DD won a goldfish at the carnival on July 4th. We got her a nice tank with a filter and some gravel and decorations etc. She's been doing nicely and getting bigger.
I've been cycling out her water weekly as per directed by Google. I NEED a gravel vacuum though. What would you recommend? There are some really cheap ones and also ones that cost a lot more. I'd like to keep this as budget-friendly as possible.
LOL this has morphed into a much larger endeavor than I imagined. DD was marveling over her "free goldfish" and how much money we saved by winning until I took her to PetSmart and showed her that they cost .17 a piece there.
The truth is I love fish and looking at them swim. I would have a huge aquarium if I could. I am happy to take care of her. Her name is Glitter
You stick the fat end into the gravel and it siphons off the water and grossness that collects in the gravel, and then you refill with fresh water. It's not perfect, but it worked well between more thorough tank cleans.
Get one of these. MUCH easier than cleaning the gravel.
Once upon a time, I had one of these.
And it got a little...over-eager to clean and took the skin off of a few of my fish and killed them.
I have post traumatic cleaner fish owner disorder.
Mine always did this to the sick fish. The others wouldn't let it get close enough to stick.
My dad had a giant fish (I can't remember what kind. It was big, freshwater, and aggressive as fuck) that ate the head of my plecostomus. We came home from the grocery store and I saw it floating and freaked out. "Dad! Your big mean fish just ate my plecostomus!"
I love this! You are definitely a dedicated goldfish grandma. lol I had a carnival goldfish that lived 6+ years. He got about 3.5" long in a 2.5 gallon tank. And he eventually turned from orange to silver. It was so weird. His name was Connor and he was resilient. My cat once knocked his bowl down and he slid across the kitchen...I had to scoop him up and put him in a glass of water until I could get another tank.
Post by themysteriouswife on Jul 27, 2015 14:51:20 GMT -5
This sounds similar to my hermit crab story. H and DD bought two. H thought it would be a simple cheap pet. Over $100 later we had a nice home for them.
When we had fish I had the cheapest vacuum they made. It was not fancy. Goldfish die too quick to put a lot of money into the equipment
LOL, for one goldfish? Glitter is going to get HUGE!
Google said they need a big tank!
Google says a lot of things.
Goldfish will basically grow as huge as, or stay as small as, their environment will let them. But I do commend you for keeping it in an actual tank and not a bowl - they'll be a lot healthier with an actual filtration system.
We have a 40 gallon tank and 2 of the goldfish we had got 8" long. We rehomed them to a local pond because they were just too big for the tank to be comfortable. Disclaimer: We took water from the pond to acclimate them to the new water and got permission from the pond owner.
Yeah, don't do this, even with permission from the pond owner.
I'd suggest what Nonny suggested - especially the one she posted that has the suction bulb. This kind is a pain in the ass to get started. Pleco's are really fun too but can get very large. Get a really small one. Corydoras, or cory catfish, are really fun too and they are peaceful bottom feeders. My favorites are the albino ones.
Well, yes, but they only grow as big as their tank will allow them. In a 10 gallon tank, a small one will stay relatively small.
Goldfish will basically grow as huge as, or stay as small as, their environment will let them. But I do commend you for keeping it in an actual tank and not a bowl - they'll be a lot healthier with an actual filtration system.
She's doing really well! She swims around a lot and I think she "knows" us, or at least when a blob approaches the tank she's getting food.
The aquarium system was on sale when we went to PetSmart.
If you're invested in keeping the fish, a Python is an amazing tool. You attach it to a sink or hose and it's a gravel vacuum and refills with water (you dose the tank with a water conditioner, like Prime, all at once).
10gal for 1 goldfish is good. They're dirty fish, so they need a lot of water. I had one common goldfish and one fancy goldfish in a 29gal tank and that was really at capacity. The common fish was as big as my hand and 8 years old. He was a $.69 'feeder' fish from a petstore.
If you're doing water cycling, gravel cleaning, you'll be golden. Be sure to get a good filter with good filter guts. Not sure what the going recs are these days, but I think one that stores the filter guts outside of the tank vs. within the tank is preferred.
Once you get your tank established, doing a weekly ~50% water change with a Python and a bigger water change and tank washing when it looks like it's getting cruddy is about all you need.
Feed less food than you probably think you need. Sinking pellets are better for digestion than floating stuff. (Less air eaten, less inclined to bloat, etc...but you worry more about that stuff with fancy fish.) You can also feed them greens and veggies (they love peas--de-shell the pea and squeeze the pea guts in the water.) In winter when water is cold feed even less because they go a bit dormant with colder water.
I had to re-home my goldfish to a koi pond in a neighbor's yard a couple years ago when his tank just wasn't big enough anymore and I was going to work overseas for a few months.
I promise I won't flush her or release her to the wild!
Also, I don't know if you actually have a girl fish, but if you do keep an eye out for them getting eggbound. It's more prone to happen in fancy fish...not sure what kind of goldfish you have. I lost my favorite fancy goldfish to that. It sucked.
You can google how to tell if it's a male/female. It's weird but pretty easy to identify once they're big enough.
I'll have to google it! We have two daughters and our dog is female so we just default to "she" here. Poor DH
Post by kellykapowski on Jul 27, 2015 15:38:55 GMT -5
Our 2 year old carnival goldfish just died yesterday. RIP Ball. So we did the logical thing and bought a replacement gold fish so our super high anxiety 5 year old wouldn't have to mourn the death of her bff.
What? She's going through a lot of changes right now. If this one dies, we'll talk death with her. PLEASE DON'T DIE BALL REPLACEMENT!!
Oh and I don't have recs for a vacuum. I just clean the rocks by hand like I'm rinsing rice. No wonder Ball died.
Don't get a pleco. They are supposed to be big fish, they won't do well in a 10gal. A 10gal for a single goldfish is great. You might size up eventually, but that's your choice. Now, here's where I go off on my know it all rant. It's true that fish like goldfish and even plecos will say small in a smaller tank, but it is really terrible for them to be in a too small tank. They may stop getting bigger, but their internal organs continue to grow, become compressed because there's not enough room in their little bodies, and they will die prematurely. A 10gal is sufficient for a single goldfish, but not for a pleco. There are other cleaner fish you can choose from.
As for your actual question, cheap and simple will be a thousand times better than nothing at all. I used a cheap one like this www.amazon.com/Python-Pro-Clean-Mini-Tube-Hose/dp/B0002APRT2/ref=zg_bs_3048856011_12 but would have loved a python to hook to my sink. For a 10 gallon tank, you wouldn't necessarily need more than the simple version and a 5 gallon bucket. If you have trouble lifting 3gallons or so of water in a bucket, get a fancy siphon. Also to consider is that if your water is chlorinated you're going to want to treat it before adding it to the tank, so you're going to be lifting that bucket anyway.