GOLDFISH

General Care – As a general rule Goldfish are easy to care for and keep happy as long as you follow some simple and honest guidelines. You will find a lot of information on the web about ways to go about caring for your goldfish from putting them in a HUGE tank so they can grow to their intended growth plus some if you are lucky, in the meantime having to spend a fortune on tanks and equipment and a tiny amount on the fish (all seems a little over the top to me).

Then there are those people that think you can squeeze a goldfish into a coffee jar without filtration and only cleaning it once every couple of months, yep an option that is cheap to start with BUT when you have to replace the fish every other week it does become very expensive and heartbreaking especially if you have little ones around waiting for the fish to become an aged adult.

I am going to give you another option that will be a little easier on the pocket than the first option but hopefully give your goldfish a long and healthy life.

I will start by giving you a simple list of needs for 2-3 goldfish to be happy (everyone needs mates to hang out with and you never know if cared for properly they may even produce little ones of their own in years to come)

 

Now don’t go running out and buying any fish yet !!!!!

 Make sure to rinse all of your gravel thoroughly as there will be dirt and bits in there that you do not need floating around with your fish.

Also make sure to give the tank a good rinse out with some water, please do not use cleaning agents as these will most definitely cause serious illness if not death.

Give any plants and ornaments a rinse off with water also, again only water. If you have decided to put live plants in I would recommend soaking them in a bucket of water for a few days, snails like to hitch rides in plants and can cause chaos in a tank (more about this later)

Ok so everything has been rinsed and washed off (With water of course), it in now time to do the setting up (NO - DO NOT go running off to get fish, sit back down and continue to read).

Place your tank where you would like to have it, preferably not too close to a window or glass door as direct sunlight does 2 things :

Now carefully put your gravel in, don’t just chuck it in there, we are dealing with glass after all and it will break if not treated with a little respect.

Once you have placed the gravel in sort out how you would like your plants and ornaments (if you have any), it is easier to do this now before any water goes in unless you like swimming.

Now the filter (washed I hope). Place it so when the water is put in it will be blowing the water along the length of the tank.

You can also place the background on the back of the tank.

 Ok now the fun part, make sure to read the instructions on the back of the water conditioner bottle. These all use different amounts per litre so read carefully. Start filling buckets and adding the water conditioner required to each and every bucket. Assuming you are using 9 Litre Buckets you should only need to make 6 bucket trips (I have 5 buckets for this reason).

Once the tank is filled with water turn on the filter and allow this to run for at least 24 hours before adding fish, 3 days would be better to get rid of any bit’s you missed when rinsing things.

Now sit back and watch that empty tank, have a coffee, a few munchies and 3 days will fly (Like any off us have 3 spare days lying around to do this LOL)

Ok so 3 days have gone …NOPE do not go running off …..get back here I say!!

The tank is now ready to be cycled, yep I hear you now say WHAT? I said cycled, I will explain it all to you now.

For your tank to be safe for your fish it need’s to go through a transformation, you can do this fishless but for now I will explain the “cycling with fish” for you.

When fish are in the tank they have to go to the toilet just like us BUT the tank is their toilet, this creates ammonia build up which can and will (if allowed to get too high) kill your fish (small water changes when the ammonia levels become high will help, you will know when by using the ammonia test kit). Amazingly enough a beneficial bacteria that converts this ammonia is about to happen. This bacteria convert’s ammonia into Nitrite, Nitrite is still dangerous to fish so we need to keep a close eye on it (again using a test kit marked Nitrite). If the nitrite gets too high change a little bit of water). After some time (can be 1 week can be a month all depends on how many fish you are using to cycle and what they are) another bacteria starts to establish itself, this is the bacteria that converts nitrite to nitrates. Nitrates are not as dangerous to your fish, but if water changes are not done on a regular basic it can and possibly will cause all sort of diseases due to stress in your fish. The only way to get rid of nitrates in your tank is to change approx 25% of the water in the tank weekly. Again the amount of water and how often is generally decided by how many fish you have in the tank, the more fish the more often it needs to be done.

I personally recommend cycling with white cloud mountain minnows, they are hardy little fish and can be used in cold-water tanks. You can also have these in the tank with goldfish once cycling is complete although I have heard that they become dinner for larger goldfish I have not had this happen yet.

Once your Ammonia and Nitrite levels are at 0 your tank is fully cycled and ready for your goldfish, only add one at a time and watch the Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate levels, it will only take a couple of days for the bacteria to reproduce enough to keep the levels at 0 again.

Additional equipment – Siphon – Great for helping clean out that gravel during water changes, it sucks up some of the debris out of the gravel. I recommend doing this every 2^nd water change. On the off weeks that you do not siphon I recommend cleaning the sponge in the filter as this can get clogged. Just take the sponge out of the filter and rinse it out in the bucket of water you have just removed from the aquarium. DO NOT RINSE UNDER TAP WATER, this will kill the beneficial bacteria living there.

PH of tank – Your goldfish would like a PH of between 7.2 and 7.6. If it is a little higher or lower than this they will still do well, I try not to recommend buffers such as PH UP and PH Down since they can become unstable and create more of a problem for the fish when the PH fluctuates all the time.

Temperature of Tank – Although the ideal temperature for your goldfish is about 15 – 26 degree’s Celsius, they can and will tolerate higher and lower temperatures as long as it is a gradual change. The days warm up slowly and then cool down in the afternoon, your goldfish will be ok with this BUT if you decide to change the water on a hot summers day in the middle of the day with freezing cold tap water your little guy or girl will not like it at all and my get sick.

Foods – Goldfish generally do well on flake food made especially for them, normally consisting of vegetable matter. You can also feed your goldfish shelled pea’s as this helps stop constipation, also 1 day a week do not feed your Goldfish and he will be fine, it allows there metabolism time to catch up with all the food they have eaten the other 6 days of the week. I also occasionally give my Goldfish some frozen bloodworms or brine shrimp. Basically your goldfish will eat just about anything you put in the tank weather it is intended as food or not (like live plants).

LAST WORDS – Have fun, enjoy your growing fish and don’t get put off by a few setbacks. Rome was not built in a day and neither will your beautiful centerpiece to your room. Fish do get sick unfortunately and at least half of the time it is because of the conditions they were made to live in before arriving at your door, if you do happen to have a death in your goldfish family don’t blame yourself but do take note of the symptoms just in case it was a preventable disease that your didn’t suspect until it was too late. The quicker you pick up changes in your fish’s appearance and behaviour the faster you can treat if there is a problem. Also some aquarium salt is good to have on hand as it can treat quite a few ailments without causing any harm to your biological filter that you have maintained.

 GOODLUCK and Happy Fish Keeping

 

THE GUPPY

Where to start with this beautiful fish and prolific breeder?

I guess the best place to start is at the beginning so I am going to tell you a few things that not many people are told when they purchase this fish from a fish shop, pet store or giant retailer.

Guppies are livebearers, meaning they give birth to live young.

They also have the ability to store sperm, this means that when a female has not been with a male for many weeks she can still drop fry.  I found this extremely interesting to find out since it had never been mentioned to me in the early days of my fish keeping. I personally think myself very lucky that I visited forums and website’s before buying guppies otherwise I would have had more problems than I did have.

The guppy is also known as the “million’s fish” due to their breeding behaviours.

• They will generally drop fry every 3-4 weeks.

•  If they have been away from a male the drops could continue for up to about 6 months before she has no stored sperm left.

• A female guppy is able to drop anywhere from 3 fry up to approx 100, I personally have not owned a fish that has dropped 100 fry but it has been reported.

• Guppies come in a range of colour’s

• Male guppies are more colourful than females.

• Female guppies tend to have very basic colouring.

• Females have “gravid” spots on their abdomen when they are pregnant, these gravid spots are actually her young fry’s eyes.

• Male’s have a gonopodium which is a modified fin used for inseminating a female.

• Male’s inseminate females by swimming up next to a and penetrate a female with the gonopodium thus inseminating them. If you watch your males when they are around females you will see them trying to do this all the time.

• It is recommended that if you wish to breed these fish you should have 1 male to 3-4 females.

• If you are wanting to breed these fish you will need either a well planted tank or a spare tank to place the fry in when they are born.

• Guppies will eat their own young and other guppies will follow a female that is in labour around and wait for her fry to drop and then eat them.

• Although guppies tend to be pretty hardy fish they do suffer with tail-rot if their water is not cleaned regularly due to their long finnage.

• Because of a guppies breeding behaviour’s they can over populate a tank very quickly and cause your biological filter to crash if not watched carefully.

• Some places will buy or give you store credit for your healthy guppy fry but most have minimum size limits so you will possibly need a grow out tank if this is what you want to do.

• Guppies are tropical fish, they need a heater in their aquarium. Optimum temp is between 24 and 28 degrees celcius.

 

 I have successfully bred these charmers in our home aquarium with absolutely no difficulty. On rare occasions you can actually see a female dropping her young but generally she will do this at night after you have gone to bed.

There are no sure signs that your female is in labour, when I started keeping guppies I wanted to know the sure signs that she was indeed going to have fry but the answers were never there.

Sometimes a female that is going to drop will display some or all of the signs I am going to list below, sometimes it is something totally different that sets her off to show these signs when she is not going to deliver at all.

Signs of possible labour are:

• Staying in one place without much swimming or moving.

• Looking like she is shimmering (this is actually labour and her trying to move the fry out)

• Not eating when fed.

• Moving away from the other fish in the tank.

• Being “rammed” into by other fish in the tank (they tend to ram her abdomen to force her to drop so they can eat)

• Fast gill motion or sometimes really laboured breathing.

• Sometimes you can actually see that her vent is swollen or slightly opened.

  

I can not tell you how rewarding it is to know that you have just become a guppy granny or grandaddy LOL.

It truly does give you an all time high to know that you have actually been able to get something to breed in your tank. The guppy is the most popular starting breeder because of the ease of doing it.

Young guppy fry need finely ground up foods to start with but if cared for correctly they will grow quite quickly and be able to have what everyone else has.

SIAMESE FIGHTING FISH (AKA BETTA SPLENDENS)

  

THE FACTS

The Siamese Fighting Fish is native to the South-East Asian region of Thailand (formerly Siam), Cambodia and Vietnam. It survives in the wild anywhere where still water lies, such as rice paddies, stagnant ponds and road-side drains.

These fish have been bred for over 1,000 years in Thailand, both as ornamental type and the fighting type.

In Thailand they wage bets on which fish will continue to fight even when the other has given up, sometimes even to the death. In most Countries this is an illegal practice.

It must be said that these fish are very placid while alone but put with another of their kind (and even other species of fish) they can and generally will become extremely aggressive.

The Siamese Fighting Fish is also known by the name Betta Splendens, (meaning Splendid Betta).

The Siamese Fighting fish possesses a very special characteristic, Known also as the “Labyrinthine Fish”, this organ allows the fish to not only to breathe through it’s gill’s but to process oxygen that is obtained by poking it’s mouth out of the water and gulping air. This enables the fish to live in oxygen-poor or even stagnant water.

 

KNOWLEDGE IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS

Ok now with the facts down I would like to clear some misconception’s regarding the general care of these beautiful fish.

Although the Betta (I am going to use this term from now on, easier on my fingers) has been known to live in stagnant water and oxygen poor water it is not a choice of clean or stagnant for the Betta. Unfortunately if there has not been any moisture or rain the fish is forced to live in less than great conditions. It has been noted on more than one occasion that Betta’s will skip from puddle to puddle to find a more sanitary home. They do not like dirty water and I would urge you to keep this in mind if you either own a Betta or would like to.

Betta’s are not for fighting, it is not fun to see 2 fish ripping each other to pieces. They behave this way because they have to, it is in there blood to fight anything that may be seen as a threat to their territory.

 

FOR THE NEW PARENTS OF BETTA’S

I am hoping that you are reading this before going out and getting one of these beautiful fish but in case you already have one and are wondering what now, how do I care for a fish I know little about I can help you on your way a little. I am by no mean’s an expert but I do have some first hand knowledge of these fish, and yep I have made mistakes and now I would like to share them with you so you can avoid making the same ones I did.

OK first off, I had been told by many Local Fish Store and internet sources (I was self taught on the art of fish keeping) that Betta’s don’t need large amounts of water,  heaters or lots of water changes.

YEP so you read those one’s and are now reading in horror, with your fingers gripping the side of your chair waiting for the $300.00 bill to look after your fish as it should be. WELL Relax, these fish are not high maintenance, demanding or needing to have a fortune spent on them.

To start with, get your new Betta's a decent home…..NOPE not a 50 Litre tank with bells and whistles, something that will hold between 7+Litres of water is fine for now. The bigger the tank the less maintenance is needed.

You will also need a heater to suit your tank size, Yes I know people have told you that you do not need heaters BUT I am here to tell you that these fish are Tropical (meaning = Hot and Humid), OK so no we do not want to cook our fish but he needs warm water. If you are in your summer then he should be ok for now but before Winter hits please consider a heater or heat pad.

If you are unable to purchase a heater right now and you already have your little friend I recommend that you place his tank in an area of your home that stays fairly warm, not in direct sunlight and not where cold air comes rushing through.

Make sure to place water conditioner in all new water before adding it to his tank, chlorine burns are nasty (no have never done this but have seen picture’s of fish that have suffered this fate). If you would like to add a plant or an ornament make sure that there is no sharp edges to catch your Betta’s fins in, they will rip and this in turn generally causes bacteria to cause fin rot.

With a tank of around 7 Litres you will need to change the water at least 2 times a week but I would recommend changing approx 4 Litres every second day, this will stop some of the diseases caused by bad water conditions, like fin and tail rot.

I have had a few cases in my early days of fin and tail rot and it is a pain, not only to try and treat but to watch you beautiful fish turn into a ripped and ragged boy.

If you do suspect fin or tail rot I recommend adding some salt to your water changes as this seems to help if the fin rot has only just started.

Now we had better talk about food, my preferred food to use is Sanyu Betta Gold Pellets and frozen blood worms as a treat. I also feed my fish 3 times a day, 2 pellets a time. It is also recommended by quite a few experienced Betta keepers to fast your Betta's for one day a week and then feed only shelled pea’s for a day as this helps stop constipation which can kill your fish if not treated straight away (I have never had a case of constipation in my fish).

Another Betta killer is “Dropsy” which is detected by looking at your fish from the top, he will look like a “pine cone”, if this is the case the chances are that he will die. You can try treating with salt but unfortunately Dropsy is classified as “not treatable” by many people including myself (I have had to humanly put Betta’s to sleep due to this illness). If you catch “dropsy” before your fish has pine coned then you may be able to save him, it has happened on occasion. Dropsy is one of those diseases that is an “unknown cause” and could possibly be a genetic trait.

Betta’s tend to have a lifespan of about 2 years but I have heard of people having them for may more years than this. Unfortunately unless you purchase a Betta from a breeder that keep’s records (which is very expensive) you can never be sure of the true age of your fish. I have asked many question’s in many Fish Shop’s about the age of their fish and not one has been able to give me even an estimated age, most say at least 1 year as this is when the males really colour up and get those beautiful flowing fins. Since this is the case and 1 year is an estimation you can only be sure to have your fish for approx 6 Months, after this it really is borrowed time. Also not knowing how the fish were kept before arriving at the shop and then seeing them in those plastic throw away cups (you know the ones, most fish shops use them) in maybe 200ml’s of water (if they are lucky), your fish has had a life of stress and that will show, maybe in behaviour for a couple of days or possibly by a disease becoming obvious. I try not to blame myself if a loss happens soon after getting a Betta since the living condition’s they have had to endure while waiting for a new bigger home is less than ideal and my general assumption is that a disease was present that I did not detect until I was home with my new friend.

I would like to offer you a few last words of wisdom……..PLEASE spread the word about Betta’s and their need’s, so many people shrug it off and say “it’s just a fish” but you will find out soon enough that it simply not true. If cared for properly these fish are very loyal and will greet you at every chance they get, they will eat from your fingers and even let you touch them. This is all trust based and you need to spend time with them but it is so worth the effort to be wished a good night by your finned friend.

 

I hope I have helped you understand a little more about the beautiful fish, they are one of my favourite fish.

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