Five days ago, my youngest brother won two guppies (extremely small fish) at a school fair. One of them died within an hour of coming home with us. Later that night, we bought a tank, a filter, and some food for the survivor. The next day we got two goldfish so the tank wouldn’t seem so empty.
For the first 48 hours or so, the water was very cloudy; I assume it was because of the filter, but it could conceivably have been something on the pebbles in the tank. It’s since cleared up.
Anyway, goldfish #1 died the day after we got him. He was lying on the bottom until I turned the filter off, at which point he floated to the surface.
When I scooped goldfish #1 out of the tank, I noticed that goldfish #2 had lost the bottom half of his back fin. Did the guppy eat it? Did it get sucked into the filter? It’s a mystery.
In any event, he seemed to be in good health otherwise but, sure enough, the next day goldfish #2 was just as dead as goldfish #1. In fact, you could say that he was more dead than goldfish #1, since he had apparently become heavier than water and would not float.
What the hell is going on? Why has whatever killed our (relatively large) goldfish not harmed our tiny guppy? Is it unreasonable that I consider the guppy to be the prime suspect in a double osteichthyes-cide? Many thanks in advance.
Firstly, fish won at a fair are probably not going to survive, because they’ve probably not been looked after well. (On the other hand we had a goldfish won from a lucky dart throw last 10 years…)
From my limited experience, guppies are very susceptible to the change in temperature moving from one container to another - did you let the container they arrived in warm up in the tank before letting them loose?
It’s a bit late now, but I’m afraid goldfish are among the worst fish for starting an aquarium. They produce a lot of waste and a new aquarium needs time to establish the bacteria colonies that consume those nitrate and nitrite wastes. The filter only traps particulates unless you also use activated charcoal which filters at the molecular level. Use a high quality charcoal. If the charcoal is shiny, its junk. The filter also serves as a bed for those beneficial bacteria so never clean it completely at one time. I alternate changing the floss and the charcoal so the filter always has an active colony of bateria at all times.
The website that LorieSmurf recommended is very good. Just don’t let this little setback discourage you. It really doesn’t take much to keep a tank going once you learn the basics and studies have shown that watching fish in an aquarium brings on the relaxation response which is a good thing.
I would also recommend that you use fish keeping as a learning tool and research the fish you like and find out how they live in the wild and what other species they normally associate with to avoid possible compatibility issues. It is also common for beginners to overload their tanks so be sure to read the recommendations about how many fish to keep based on the size of your tank.
Here are some specifc articles at aquamanics to get you going:
I’m a longtime (successful) fish owner. Yup, fair-won fish tend to be feeder stock and thus cost next to nothing for the people who get them to give away, but their health is compromised. Your fish may have introduced bacteria from their original water to your tank.
If one has a fin missing it may be fin rot caused by a fungal infection. It’s very common. Are the edges of the fin kind of ragged and whitish-looking? You can treat it by getting aquarium Tetracyclene tablets that you just drop into the water. A package is fairly cheap. If the fish is missing most of its fin(s) though, it might be too late to save it.
Other than that, good quality charcoal, Start Right or Stress Coat added to new water to condition it, part-water changes once a month, and an algae scraper or tablet to remove excess algae are things that will help get/keep your fish healthy.
The other posters have already given you an idea of what is going on. If you are interested in this hobby I’d recommend perusing the various links that have been provided, then go ahead and get your tank established. It is a simple and relatively inexpensive hobby.
DON’T use Tetracyclene tablets: your tank’s filtration is accomplished largely by beneficial bacteria. Tetracyclene will kill the good with the bad. Besides, if the infection is fungal, Tetracyclene will not address it; it will only treat seconday bacterial infections.
Yes, carnival fish and feeder fish are pretty much guaranteed to die almost as soon as you bring them home; in the fish trade they’re known as “disposables.”
Varlosz, are organisms that are just as complicated as you or me. But there’s more to it than that: the aquarium is not just a box of water. The body of water that a fish lives in is, quite literally, an extension of the fish’s metabolic system. The water is NOT just to keep the fish moist. Keep in mind that fish live in and breathe their own toilet water. Meditate on that for a minute.
An EXCELLENT and simple book on the “holistic” approach to aquarium keeping is – well, I can’t remember the title of the book; I’ll keep searching for it.
Well, I can’t remember the title of the book. And there are of course too many thousands of aquarium books at Amazon for me to make any headway skimming thumbnails to recognize the cover art. But it’s a book I gave to every one of my aquarium clients when I was doing aquarium design and maintenance, which I did for eight years. I’ll keep trying to find the book.
Not necessarily. In the 12 years I had fish I had a bout with fin rot once where I got one infected guy who contracted it to all the others. The aquarium store recommended the tetracyclene tablets, I used them, and it cleared up completely. The fish lived for 3 years after with no problems (they were Blue Moon Platties).
It even said on the package that it “treats gill rot, fin rot, and pop-eye” (not the sailor ).
Of course, if the fin loss is being caused by fights or something else, antibiotics are not the answer.
Because of the cloudiness of the water that is mentioned, it sounds like there’s a very good chance that there’s infectious bacteria in the water.
Your biggest problem was probably trying to set up a tank the same day (I’m also guessing it was pretty small, say 10 gallons or less?). There’s no way the biofilter could get established that fast - it takes weeks. A close second problem would be the source of the fish as has been mentioned.
And no, the guppy would not have killed the goldfish. They can be fin-nippers, but the goldfish would have had much bigger water quality and previous disease problems to worry about given the way things happened. The two goldfish would have been equally dead. Most fish will sink when they first die (unless they have a massive internal infection producing gas upon death)… then after a few hours they’ll start rotting inside and subsequently start to float.
You’ll have to take your chances and leave the guppy in the tank; there’s not much you can do short of playing water chemist until the filter gets up to speed, and you’ll more than likely kill the fish trying to adjust chemistry or add products if you’ve never done it before.
You actually don’t need ANY chemcial additives or cartridges to maintain or even start a new tank (at least I haven’t for the past 15 years). Depending on how your tapwater is disinfected it might be an idea to dechlorinate your make-up water, but many times you can just leave it sit for a day or three and it will be fine to add to the fish. In any case, you should leave your new tank running even if guppy dies. With no fish just add a tiny pinch of food to the water every day or two (not enough to visibly accumulate), do some water changes, and within a month or so the tank should be able to hold fish - just find a better source next time.
JI’m sorry your aquarium store recommended Tetracycline to you; I hope you can find another store.
Antibiotics in a fishtank are almost always a very bad idea. They’re certainly never a first resort; they’re to be reserved as a last resort when absolutely everything else has been tried and the problem has been very carefully diagnosed as bacteriological.
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