AboutChris Robbins Expertise I have 25+ years of personal experience as a pet
store employee and manager in the family pet store
business. The main part of our business was
Freshwater Fish. I can answer questions on; Fish care, diseases,
parasites and fish identification, feeding your
fish, breeding and sexing your fish, setting up
your aquarium, cleaning your aquarium, and
"what`s this weird stuff in my tank/on my
fish" questions. I am not an African Cichlid expert, Plant expert or Brackish Expert. No Pond or Saltwater Questions Please.
Experience I worked in and managed my family's fish and pet and fish store for 26 years and maintained the 35 aquariums. My experience also has included occasional in-home consultation and aquarium maintenance for my clients.
Question Hi Stacey
I have a 29gal. aquarium. I started with 10 goldfish but now i am down to 7. I assume the first one died from the water heater, so I turned it off. The second one stayed at the top of the tank in the corner and died the next day. And with the third one i saw a struggle. He would try to get to the top gulping but would sink back down on his side as he continued to do until I flushed him. The tank was level full with one filter but i emptied it halfway. What should I do to prevent the others from dying?
Answer Hi Janita;
Ten goldfish is just way too much for a 29 gallon tank. Waste toxin levels have probably gone too high and are poisoning them. As time goes by the weaker ones succumb to the stress. Those guys are messy and need at least 10 gallons per fish as they grow to maturity of about 8 inches.
All tanks need a 25% water change once a week every week to keep the fish healthy. Change the water more often if the tank is overcrowded, just like yours is now. You can change 25% of the tank water two or three times a week to keep them in better shape until you can get a larger tank or until you can re-home the extra fish. It is important to make smaller changes (25%) more often and not to change a large amount less often. Here is more info on goldfish and what they need to thrive;
Please don't "flush" fish until they have actually died. It's a long agonizing and suffocating death for them. Here is a web page about how to euthanize fish in a humane way if you need to do that again in the future;
