Hello everyone. I am new here so please be gentle with me!

I have been reading lots of the articles and advice on here and now feel guilty as hell as I was not told much of this when buying my fish.
I bought everything from world of water and thought I would be told the right things, but reading the stuff on here I can see that is not the case

My first feeling of guilt is because I only have a 14 ltr tank. It's one of the children's set up kits (Marina aquarium kits) as it was for my niece, but to stay here).
I've now read that at least a minimum of 30 lts for fancy fish should be used. Why on earth do they sell tanks that are too small for fish?
I can't afford a bigger tank yet but will try to save up to get one soon.

We have 2 little fish, one bubble eyed fish, Jaws, who is a few yrs old. The newer fish,a fantail, sharkbait, has only been mine about 2 weeks.

Jaws is looking really unwell, pale and this morning I have noticed little white spots on this tail. He is mostly laying on the bottom of the tank. Sharkbait is healthy, swimming, active, with no spots.

Jaws has had swim bladder a few months back, when he lived on his own, but I cleared that with a few little peas, as I read online. He recovered quickly.

I was told everything I needed was in the kit (which was a tank, filter, nutrafin aqua plus and nutrafin cycle.)
I have two real plants in as well as the gravel and a few very small glow in the dark pebbles.

I really love these little fish and want them to be as healthy as possible and am upset to see Jaws looking so poorly.

So can I have advice about what needs doing and how urgent it is? I will have to get some white spot treatment asap I know, and hope it saves him.

I have today added another dose of the aqua plus and cycle.

The info leaflet that came with the tank said it was fine to add the fish straight away to the new tank with the nutrafin cycle, so I hope by doing this i've not caused them stress/illness. The tank has been set up for two weeks tomorrow.

Please can I have nice, helpful advice, no judgement as I feel guilty enough as it is, finding out these things, like tank size. Thank you in advance. x

Don't worry, it's not entirely you fault, fishstores are largely to blame for giving poor advice. If you can't get a tank asap then I suggest you head to a large store like tesco or staples and buy the largest food safe box eg a'really useful storage box' you can find (they are really cheap!). You can use this to temporarily house the fish. I'm new to fish keeping to and thankfully have not encountered any disease yet, so can't advise on that, but someone will be on shortly.

Hi Fishynovice!
Most of us been through the same problem, taking advice from fish shops is really a bad idea.

For a fantail and bubble eye, you'll need a tank at least 140l. They can get really big! If they keeping living in a place like that for a month, they might be stunt and live for another 1 year only .
Like Tknoxx said, a large food safe box is water tight and good for a temporary home. You'll also need a filter and a water testing kit (API master test kit is recommended by all of us ). Buying the test kit from E-bay is cheaper than in store.

I don't know about those cycling produce but most of us prefer to do it another way which is cheaper and safer.This article should explain it.
http://www.fishkeeping.co.uk/articles ... hless-cycling-article.htm

For such a small tank and 2 fish with no filter, I think the water quality is really bad. You should do a daily 20% water change while finding another home for the fish.

If you can't afford a big tank that hold 140l. I really suggest you to rehome the fish and keep some smaller species. If you want to rehome the fish, you can contact to one of our member jasperdad, he'll help you find a good home for your goldfish!

Thank you. I will be looking for a second hand tank as well.




This is how Jaws is looking now He's dying isn't he?






Sharkbait, looking healthy and happy.




This is the set up




The side of Jaws.

Sharkbait keeps staying right by Jaws as well. Do fish notice when others are ill?

Thank you for the advice Nathan. The tank does have a filter (a Marina internal filter).

Why on earth would the fish store sell me that small tank with a fish that can grow so much, and when I said I have one fish at home to go in this new tank? Makes me so mad, as it may be making these fish suffer, esp. Jaws who is poorly.

I think fish do notice when others are ill.

Nope your fish won't die if you act fast! For now do a 20% water change as soon as possible and get some treatment or ich (white spot). However dose carefully as your tank is too small, you have to be very careful

Thank you! I was never told about cycling and feel angry that none of this was ever mentioned to me when buying the fish at the same time as the tank.

Ok, I will do a water change and get some white spot treatment tomorrow. I couldn't get to a shop today. I just hope the "cycle" and "aqua plus" i've used today will help. I can't believe they didn't tell me to buy testing strips too. I thought that was just for tropical fish.

I've read the excellent articles on here about cycling with fish so will do that too. Thank you again.

I'm afraid that the 140 litres Nathan suggested was for 1 goldfish. For two goldfish the article on this forum suggests closer to 200l.

Buy the box and a new filter ASAP and keep your fingers crossed. Run the new filter in the box along with the old one so it can start growing bacteria that will process your fishes waste. The only downside to a box rather than a tank is the way it looks. There's no reason you can't use one in the medium term while you find the right tank.

If money is tight I would recommend all pond solutions. They do cheap Chinese imports with amazing chinglish instructions but the products are always good for the job. This is their smallest external filter. Its bigger than you would normally use for a 200 litre tank but goldies really benefit from extra filtration. It also comes with a spraybar, which is probably something you'll need.

Linky

In the mean time If you can get hold of seachem Prime it would also be really helpful to your fish. It detoxifies ammonia and nitrites and while its not a perfect solution, it will buy you time.

Have you space for a larger tank? Really you should be looking at one that's about 140 litres or around that for these two guys. If you have the space, then you could look at some second hand sites such as preloved or ebay - even car boot sales - it's possible to pick up larger tanks for quite cheap.

Also don't buy the testing strips, they're not very accurate, so try get the bottled ones instead - the API Freshwater master testing kit is the most value for money, it'll go out of date before you run out!

In the meantime, keep changing 20% of the water every day - and add the water conditioner to the water before you add it to the tank. Any other questions, just shout - I think most of us here started the same way!

Hi, if you need an emergancy home this is good and cheap

http://direct.asda.com/ASDA-110-Litre ... and-Lid---Clear/001421736,default,pd.html

and this


http://www.allpondsolutions.co.uk/aqu ... rium-internal-filter.html


Or if you want to get a perminant home

A 180L tank and use this

http://www.allpondsolutions.co.uk/aqu ... rnal-filter-1400-l-h.html

JON