Some students moved out of a house and left their poor fantail goldfish there to rot. I took pity on him (asuming its a boy) and took him home. Not knowing what to do with him, I have done a 50% water change twice with bottled spring water. Fed him fish flakes and a few frozen peas (cooked and mushed up)about twice a day.

I have had him for five days now and he is bright and lively and has a healthy apetite.

I really dont know what to do, all info i see on the internet is either conflicting or for brand new tanks. I dont know how old he is although by the looks of things he may be young, possibly six months. There is an airiator in the tank but no filter. Not sure of the tank size itself but is around 10litres at a guess.

When I found him the airiator had been switched off, the tank looked quite cloudy and had algae on the sides. So not wanting to do anything too drastic (especially after driving him 5 miles home that night!) I emptied half the water out and gradually (over 24hrs) filled with bottled spring water. Two days later it still seemed quite murky so changed 50% again, tried to wipe off some of the algae from the sides (not very successful), and removed the plastic plant to clean, again not very successful so not put it back in and am going to try and clean it again later.

I have tried not to disturb the gravel, although it feels very slimy and there is a lot of debris. I think I will need to get him a companion and probably a bigger tank in the future, but for now I just want to make sure he is in a safe and clean environment. I have not had time to do my research as a new fish keeper would have, so any advice would be really helpful.

One big concern I have is whether I just have a very greedy goldfish (he always wants food and eats everything i give him) or am I not feeding him enough? Is there a recommended guide amount you should feed them, I have been told overfeeding is bad for goldfish?

moved this to the coldwater forum for better visibility.

Hi Jellytot,

it doesn't matter how long I live, people still amaze me.Well done for taking him home, poor little mite.

Well, he's not now, because he has you!!

He will need a bigger tank, but the experts will come on and give you all the advice you need.

FISH EAT!! Loads - and they'll try and make you feel guilty every time you walk past.

If I were you, I'd look through the articles and you'll find loads of information there.

I've bought three of my tanks from e-bay, we got a lovely 90 litre, 2 and a half foot tank for £20!! - not big enough for a full grown goldfish, but would be better than he has now.

I hope somebody comes on soon [but they do work!] and again, well done!!

What's his name??

Take care,

Eggbut.

Hi jelly tot - welcome to FK To echo Eggbut - well done for taking the poor little guy home

Eggbut is right, goldies are always hungry, starving in fact They are terrible beggars; the labradors of the fish world in many respects - always hungry, bouncy, enthusiastic, interested in what you are up to, playful and surprisingly intelligent.

Looks like you are in for a bit of a crash course in fishkeeping; unfortunately the students who left him behind seem to have failed to do any research into his needs or provide him with a healthy home So kudos to you for making the effort to find out more about him.

Have a read of this article which explains why filters are needed and what they do (basically, good bacteria live in the filter and convert the fish's waste from toxic to non-toxic):
http://www.fishkeeping.co.uk/articles ... hless-cycling-article.htm

Seeing as you are in 'damage limitation' here, have a read of what to do in the event of there being an immature or lack of filter:
http://www.fishkeeping.co.uk/modules/ ... php?topic_id=559&forum=14

I'm afraid his current tank is in no way suitable for him as a long term home, check out our article for more info:
http://www.fishkeeping.co.uk/modules/ ... ection/item.php?itemid=74

And
http://www.fishkeeping.co.uk/articles_12/keeping-goldfish.htm

But fear not - there are ways and means of sorting all this An ideal short to medium term solution is a 'really useful storage box' which you can get from places like Staples. The 84 litre version is about £17 so a lot cheaper than a tank! Here is a link to what I mean:
http://www.staples.co.uk/office-suppl ... tacking-storage-box-clear

You will need a filter, as well as keeping him safe from toxins in the water it will save you a tremendous amount of work as you won't have to do water changes quite so often The Eheim aquaballs are reasonably priced and good quality. When you have a filter, always clean the media in some tank water, never tap water.

You also need some water conditioner - this removes chlorine, chloramine and heavy metals from tap water. Bottled water will be fine at the moment but obviously this is going to cost you a fortune so some tap water conditioner is a must - all fish shops sell it but when you get some check how concentrated it is, some is highly concentrated and a few drops will treat several gallons which will make it nigh on impossible for you to dose the amount you will need.

A water test kit is also a great investment as you can check what is going on in the water and keep toxins to a minimum, most of us on here use the API master test kit, cheapest place to get it is eBay, cheapest one at the moment is this one:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/API-FRESHWATER- ... _Fish&hash=item2c537778be

It might seem a bit pricey at about £20 but it will last for ages

Have a browse through our articles, there is lots of info on how to choose and look after a tank, how best to do water changes and all manner of fishy shenanigans

Finally (for now ) if you can get some live plants that would help too as they remove a few toxins from the water. Elodea (what everyone thinks of as pond weed) and hornwort are cheap and fast growing. They don't need to be planted as such so you can just bung them in the tank and leave them to do their thing

Hope that helps for now, I know it's quite a bit to take in but if there is anything you are not sure of just ask and we'll be more than happy to help

I just wanted to say well done for taking the poor thing in and wanting to help him.

You have come to the BEST place for EXCELLENT advice as there are some very knowledgable people on here, who's advice has helped me and friends out on more than one occasions.

Keep us informed of how he is getting on and whether you have named him

Bead x x

Silly students buying a fish and putting it in a little tank, how noble of you to rescue it :). I am quite proud to say that in my 2 years at Uni so far I have persuaded 3 flats of people to NOT get a fish and do that lol.

Such a comprehensive response by Suey there hehe! All I can say is don't worry, as it may seem like a lot to take in, and you might be thinking oh no what have I got myself into, it's actually really easy to look after a goldfish once you meet all it's requirements, small tanks like that are as you can probably see, insufficient as the goldfish produces way too much waste too fast to survive in there. It's relatively easy to find a much bigger tank for cheaper than you'd expect and then it won't get stupidly pooey and they grow so fast it's great!