Hi everyone

About six weeks ago we were gifted a thirty litre tank by a friend. We went to pets at home and asked how many goldfish would be suitable for a tank that size and the girls response was three or four. We opted form three to avoid overcrowding.

I'm sure you can see where this is going

We thought we were doing everything right...regular water changes, we moved the filter up slightly to get more oxygen in the water and things seemed to be going well. However now one of the fish has a bacterial infection that has spread to then other fish.

Ive completed a significant water change and laced the water with antibiotics but through reading around the subject it is obvious to me (now) that we cannot look after them and even if they fight off the infection, they are not in a suitable habitat.

I'm not sure what to do, I've emailed multiple pet shops asking if they will take them, treat them and resell them including pets at home. I'm absolutely gutted that my lack of knowledge is responsible for this. I certainly don't want them to be slowly eaten alive by bacteria and at this point I'm wondering if the best thing to do is to destroy them in a humane way, not that I even know what that would be.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I literally have no idea what to do now. Sorry for any typing errors as well, im on a touch screen.

If you could get them and their filter into a large foodsafe box (staples do an 80l one thats very sturdy and I think asda do some bigger ones) it should keep them more comfortable in the short term. Assuming you don't have time/space for a large aquarium try advertising on aquarist classifieds and forums like this one. I'm sure someone will want them but it may take a bit of time with it being so close to Christmas.

Post some pictures, it will help our goldfish experts suggest treatments and you never know someone might fall in love with them.

What antibiotics are you treating with?

Have a look on sites like freecycle and preloved for larger tanks, sometimes people just want rid of them for little or nothing! In the meantime like Onyxia said, a large foodsafe box from Staples will do in the meantime.

The Range is doing a 160L for less than £15

JON

Nice find Jon

I have a 95 litre tank and i am restricted with the fish i want.
I previously had the same problem in my old 35 litre tank. You should probably keep only 2 goldfish and maybe a butterfly pinstripe which cleans the algae for you.
You will need to get anti-bacteria water conditioner as well as the tap safe which you can get from local stores.

good luck
yann :)

This is incorrect. The OP has a thirty litre tank and it is not suitable for any fish at all, most definitely not Goldfish nor any kind of Hillstream Loach (referred to as a "Butterfly Pinstripe") which needs to be kept in groups and has very specialised set up requirements in order to thrive.