. Over the next week, I got the nitrates under control through twice daily 25% water changes. Loki's color began to return.
Around this time, I came across AAP and had my mind blown. I knew I had found a wonderful resource. My head is still trying to wrap around the amount of information there. I bought my basic "fish first aid" kit among other things. Loki has a #1 sponge filter taking up a good portion of his current tank but he likes to hide out between the gravel & the filter. He is now waiting for his new Spec V tank to cycle before moving.
Sorry to be so long winded. If I'm going to be responsible for the care of these aquatic creatures, I'm hoping this community can assist with my obvious knowledge gaps. I plan to get goldfish back into the 40 gallon when Loki is rehoused.
And finally to Carl...my sincere thanks to you for the knowledge shared at AAP.
Thanks for reading my rambling intro,
Gonzoid
Just wanted to stop in & introduce myself. I adopted a few fish through dating last year. Well, that's when our pet families merged into one household anyway. I spent most of that time with my now wife's fish firmly in the "she handles it" category. At some point late last year, I realized we were keeping our 4 yr old goldfish Lt. Shinysides in an undersized, under-filtered tank and set out to fix the problem. He was in a 5 gallon plastic tank with a hood/filter setup from Walmart or similar. I wanted better for our pet. We both think of our pets as our "kids" & she felt bad that she hadn't been treating him properly due to not knowing better.
I convinced my wife we could afford a 40 gallon & eventually get LT a couple buddies. I trolled the interwebs for goldfish info & found things to be rather all over the place as far as information. YouTube & the Google combined to create info overload. We eventually got a tank/stand & what I thought was decent quality stuff for LT's new home. I managed to get things setup & made it patiently through a fishless cycle. We rehoused LT around thanksgiving & he seemed very happy. A few weeks later, all water parameters looked good & we brought home his 1st buddy from a local pet store.
You can probably see where this is headed...2 weeks later, both fish are "off" and exhibiting flashing. We have no meds on hand and were trying to handle what I'm now sure was an Ich infestation with water changes and garlic treatments. Meds are for dire circumstances in our house and our fish suffered for it. We lost the new fish first. LT was gone by the 1st week of January.
This left us with only 1 fish remaining. Loki is a betta my wife inherited from a co-worker early last year. She was following the care instructions given by the former owner. This amounted to no water changes, no filtration and topping the 2.5 gallon tank off as needed with dechlorinated water. While trying to save the goldfish, Loki had been neglected further. I knew that our betta care just flatly could not be right. Loki was very muted and grey. The little gravel substrate in his was doing what it could for biofiltration thankfully. No ammonia, no nitrite when tested with the API master test kit. Nitrates were off the chart. Over the next week, I got the nitrates under control through twice daily 25% water changes. Loki's color began to return.
Around this time, I came across AAP and had my mind blown. I knew I had found a wonderful resource. My head is still trying to wrap around the amount of information there. I bought my basic "fish first aid" kit among other things. Loki has a #1 sponge filter taking up a good portion of his current tank but he likes to hide out between the gravel & the filter. He is now waiting for his new Spec V tank to cycle before moving.
Sorry to be so long winded. If I'm going to be responsible for the care of these aquatic creatures, I'm hoping this community can assist with my obvious knowledge gaps. I plan to get goldfish back into the 40 gallon when Loki is rehoused.
And finally to Carl...my sincere thanks to you for the knowledge shared at AAP.
Thanks for reading my rambling intro,
Gonzoid