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, not a Plant expert and not a Brackish setup 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 in-home consultation and aquarium maintenance for my clients.
Question I recently got married and we had goldfish as centerpieces
on 15 tables. I got excited b/c i have never had fish and
wanted to keep a few. Before the wedding we set up a ten
gallon tank, filled it with gravel, distilled water(assumed
it would be best cleanliness) and a whisper filter. We let
the filter run for a few days, then bought fifteen goldfish
and put them in the tank. The fish were fine for several
days, the wedding came and we moved all but two fish to the
table centerpieces and left two in the tank for us. All the
fish from the wedding that people took seem to have
lived...However, my two have just recently died. they both
developed a cotton-like white stringy material on them and
became inactive before they died. My question is...What
killed them? I just dumped all the water out and am letting
the aquarium dry completely...I read that will kill anything
that is killing the fish. Will that be sufficient?...than I
should just fill the tank and dechlorinate it and put the
proper number of fish in it to cycle it?
Answer Hi Tim;
I retrieved your question from the question pool. I think I can help you...
I don't think it was a disease that killed your goldfish. It was basically "New Tank Syndrome", overcrowding and lethal levels of waste toxins. You just need to know more about new tanks and more about goldfish in order to keep them healthy. Fifteen of any kind of fish (especially goldfish) is just too much for a ten gallon tank. Read the web pages at the following links about new tanks to get started again, especially those regarding "cycling" or "New Tank Syndrome", starting with my own page about it;
Distilled water is not good for fish. It lacks minerals and trace elements that fish need. Just use tap water and use a good water conditioner to fill the tank and make water changes. It's cheaper and easier to use tap water anyway.
Goldfish are very messy fish that produce a lot of waste. In reality, each goldfish needs at least ten gallons of water and good filtration all for itself. They grow to be over 8 inches long and just need the space. A goldfish can be okay for a short time in smaller tanks, but very soon you start to see signs of stress and illness as they produce too much waste for their environment. Here is a link to good information on keeping goldfish to help you know more about them and what they need;
