I'm back

Well it's been a while since I've posted so I thought that now is a good a time as ever. I purchased a new goldfish but he picked on my last surviving bubble so I gave him away to a friend and the goldie now lives in a fish pond.

Next I purchased an other goldie that seemed to get alog well with his tank mate but that ended abruptly when he started fin nipping my bubble so now he lives in the garage in a new 35 gallon trash can. He'll live there until I put in a pond in my back yard this summer.

Now my bubble live with a small orange bubble and they behave as if they've lived with each other their entire lives. Next up is a 30 gallon tank and probably 1 or 2 more goldies.

Happy tanking!
Richard

So long my fishy friends!

First my computer crashes then, sadly not one but two of my goldfish have passed on. I know we are not supposed to become attached to such pets. Dogs, cats horses but gold fish? Can one really become attached in some way to the little critters swimming in a tank of water?

The answer is, of course, yes. While I have to say that I don't miss Sal and Lenny as much as I did my little furball dog of 16 who passed on 2 years ago, I do however miss the goldfish antics. The routine went like this; I would come home in the afternoon, turn on the tank light and wait for only a second or two for the occupants to come rushing up to the top of the tank to be fed. Sal would be the first then Lenny and after a moment or two, Mimi would meander to the top for the leftovers.

It would be the same thing, day in and day out. So what happened to Sal and Lenny? I'm not really sure. One day Lenny kept getting wedged between the water filter and the glass. I would move the filter but he would always find a way to wedge himself again until he could no longer move. I finally had enough so after work I bought an under gravel filter. When I got home however Lenny had wedged himself in again and died.

Sal died around two weeks later. I came home and all seemed okay. Sal and Mimi ate and everything appeared to be as normal. Around an hour later, Sal was just swimming around and suddenly appeared to be, well, drunk! He crashed head first into the gravel then banked off the glass in a very rough way. I quickly decided to do a fast water change so I scooped him and Mimi up in a net and placed them in a separate temporary sick tank. While I was cleaning the tank he passed on.

I was shocked to say the least to lose not one but two of my favorite fish. I was also surprised to see just how much Sal had grown! When I brought him home, he was around two inches long and when he died, he was a whopping six and half inches long! Yikes, I really had not noticed just how large he had grown.

They say you should not make any changes after a loss and “they”, whoever they may be are correct. I couldn't take it looking at such a quiet tank so I went out a few days later to PetsSmarts and bought two lively goldies. What what the big deal? Tonight while talking on the phone the two new guys were attacking quiet little Mimi relentlessly. One would try to “eat” the bubbles while the other tried to eat Mimi's scales. Needless to say, they have been separated. I have to say that I had no idea how predatory goldfish could be to one another.

So as it stands now, Mimi has the tank to herself while the two little hoodlum fish have to share a small tank for now. What about the computer? Don't ask, lets just say I'm in a rush to learn Linux!

Richard

Did you know?

In certain parts of the world, goldfish and other carp are frequently added to stagnant bodies of water in order to reduce the mosquito populations, especially now with the arrival of West Nile Virus which relies on mosquitoes to migrate. Their introduction often had unfortunate consequences for local ecosystems, however.

Goldfish Super Site!

I've mentioned this site before and it's worth repeating, If you need a ton of goldish info then this is the place to go.

http://www.goldfishinfo.com/

They cover:

Goldfish Disease
Goldfish Health
Goldfish Medication
Goldfish and Amonia
Goldfish and Nitrates
Water problems
Overfeeding
Plus a whole lot more!

Go ahead, give them a look!

My three sons...errr...Fishes.

I'm not sure exactly when I actually took the small plunge and brought home Sal and the gang but I would guess it's been about a year. Happy homecoming fishes! :)

In the year since I've had them I've lost 3 for unknown reasons but if I would have to guess, it would be tank overcrowding. Goldfish need their space. They are, as I once read: eating, swimming and pooping machines.

I sure do enjoy taking care of the little guys. Everyday when I come home they actually greet me! Well, they greet anyone who is likely to feed them but greet me they do. They rush the feeding ring for a fast snack then settle down until late evening for their real supper.

Over this past year it's been interesting to me how their personalities, quirks and foibles have come emerged. Sal is the aggressor and he constantly bumps my chunky white and gold colored fish, Mimi. And for the most part, she allows Sal to get away with it. Oh, I should say that I really have no clue at all which fish are male and which are female because for some odd reason, they all just look the part.

Anyway, after their meals, they all do some rather odd swimming. Sal sucks up rocks looking for more food. One morning when I came into the room, I found 3 rocks stuck to the filter intake. It took a while to figure it out but every now and then, Sal will suck up a rock and spit it out on the filter intake which is located about 4 inches from the bottom of the tank. Why, who knows? Just Sal being quirky I guess. ;)

Lenny, the bubble headed goldfish is the smaller of the group. I'm thinking the reason for his small size is that he simply can't see the food and can't get to it fast enough before the others gobble it. He is however, getting better at food-finding. While Sal is sucking rocks, he just scours the area where the others refuse to go and finds the coveted morsels.

Mimi, the chunky little goldie has scared me to death because of her antics. She loves to play "dead" every now and then. Really! From time to time she will float upside down and barely wiggle her long flowing fins. Then, she suddenly snaps to life and swims upright again. It's a fish bladder issue but I think she has learned to do it whenever she feels like...now I know why I have a couple of gray hairs added to my collection.

I have enjoyed keeping these fish over the past year and I totally recommend it. They don't require an excessive amount of work and they can be very soothing just watching them swimming around the tank. And despite what my older, goofy friend Derick has to say about goldfish...(trust me, you don't want to know!) they are well worth the effort and the rewards are are felt everyday around feeding time. Enjoy!

Pass the AMMO! Chips, that is . . .

Hey fish-keepers, here is another cool little thing for your goldifish.
I recently bought a product that has been around for a while but new to me called Ammo-Chips! ammo chips

This is one of those gotta have products that will help keep your goldies alive for years to come.

Ammo-Chips come in a yellow carton that looks like a milk carton. Open the box and pour about a quarter cup of the white or creme colored rocks right into your water filter. I use Tetra's Bio-Bag that you can buy from Wal-Mart or any big-box store.

Simply open the filter bag as usual, tamp down the charcoal then add the Ammo-Chips and you're done. Then put the filter into holder as usual.

I love the stuff! I tested my water for ammonia before and after with great results. My ammonia count was next to nothing and has stayed that way since I added the chips.

So what are you waiting for? Run out and get some, your little goldies will be glad you did!

You can also order on-line from Amazon ammo chips

Goldfish VISA!

Well here it is another goldfish related advert!
It actually looks really cool but I think I could do without the 21.9% interest rate.

But if they COULD charge what would Sid and the gang buy with a $5,000.00 limit? How about 24 hours of live "exotic" fish dancers for Sid?

Or maybe real diamonds to give the bottom of the tank a real nice look.

Either way, the card goes but who knows, maybe they'll use the internet while I'm gone and buy that gellin-like-magellin 200 gallon fish tank they saw on Amazon.

On second thought, better unplug the internet before I go to bed tonight otherwise it's going to be fish taco's if I see a bunch of PetsMarts boxes when I come back from vacation! :)