Re: Urgent! Home needed for lonely and poorly goldfish
#2
If you were looking at goldfish on Gumtree, and have gone to the extent of rescuing one, then you must have some level of desire to look after them. However, as with any pet, and for the sake of its welfare, it?s absolutely vital to do the research beforehand so that you can make an informed decision about what is involved and whether you can offer it or not, rather than find out only after an impulse-type acquisition. Having said that, I do think from what you?ve written that you have the qualities of a fishkeeper, the desire to help, and are better equipped than many of those who find themselves home from a local fair with a goldfish in a bag.
For now, and/or until and if someone is able to take him on, I think the best course of action would be for you to try to give him the best opportunity by nursing him back to health. If he?s to survive the stress of another move, he?d need to be in good health, otherwise it?s unlikely he?ll ?make it?. Even if he did, the new owner would need to quarantine him in a separate tank until he?s better which is probably another reason why it?s unlikely that anyone would be willing to take him on unless he?s in better health.
In order to nurse him back to health, you?ll need to buy a filter for the tank as a matter of urgency ? look at
http://www.fishkeeping.co.uk/articles ... ilter-beginners-guide.htm (Fluval or Eheim are a couple of brands with good reputations) ? and follow the advice on this website for ?fish-in cycles?. However, if you can get some used filter media (eg aquarium sponge) from somewhere (did the tank he was in come with a filter?), that would help enormously.
Until you can get a filter (I wouldn?t leave it more than a day or two), then you?ll need to do a partial water changes daily ? probably 20-50% of the water changed and replaced with tap water which has been conditioned to remove chlorine. Seachem Prime is a good dechlorinator and helps to remove the toxifying effects of ammonia, etc.
It may well be that, if you manage to help him ?pull through? from the finrot, having gone to the effort and expense to do so, that you might actually enjoy fishkeeping, even if after a few years, your circumstances change and you may have to find a new home for him.
Let us know if we can be of any further help.