My first bit of advice is to get a water test kit (I use the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Master kit--no particular reason except it's what was in the store) and use it religiously. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say water quality is probably what killed your fish back when you moved from bowl to tank.
Until your tank "cycles" (more on that in a bit) those water changes are the primary guardian protecting your fish from an early grave. The other thing is every time you bring in a new fish, or a new plant, you run the risk of bringing in parasites or disease that can affect all your fish. Last time I introduced a new fish into my aquarium, I put the new fish into a "quarantine/hospital tank" for several days and treated it with a broad spectrum anti-parasite medication while watching it for signs of any illness. Only when I was confident that all was well did I introduce it to the other fish. I've got a couple of bundles of plants in teh quarantine/hospital tank right now, looking to make sure that they aren't bringing anything in with them.
Now, on that "cycling" issue: fish produce ammonia. The ammonia comes from fish waste, uneaten food, dead plant material, etc. This ammonia is highly toxic to fish. There are special bacteria, however, that break down the ammonia into nitrites. While the nitrites are less toxic than the ammonia, they are still bad news for the fish. However there are _other_ bacteria that break down the nitrItes to nitrAtes which are much less toxic to the fish. At that point, periodic partial water changes can readily keep the nitrates down to tolerable levels. All this is called the "nitrogen cycle" and the process of colonies of the helpful bacteria getting established is called "cycling." It takes time and the early stages (where ammonia and nitrite levels remain high) can be quite stressful on the fish. That can be mitigated by frequent partial water changes (my own tank is still in fairly early stages of cycling--partly due to my being overly aggressive in my use of the gravel vacuum when I was just starting--and I'm sometimes doing water changes twice a day). However, unless you get the test kit and use it religiously you're relying on luck--and since there are more ways for things to go wrong than to go right, you can pretty much count on problems. Believe me, I learned that the hard way.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 4:28 PM
Subject: [worldwidegoldfishclub] Hello Introduction from Bek
Hi all,
I have just joined your group. Im not to sure what to say, so here
is my fish story and some info on me. My fish knowledge is very
small as you will see. I am 40 yrs old, married, with 2 small
children both under 4. I live in Brisbane QLD Australia.
I have been keeping gold fish for a few years in bowls, and they
always did well. When they got to big, I swapped them to the shop
for smaller ones. Last year I got ambitious and got a tank. (what
was I thinking?) I transferred my 2 bowl fish into a tank, and they
died within a year. (I had such guilt over that one) but we all
move on so.......... I have just moved and have reset up my tank.
It is running really well at the moment, but hey I have a history or
loosing fish, so Im living on borrowed time I am sure LOL.
I have a 4 1/2 foot tank and currently have
2 Comets (1 orange and one orange and white)
3 Fantails with stick yout eyes(2 black 1 orange)
1 smallish fish, not a gold fish, saved from a friend. Its seems
happy enough in there.
I wanted to learn as much as possilbe about my fish and keep them
happy. I will post a few questions seperatly.
Cheers
Bek
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