Having trouble with keeping any goldfish

Question
3 years ago I tried to keep a few fantail goldfish and they all got whitespot, swimbladder and fin rot and died within a week of me having them.

I pretty much gave up and didnt bother getting anymore as i found it upsetting.

A week ago today I won a goldfish at a fair and he lived in a bowl until yesterday then i brought him a 6 litre tank. yesterday when I went to transfer him to the new tank I noticed he had ick on his tail. I don't really understand why as i was doing water changes from his bowl every 2 days. I do know that maybe he wasn't looked after well if I won him at a fair.

Well today I added ick treatment to the new tank and then added some filter start liquid. An hour later he had what apperead to be a seizure swimming so fast and banging into the sides of the tank this happened after i fed him. He then seemed to swim in circles on one side then fell to the bottom and died within minutes. I just wondered what I did wrong? I don't understand why all the fish I keep die within days. Also I checked his water quality in the new tank and it was normal for all ph, amonia and nitrite.

Is it usually easy to keep a fish healthy? I know there is some work involved but do that many people have thier fish die all the time so quickly? i feel like a failure now i've lost 4 fish in total.

I really want to try again next week can you advise me on the best way to look after them and keep them healthy?

Thanks in advance

Answer
Hi Andrea,

I wouldn't feel like a failure mate. Goldfish aren't exactly the easiest fish to get started with and the fact they still give them away at fairs is beyond belief.

I'll give you a step-by-step guide on how to get started and if it goes wrong then I'm wrong. Which will make me look pretty stupid because apparently I'm a Goldfish expert.

Right, so you've got a 6G tank and a bowl right? that's your first mistake. The problem with Goldfish is they release huge amounts of ammonia into the water. A tank/ bowl without any filter system will end up becoming toxic towards fish. I'm guessing the bowl was newly set-up which means ammonia, nitrite and other nasties would have been present in huge numbers.
Goldfish need at least 10G to themselves, they are active, boisterous and full of energy. They also tend to suffer from oxygen starvation and love to sit at the surface gasping air from the oxygen rich surface water. A bowl/ tank with a small area of surface water is not suitable for a Goldfish.

This is a step-by-step guide to setting up your Goldfish Aquarium. If you feel it's a bit patronising then let me know!

Here's a shopping list, I'm sure you've got some of this stuff already but all of it will be needed at some point:

1) Tank with Cover
2) Filter and Air Pump with airline/ air stone
3) Gravel
4) Rocks, decorations
5) Plastic plants
6) Real plants (ideally canadian pond-weed)
7) Thermometer
8) Two hand nets
9) Tapwater conditioner
10) Gravel Vac
11) Flake/ Frozen foods
12) Test kits
13) Fish (obviously)

Now that sounds like a lot but it's all pretty crucial stuff. The real plants however, are entirely up to you. Goldfish love Canadian pond-weed and it serves as a snack for when they're bored.

Essential Steps

1) Rinse Gravel and wipe out tank with a clean, damp cloth

2) position tank in an area away from direct sunlight (this will help keep algae down)

3) connect filters and air pump. Add media to filter (ideally carbon) then position in tank.

4) Record the pH and hardness of the tapwater. Fill the tank. Bring the tapwater to room temperature with a little boiling water from the kettle; add water conditioner and check pH and hardness again.

5) Introduce real plants at this stage (ideally with the tank 3/4 full to avoid overflow)

6) Turn on filter and air pump and readjust if necessary.

7) Use live bacteria to mature filter pads and build bacteria colony. This will inhibit new tank syndrome and allow immediate stocking of the tank

8) Float fish in bag for 15-20 minutes to avoid thermal shock

Monitor the rise and fall of ammonia and nitrite levels over the first four to six weeks. Feed the fish sparingly during this period. Carry out 50% water changes once a week for the first month or so; then 25% every two to four weeks.

The biggest problem I'm asked about is diseases/ ailments that usually boil down to people not offering their goldfish a varied diet.
In the wild Goldfish loosely shoal together and pick at live plants. Therefore you should aim to use plant matter as the mainstay of your Goldfish's diet. A high quality flake food should be used once or twice a week along with a treat of frozen or live bloodworm/ daphnia a couple of times a month. Remove uneaten food to avoid fluctuations of the ammonia levels.

Any probs then let me know

Tom