No More Fish April 29, 2008
Mori, our surviving goldfish, was dead when we got up this morning. I’d moved him to the smaller tank while we kept treating the big tank and, oddly, I think that might have been the death of him. So now we are fishless again.
I’m at a loss for what to do next. I don’t want to buy more fish if we’re only going to kill them.
I was a bit surprised that he’d moved onto the aquarium invisible. I thought he was unstoppable. it’s a bit sad really. I think your idea of treating the tanks properly and then trying again is a good one. I do think that book you saw might give us some fresh ideas.
I really just can’t believe it is this hard for a bunch of reasonable clever people to keep a bunch of goldfish alive.
Poor Mory.
If you do decided to have more fish, I’d suggest you rinse everything (gravel, ornaments, tank, filter stuff) with boiling water, then let it dry. Spreading the gravel over cheap-arse paper towel tends to suck the moisture out nicely, and the towel can go in the compost after.
Leave everything to dry for a couple of days. That should reduce chemical residue and drying will kill off any of the cysts or free parasites. I did this after the columnaris and it seemed to work - different bug i know.
I’d skip aging the water in a bucket. Even a clean plastic bucket probably leaches things fish don’t like (fussy little beggars). Running the tank for a day or two before putting the fish in will have a similar effect.
Oh, no. James is desperate to have a fish (we have the tank already set up)and I’ve actually been holding off, waiting to see what happens next/benefit from your experience. We’ll try the boiling everything bit as Joanna mentioned (all our gear is second hand) and avoid buckets.