Does anyone out there know anything about fish?

I just looked over to the tank and all of mine have died suddenly.

Id had 2 of them for ages and they recently got them a brand new tank which i filled with fresh water like i do when i cleaned their old one out.
Anyway after a few days it started to smell really weird and quite strongly (still does) but i thought im not cleaning it out cos the waters still clear and i only put it in a few days ago (i usually clean them about once a month)

Why would my fish suddenly die?

I was quite attached to those fish id had them ages, specially the blind one.

Have you interrogated your 'kittykat' latley?

did u fill it with tap water? did you put them pretty much straight in the water?

i filled it with tapwater and put a bit of their old water in too. I know the books say this is wrong but ive been doing it for years and theyve always been fit and healthy. I got another fish a few days ago and im beginning to think this is the culprit. You wouldnt believe the smell though ive just been emptying the tank and it literally made me feel sick i had to breathe through my mouth the whole time.

My kitties cant get to the fish cos they have a lid on the tank but the novelty wore off for them a long time ago anyway theyre more interested in mice now.

are they tropical fish or just your standard fresh water goldfish/orf types?, any new fish may have been the problem. Generally its a good idea if using a lot of tap water to use some de-chlorination solutions and some of those bio suppliment things you'll find in the pet shops.

If they are tropical you need to check your water pH, temperature etc as they are obviously a lot more prone to changes/wrong conditions.

No they were just goldfish, 2 'fancy' goldfish and 1 red headed white one (this one was the new one.) I had tropicals before and decided to stick with freshwater. Could the new one have brought in an infection or something?

yeah, if its all happened pretty soon since the new one arrived i would say its pretty safe to say that was the problem.

aye and with a bad smell being present, I reckon that would point to a bacterial infection of some kind.

Sorry to hear about your fish, not the cuddliest of pets, but living beings nonetheless.

I feel bad now the poor things were fine til i decided to get a new one. I only got a new one cos the new tank was a fair bit bigger than the last one and they looked lonely. Im quite sad theyve gone. Ive decided not to get any more though.

Any chance the new tank was coated in a mysterious chemical? Was it thoroughly cleaned before the fish were put into it?
Did the fish change colour or develop any weird spots or anything?

I dont think it was i bought it brand new and i gave it a rinse and also rinsed the new gravel. They looked just fine when they died but i did notice they were going to the top a lot you know like they do when theyre getting food but they were up there all the time all 3 of them.

Sorry to hear about your fish :( :(

I had a goldfish when I was little called "Shiny" but it just died suddenly after a few months... We got a replacement but the same happened again...

How long are Goldfish meant to last?

Don't know how long they're supposed to last... but they're 99p in the Pet Shop at Darnall.
Chlo

A friend won some goldfish at a fair, they lived to the garnd old age of 5 and 6 and grew to nearly 6 inches

normally they get eaten before that though (in the wild that is). Goldfish that die after a few weeks or months were sick in the first place.

On my sister's 2nd birthday my dad won her a goldfish at a fair.

It died 2 days before her 23rd birthday...

Freaky!! By the end it was all deformed and stuff cos it was still in a small round bowl. Poor thing.

i thought this was a thread announcing that the musician 'Fish' from marillion had died. oh well. actual fishes then.

THat was my first thought - thousands of moping flop fringed thirtysomethings wailing kayleigh at the top of their voices.

Originally posted by purplepippa
On my sister's 2nd birthday my dad won her a goldfish at a fair.

It died 2 days before her 23rd birthday...

Freaky!! By the end it was all deformed and stuff cos it was still in a small round bowl. Poor thing.
21 year old goldfish, at least. Wow. Did it end up completely circular?

I read goldfish can last anything up to 15 years in my old goldfish book and can live up to quite a size. I know people that have got massive, old goldfish and dont use any special treatments in the water or anything it must just be the luck of the draw. The ones i had that just died were about 18 months old which is probably the oldest ive ever had one which is not good. I found that tropical fish only lasted a few months at most.

http://saltaquarium.about.com/library/weekly/aa011003.htm[URL]

Sorry to hear about your fish :(
We have 2 fish tanks; a 10 gallon and a 30 gallon, both salt water. The water chemistry is totally different than fresh water. We have experienced many problems especially with water changing. There is something called "New Tank Syndrome" Yes, really! It's to do with adding new water that doesn't have the good bacteria to balance the water. Fish poop basically builds up and causes ammonia and nitrates to become too concentrated and that finally kills the fish. It could also be your tap water. They say that a lot of chemicals are still present in tap water. We have a lot of chlorine in ours and you can smell it. No fish can live in that and it strips the slime protection off their scales.
Advise to you is when doing a water change, do 25% once a month. Fish can become stressed in totally new water and maybe didn't like the total change of PH and a different temperature. Doing a partial change can break them in gently.

So, I know fresh water and salt water are different but I often visit this website above for information. The information about tap water was quite revealing! Dissolved chemicals and metals like iron and copper in the water.

I get quite attached to our fish too and I name them all. So I'm sorry your's didn't make it. Hope you get more fish to replace the others. You have a new tank after all. It's a great hobby.
Good Luck.

Thanks for the advice. Im interested to know which fish are sal****er fish? I had tropicals a few years ago but they were all freshwater (or so i believe) but they died after a few months because i dont think i was keeping the water chemistry balanced enough i used to just think they'd cope OK which a few did but most died.

I really like keeping fish but im not getting any more until at least after christmas because i m a bit short of money but i would like to get more exotic fish as i think theyre fascinating to watch.

haha i cant believe it edited out that bit thats so stupid

ROFL!!! @ "sal****er"

one of the earlier versions of the software deleted "S****horpe" :P I mean I know its crap but it doesnt need censoring :lol:

EDIT: roflmao!!! it does delete s****horpe!!

(ps. sorry to hear about the fish :( when we've had them they've always been hit and miss on how long they live)

I thought this was about them fish that used to live in t'ole in t'road.

Originally posted by kittykat
haha i cant believe it edited out that bit thats so stupid
It took me a while to realise that you have to separate salt from water. Put them together and the spellcheck gets a bad word inbetween. You guessed that already. Very silly really, but that's the way the forum is set up to check for swear words. Well I never intended to say t-wat. I'm innocent!!

just out of interest Funke88, what would you say would make a good marine tropical tank for a complete beginner.

All I want is a Picasso Triggerfish, but I fear they're all probably fished off coral reefs in damaging numbers.

Expensive hobby, so get the tank right first. Great fish for starters are damsels, cichlids and tetras. Small fish and reasonably cheap. Then after that go for yellow tangs and Clown fish:- "Nemo" from the Disney movie. They also live and co-habit with anenomies. Beautiful orange fish with white spots or stripes. Expensive fish though. You have to invest a lot of money and time. My hubby and I however, never buy fish. We go out with nets in the Gulf and scoop up stuff. Also rock pools are good for things hiding in crevices It's all trial and error and we've lost quite a lot cos smaller fish that got eaten by bigger and more aggressive ones. We had babies too but they disappeared over night and the others weren't too hungry for a while. Hmmm????

R U sure you want a Picasso Triggerfish??
I found out they grow very large and are quite aggressive. So, you'd better get a 65 gallon tank if you want more than one. They are territorial. They like to hide out in big holes. They like a lot of swimming space. Good luck. Maybe try a blue damsel or a domino damsel first. They're cute and small and adapt well.

wow - just found out what picasso triggerfish look like - Theyre beautiful but im not going to get tempted cos i really dont seem to have the knack when it comes to fishkeeping.

Anyone who wants to know what they look like look at this beauty: http://www.alinks.se/uw/Fotogalleri/pages/PA213234-arabian-picasso-triggerfish.asp and outline of how to keep them:http://www.animal-world.com/encyclo/marine/triggers/picasso.php

Thanks for the advice Funke88. I'd like to go straight for a marine tank, but I appreciate that triigerfish are something of a speciality and I guess I'd work my way up to it.

Nice to be able to nip out and get some more fish from the sea (there's plenty more fish in the sea)

A friend keeps british marine life in a couple of tanks, but mullet, dory, crabs and lobsters are just not as good looking as a picasso trigger (especially the pure white one I saw, with only a fewpastel brushstrokes down its flank)

The other marine creature I really want to keep but I have no idea about is a cephalapod, preferably an octupus, but cuttlefish are nice too.

A 65 Gallon tank that sounds very large.

In fact the more I think about it the more I''d like to have an aquarium, but maybe I should just get a plain vanilla tropcal tank with a few fish so I won't end up killing £300 worth of reef fish like my brother did once.

If the fish are going up to the surface a lot, then there's not enough oxygen in the water - this could be due to chemicals but it's often cos there's no plants - you should have 1 plant for every two fish, or a bubbley thing in the bottom of the tank.

My fish got eaten by a seagull when i left the tank outside (I was only 11, mind) at my parents' house!!

RIP Fish. Being a kittykat I'm surprised you didn't eat them yourself before they died.

Sorry about the fish kk. I know this may be a poor substitute but you never know:

Virtual aquarium (http://www.firebox.com/index.html?dir=firebox&action=product&pid=263)

tee hee what will they think of next ay. It would be good if i had a DVD player in my room though, saves me cleaning them out.

Originally posted by kittykat
Does anyone out there know anything about fish?

I just looked over to the tank and all of mine have died suddenly.

Id had 2 of them for ages and they recently got them a brand new tank which i filled with fresh water like i do when i cleaned their old one out.
Anyway after a few days it started to smell really weird and quite strongly (still does) but i thought im not cleaning it out cos the waters still clear and i only put it in a few days ago (i usually clean them about once a month)

Why would my fish suddenly die?

I was quite attached to those fish id had them ages, specially the blind one.

Probably ammonia. Cleaning everything thoroughly removed all the beneficial bacteria. This is why the books say not to do it. With no bacteria to turn ammonia into nitrate (which is not toxic), the ammonia (i.e. the smell) built up and poisoned the fish.