Help with new cold water aquarium please? My daughter (nearly 14) was very eager to have an aquarium and part of her Christmas present she had a voucher to spend at the local specialist store. I wanted her to learn about it all and be able to take good care and also make good choices… she has a 60litre tank and set it up with (washed) gravel, some plants and a few decorations and we left it more than a week before adding fish. She chose 3 cold water ones. We did everything as carefully as we could and left them in their bag in the water for an hour before opening the bag and letting them into the tank. She also bought 3 algae eaters. After 3 days one fish had died. We were so upset and went back to find out about it. We were told it was probably nitrites and now have the tester kit (it was way high) and have changed some water. She is trying very hard with them and is taking great care. We added a few more little fish and now have a total of 6 small fish, which we think maybe the limit. She has been told not to over-feed them as this can cause death but how much is enough? In her efforts not to feed them too much I am worried she might be feeding too little. She has ‘Aquarian’ fish flakes and we have had very conflicting advice… one person said 2 flakes per fish per day. Another person said put in a few amount - like 5 or 6 flakes each twice a day and what isn’t eaten within 3 minutes then remove - at the rate hers are eating I reckon they would have eaten twice that in 3 minutes! As you can imagine there is an enormous difference between the 2 pieces of info.She wants to get it right and is very meticulous with everything but since losing that one she is really concerned about getting the feeding and water right.
I am not much help as I come from an era when fish were won at Fairs (how awful is that?) and I had a couple of lovely fish who lived several years with minimal fuss and certainly no water testing nor special amount of water changing! They had fresh water every week - used to swim in the sink while their large bowl was cleaned out and seemed to absolutely adore the cold water tap running gently during the cleaning process! Like everything these days it is all so much more complicated! Any help and tips would be appreciated.
Thanks sooo much for that advice. Our main fear was over-feeding but another person said that it isn’t too much food that is the issue as much as the uneaten food causing problems with the water when it is left and uneaten. All her fish are types of goldfish (red cap oranda and a calico and so on) and so should be fairly easy.
When you say a reasonable amount - there isn’t anywhere that says whether 2 flakes or 20 flakes is a good starting point!
Thanks somuch to everyone; I feel more confident we can get it right. Regarding the size.. I have a neighbour who has a wonderful pond and will happily take any that become large of if we feel they are over-crowded. I have been told to add a slice of cucumber for the algae eater but then someone else said that something like cucumber in the water adds to the decay and makes the water condition worse.
The idea of a scavenger would be great - do they combine with goldfish? I’ll look it up. I have a sneaking suspicion we will fast out-grow this tank and it will be replaced with an enormous palace for them in due course! They are really lovely and more friendly than I would have expected!
there should be a feeding guidline on the fishflake packet if not go back to the store and get them to show you the physical amount you should feed per day if its only 6 fish i would think a pinch a day would be sufficient References :
I understand exactly where your daughter is coming from wanting to get everything perfect. Fish are such wonderful things to have and cold water fish are sometimes easier to care for than tropical fish. The best thing that I have found to do is to give them the food and let them eat. Often most fish will not over eat. The main thing that people talk about with over feeding fish is giving them food every time they walk into the room. Fish are good to be fed for example of a morning before she leaves for school, then either when she gets home of the afternoon or before going to bed. Twice a day has worked out perfectly for me. The amount of flakes to feed depends on the breed and size of the fish and sometimes the age. Give them a small reasonable amount of food and watch them. If they finish that give them a little more until they start slowing down. At this point they are probably getting full. If you notice some flakes reaching the bottom and there are too many you can clean them out, but if only a couple flakes fall, then the fish will eat them later. Often within the next few minutes or so they will clean up the fallen flakes. Just give them this amount of food about 2-3 times a day if you like, but I prefer 2.
As far as the water test goes, just test it once a week or twice a week if you want. If you notice your fish slowly down or having a change in their behavior test the water and get it ajusted to the proper amount. Some fish aren’t very hardy and the store can have a big impact on them. I have found that smaller pet stores or even walmart have had hardy fish. Amazing I know.
If you have a questions about my answer or any other things that you would like to discuss or ask me, add them to the aditional info in your question and I will be checking back fairly often.:-D References : Personal
Was the fish that died an algae eater? if so, you probably added him too early, your aquarium after a week probably didn’t have enough algae to sustain him.
Also, it doesn’t exactly go on how many fish you have to be overstocked, it depends on the type of fish, some fish may need more room than you think, for example many people claim that a goldfish is fine in a bowl, which is absolutely false. A goldfish needs up to 30 gallons for its self (depending on the type some need more), a lot of cold water fish species, such a Koi and goldfish grow to be a foot long and produce a lot of wast, depending on the fish you have, you might not be physically over loaded, but you might be biologically over loaded, meaning that your fish are producing too much wast for your filter system to handel.
I’ve never actually heard of a fish eating its self to death, they told you to feed less because extra food, that the fish don’t eat will decay and ruin your water quality. Don’t put too much effort into thinking about how much your feeding them, just make sure after they are done eating there aren’t too many peices of uneaten food floating around, and if there is try to net it out. A general rule of thumb is feed only enough so that all the food is gone in 3 mins.
Depending on if you are over stocked or not, you might want to invest in a "clean up crew" to scavenge for uneaten food, some good idea’s for this would be some Ghost Shrimp (making sure they are compatible with the current fish) References : Keeper of one Green Spotted Puffer
and one Figure-8 Puffer
individual tanks of course
Aquarium water condition very important. Have you got an air bubbles pump active. (this has an air stone from which air bubbles come to the surface) Usually associated with warm water tropical fish.
The reason for the air pump is that it puts oxygen into the water via the bubbles; this helps to keep the water fresher for longer. And its used with warm and cold water fish. I know from having gold fish and tropical fish. By the way you can’t have cold water fish with tropical fish mixed. Feeding is simple, but,
fish do not require a lot of food, the more fish you have the bigger amount you give. Say if you had three
little gold fish, a sprinkle of flakes per morning and late at night, is quite sufficient, they would survive on just one sprinkle. You must not over feed, because what’s not eaten fouls the water condition.
I’m quite impressed by your setting up the way you have, and I’m sure you’ll make a success of it.
Remember its an artificial environment and reliant on you to maintain it on a regular routine.
You’re going have to get a secondary tank or large plastic bucket, because the water will have to be
totally changed (emptied out after you’ve put the fish into the secondary tank) while you clean and refill
with fresh water. This is an irksome chore but a necessary action if you want to keep the fish healthy.
Once you’ve done it a few times, it won’t be such of an hassle. But its imperative that you do.
At the moment, I myself have one little gold fish, who I have looked after for 15 years since the Nephew lost interest. Now I have done all I suggest to you and my gold fish is proof of that.The gold fish did have two mates but they were a little older and died about 2 years ago. One solitary fish on his own, but I talk to him and he responds and comes up the top of his tank. I can’t commit to getting him another mate.
I’m 74 and my options are not long term anymore.
I hope this is of some use, but getting into this hobby is a full commitment as I’m sure you’re aware.
givemestrength
Ps Nearly forgot, if you have about six fish the tank will go about 5 weeks and any longer puts more risk with the water fouling up too much. The more fish you have cuts down the length of weeks it can go. References :
Make it a project you and your daughter can do–research "fishless cycling." In the meantime, take the fish back as they’re suffering from ammonia burns. This involves getting pure ammonia and pretty much pretending to be the fish by adding waste to the water and building good bacteria up. Right now you have no good bacteria and it must start somewhere.
Be sure to use water dechlorinator after every water change–tap water can kill them faster than ammonia burns.
The reason the fish lived so long in bowls is because goldfish are very tolerant of poor care. They can live through almost anything. That’s no excuse to treat them bad now that you know better, right?
Also, do NOT get goldfish unless you have a very large tank! They can grow over a foot given proper care. Sticking them in small tanks/bowls causes "stunting" where the internal organs keep growing and their outsides stop. It causes a long, agonizing death. While they may live for a few years, goldfish are supposed to live 20-40 years with proper care.
For your size (16 gallons or so), I’d stick with some white cloud mountain minnows. Don’t get an algae eater until you’ve gotten your tank under control and have done some research on which are okay in coldwater. (Common plecos grow 2 feet and are tropical.)
What kind of fish do you have? There are a few different coldwater fish that you might have, but they have different requirements. It’s a bit hard to give advice if we don’t know what the fish are
If they’re goldfish for example, then you need to take them back. 60 litres is nowhere near enough room for even a single goldfish. If they’re white cloud mountain minnows then 60 litres is fine for them.
The reason you had nitrite in your tank is because the tank wasn’t cycled before you added the fish. I realise you didn’t know this, but it actually takes more like 4-6 weeks of adding ammonia and monitoring the cycle with a test kit. I would recommend you get yourself a test kit (a liquid drop one rather than the cardboard strips) so you can keep an eye on things yourself. It’s actually really interesting too - the test kits are like a little chemistry set and testing the water yourself helps you to understand exactly what goes on in your tank.
The tank will be cycling now, but once it’s done ammonia and nitrite should always be zero, and nitrate should be kept at or below 20ppm with weekly partial water changes - NEVER change all of the water at once! Also, you’ll occasionally need to clean your filter. Do this by simply rinsing out the sponges in old tank water, NOT under the tap as the chlorine in tap water will kill all your good bacteria.
As for feeding, I would say as much as they can eat in a minute or two, twice a day and net out anything they don’t eat. Two flakes per fish is a rather random figure for someone to come up with, seeing as both flakes and fish come in all kinds of different sizes! While you’re still getting readings for ammonia and nitrite though, I would feed very sparingly as more food = more waste.
The key with keeping fish is that you’re not ACTUALLY keeping the fish at all, you’re keeping the water! Keep the water healthy, the fish will be healthy, if the water quality goes bad, the fish will get sick and die. Once you and you’re daughter have got into that frame of mind everything else will start to slot into place.
With regards to the olden days and fish in bowls, Goldfish will put up with atrocious living conditions, but it’s far from thriving. These days a LOT more chemicals are in our tap water too, and if you have older piping there will be a lot of heavy metals also, be sure to use dechlorinator as these things can not only harm your fish but harm the essential good bacteria that live in your filter media too - and its those, the bacteria, that you need to keep healthy as it is they that look after your water! Whenever someone on here has mentioned "cycling" - that process grows the bacteria to enough numbers to be able to support fish. A week is NOT long enough! It can take a good month or so for them to be established enough to support the mess fish make.
Fishkeeping does seem exceptionally mind boggling at first, especially compared to how it was done 20, 30, 40 years ago! But at the same time it can be exceptionally absorbing and even educational! I was crap at science at school, but since I’ve started keeping fish my knowledge of chemistry has shot up!
As for feeding, yes there’s a ton of different little rules, ignore the lot. It’s down to trial and error with your particular species of fish and what they are willing to take/what you think is over feeding, and down to the pellet or flake size too. If there’s any waste food falling to the bottom, then you’ve fed too much.
HOWEVER, I do agree with the other poster that recommended taking the fish back to the store, annoying as it is, it is the best move to get your bacterial colony back in check and more research done on fish species!
A coldwater tank is in fact not the best option, I recommend getting a heater and going tropical. A tank without a heater isn’t actually coldwater anyway, it’s room temperature and in summer room temperature can be pretty much tropical anyway! A true coldwater tank has a chiller (which costs 3-4 times as much to buy and run than a heater!).
Buy a heater and research tropical species. In a 60L you could, once your tank’s bacterial colony is back up and healthy, have say, 4-5 male only Platys - colourful, active and one of the hardier beginner fish. DON’T get females, you’ll have endless fry that you’ll get REALLY fed up with.
So yes, take the remaining fish back. Research fishless cycling (it’s not as difficult as it first seems!). Research fish species and you’ll be on the right path. References :
March 2nd, 2010 | 
Author: 
Posted in
Help with new cold water aquarium please?
My daughter (nearly 14) was very eager to have an aquarium and part of her Christmas present she had a voucher to spend at the local specialist store. I wanted her to learn about it all and be able to take good care and also make good choices… she has a 60litre tank and set it up with (washed) gravel, some plants and a few decorations and we left it more than a week before adding fish. She chose 3 cold water ones. We did everything as carefully as we could and left them in their bag in the water for an hour before opening the bag and letting them into the tank. She also bought 3 algae eaters. After 3 days one fish had died. We were so upset and went back to find out about it. We were told it was probably nitrites and now have the tester kit (it was way high) and have changed some water. She is trying very hard with them and is taking great care. We added a few more little fish and now have a total of 6 small fish, which we think maybe the limit. She has been told not to over-feed them as this can cause death but how much is enough? In her efforts not to feed them too much I am worried she might be feeding too little. She has ‘Aquarian’ fish flakes and we have had very conflicting advice… one person said 2 flakes per fish per day. Another person said put in a few amount - like 5 or 6 flakes each twice a day and what isn’t eaten within 3 minutes then remove - at the rate hers are eating I reckon they would have eaten twice that in 3 minutes! As you can imagine there is an enormous difference between the 2 pieces of info.She wants to get it right and is very meticulous with everything but since losing that one she is really concerned about getting the feeding and water right.
I am not much help as I come from an era when fish were won at Fairs (how awful is that?) and I had a couple of lovely fish who lived several years with minimal fuss and certainly no water testing nor special amount of water changing! They had fresh water every week - used to swim in the sink while their large bowl was cleaned out and seemed to absolutely adore the cold water tap running gently during the cleaning process! Like everything these days it is all so much more complicated! Any help and tips would be appreciated.
Thanks sooo much for that advice. Our main fear was over-feeding but another person said that it isn’t too much food that is the issue as much as the uneaten food causing problems with the water when it is left and uneaten. All her fish are types of goldfish (red cap oranda and a calico and so on) and so should be fairly easy.
When you say a reasonable amount - there isn’t anywhere that says whether 2 flakes or 20 flakes is a good starting point!
Thanks somuch to everyone; I feel more confident we can get it right. Regarding the size.. I have a neighbour who has a wonderful pond and will happily take any that become large of if we feel they are over-crowded. I have been told to add a slice of cucumber for the algae eater but then someone else said that something like cucumber in the water adds to the decay and makes the water condition worse.
The idea of a scavenger would be great - do they combine with goldfish? I’ll look it up. I have a sneaking suspicion we will fast out-grow this tank and it will be replaced with an enormous palace for them in due course! They are really lovely and more friendly than I would have expected!
there should be a feeding guidline on the fishflake packet if not go back to the store and get them to show you the physical amount you should feed per day if its only 6 fish i would think a pinch a day would be sufficient
References :
I understand exactly where your daughter is coming from wanting to get everything perfect. Fish are such wonderful things to have and cold water fish are sometimes easier to care for than tropical fish. The best thing that I have found to do is to give them the food and let them eat. Often most fish will not over eat. The main thing that people talk about with over feeding fish is giving them food every time they walk into the room. Fish are good to be fed for example of a morning before she leaves for school, then either when she gets home of the afternoon or before going to bed. Twice a day has worked out perfectly for me. The amount of flakes to feed depends on the breed and size of the fish and sometimes the age. Give them a small reasonable amount of food and watch them. If they finish that give them a little more until they start slowing down. At this point they are probably getting full. If you notice some flakes reaching the bottom and there are too many you can clean them out, but if only a couple flakes fall, then the fish will eat them later. Often within the next few minutes or so they will clean up the fallen flakes. Just give them this amount of food about 2-3 times a day if you like, but I prefer 2.
As far as the water test goes, just test it once a week or twice a week if you want. If you notice your fish slowly down or having a change in their behavior test the water and get it ajusted to the proper amount. Some fish aren’t very hardy and the store can have a big impact on them. I have found that smaller pet stores or even walmart have had hardy fish. Amazing I know.
If you have a questions about my answer or any other things that you would like to discuss or ask me, add them to the aditional info in your question and I will be checking back fairly often.:-D
References :
Personal
Was the fish that died an algae eater? if so, you probably added him too early, your aquarium after a week probably didn’t have enough algae to sustain him.
Also, it doesn’t exactly go on how many fish you have to be overstocked, it depends on the type of fish, some fish may need more room than you think, for example many people claim that a goldfish is fine in a bowl, which is absolutely false. A goldfish needs up to 30 gallons for its self (depending on the type some need more), a lot of cold water fish species, such a Koi and goldfish grow to be a foot long and produce a lot of wast, depending on the fish you have, you might not be physically over loaded, but you might be biologically over loaded, meaning that your fish are producing too much wast for your filter system to handel.
I’ve never actually heard of a fish eating its self to death, they told you to feed less because extra food, that the fish don’t eat will decay and ruin your water quality. Don’t put too much effort into thinking about how much your feeding them, just make sure after they are done eating there aren’t too many peices of uneaten food floating around, and if there is try to net it out. A general rule of thumb is feed only enough so that all the food is gone in 3 mins.
Depending on if you are over stocked or not, you might want to invest in a "clean up crew" to scavenge for uneaten food, some good idea’s for this would be some Ghost Shrimp (making sure they are compatible with the current fish)
References :
Keeper of one Green Spotted Puffer
and one Figure-8 Puffer
individual tanks of course
Aquarium water condition very important. Have you got an air bubbles pump active. (this has an air stone from which air bubbles come to the surface) Usually associated with warm water tropical fish.
The reason for the air pump is that it puts oxygen into the water via the bubbles; this helps to keep the water fresher for longer. And its used with warm and cold water fish. I know from having gold fish and tropical fish. By the way you can’t have cold water fish with tropical fish mixed. Feeding is simple, but,
fish do not require a lot of food, the more fish you have the bigger amount you give. Say if you had three
little gold fish, a sprinkle of flakes per morning and late at night, is quite sufficient, they would survive on just one sprinkle. You must not over feed, because what’s not eaten fouls the water condition.
I’m quite impressed by your setting up the way you have, and I’m sure you’ll make a success of it.
Remember its an artificial environment and reliant on you to maintain it on a regular routine.
You’re going have to get a secondary tank or large plastic bucket, because the water will have to be
totally changed (emptied out after you’ve put the fish into the secondary tank) while you clean and refill
with fresh water. This is an irksome chore but a necessary action if you want to keep the fish healthy.
Once you’ve done it a few times, it won’t be such of an hassle. But its imperative that you do.
At the moment, I myself have one little gold fish, who I have looked after for 15 years since the Nephew lost interest. Now I have done all I suggest to you and my gold fish is proof of that.The gold fish did have two mates but they were a little older and died about 2 years ago. One solitary fish on his own, but I talk to him and he responds and comes up the top of his tank. I can’t commit to getting him another mate.
I’m 74 and my options are not long term anymore.
I hope this is of some use, but getting into this hobby is a full commitment as I’m sure you’re aware.
givemestrength
Ps Nearly forgot, if you have about six fish the tank will go about 5 weeks and any longer puts more risk with the water fouling up too much. The more fish you have cuts down the length of weeks it can go.
References :
Make it a project you and your daughter can do–research "fishless cycling." In the meantime, take the fish back as they’re suffering from ammonia burns. This involves getting pure ammonia and pretty much pretending to be the fish by adding waste to the water and building good bacteria up. Right now you have no good bacteria and it must start somewhere.
Be sure to use water dechlorinator after every water change–tap water can kill them faster than ammonia burns.
The reason the fish lived so long in bowls is because goldfish are very tolerant of poor care. They can live through almost anything. That’s no excuse to treat them bad now that you know better, right?
Also, do NOT get goldfish unless you have a very large tank! They can grow over a foot given proper care. Sticking them in small tanks/bowls causes "stunting" where the internal organs keep growing and their outsides stop. It causes a long, agonizing death. While they may live for a few years, goldfish are supposed to live 20-40 years with proper care.
For your size (16 gallons or so), I’d stick with some white cloud mountain minnows. Don’t get an algae eater until you’ve gotten your tank under control and have done some research on which are okay in coldwater. (Common plecos grow 2 feet and are tropical.)
If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me!
References :
Fishless Cycling:
http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_fishless.php
What kind of fish do you have? There are a few different coldwater fish that you might have, but they have different requirements. It’s a bit hard to give advice if we don’t know what the fish are
If they’re goldfish for example, then you need to take them back. 60 litres is nowhere near enough room for even a single goldfish. If they’re white cloud mountain minnows then 60 litres is fine for them.
The reason you had nitrite in your tank is because the tank wasn’t cycled before you added the fish. I realise you didn’t know this, but it actually takes more like 4-6 weeks of adding ammonia and monitoring the cycle with a test kit. I would recommend you get yourself a test kit (a liquid drop one rather than the cardboard strips) so you can keep an eye on things yourself. It’s actually really interesting too - the test kits are like a little chemistry set and testing the water yourself helps you to understand exactly what goes on in your tank.
The tank will be cycling now, but once it’s done ammonia and nitrite should always be zero, and nitrate should be kept at or below 20ppm with weekly partial water changes - NEVER change all of the water at once! Also, you’ll occasionally need to clean your filter. Do this by simply rinsing out the sponges in old tank water, NOT under the tap as the chlorine in tap water will kill all your good bacteria.
As for feeding, I would say as much as they can eat in a minute or two, twice a day and net out anything they don’t eat. Two flakes per fish is a rather random figure for someone to come up with, seeing as both flakes and fish come in all kinds of different sizes! While you’re still getting readings for ammonia and nitrite though, I would feed very sparingly as more food = more waste.
EDIT: Good info here on cycling: http://www.fishkeeping.co.uk/articles_51/fishless-cycling-article.htm
References :
Lots of advice so far.
The key with keeping fish is that you’re not ACTUALLY keeping the fish at all, you’re keeping the water! Keep the water healthy, the fish will be healthy, if the water quality goes bad, the fish will get sick and die. Once you and you’re daughter have got into that frame of mind everything else will start to slot into place.
With regards to the olden days and fish in bowls, Goldfish will put up with atrocious living conditions, but it’s far from thriving. These days a LOT more chemicals are in our tap water too, and if you have older piping there will be a lot of heavy metals also, be sure to use dechlorinator as these things can not only harm your fish but harm the essential good bacteria that live in your filter media too - and its those, the bacteria, that you need to keep healthy as it is they that look after your water! Whenever someone on here has mentioned "cycling" - that process grows the bacteria to enough numbers to be able to support fish. A week is NOT long enough! It can take a good month or so for them to be established enough to support the mess fish make.
Fishkeeping does seem exceptionally mind boggling at first, especially compared to how it was done 20, 30, 40 years ago! But at the same time it can be exceptionally absorbing and even educational! I was crap at science at school, but since I’ve started keeping fish my knowledge of chemistry has shot up!
As for feeding, yes there’s a ton of different little rules, ignore the lot. It’s down to trial and error with your particular species of fish and what they are willing to take/what you think is over feeding, and down to the pellet or flake size too. If there’s any waste food falling to the bottom, then you’ve fed too much.
HOWEVER, I do agree with the other poster that recommended taking the fish back to the store, annoying as it is, it is the best move to get your bacterial colony back in check and more research done on fish species!
A coldwater tank is in fact not the best option, I recommend getting a heater and going tropical. A tank without a heater isn’t actually coldwater anyway, it’s room temperature and in summer room temperature can be pretty much tropical anyway! A true coldwater tank has a chiller (which costs 3-4 times as much to buy and run than a heater!).
Buy a heater and research tropical species. In a 60L you could, once your tank’s bacterial colony is back up and healthy, have say, 4-5 male only Platys - colourful, active and one of the hardier beginner fish. DON’T get females, you’ll have endless fry that you’ll get REALLY fed up with.
So yes, take the remaining fish back. Research fishless cycling (it’s not as difficult as it first seems!). Research fish species and you’ll be on the right path.
References :