Ok before you kill me, I didn't know you had to soak them

so what we did and what I was told was to drop a few flakes onto the tank and the two goldfish would literally try and jump out of the water to eat them asap!!!

after one of the Black Moor got ill I thought I better cut down on food but things are getting a bit weirder.

It seems they were so hungry they chomped on the live plant !! which I don't mind at least they are swimming instead of floating like the lil Black Moor.

Sooo today I tried the soaked flakes and they sink very fast which is good for the Black Moor cause it eats from the bottom but the 2 Goldfish don't even look at the bottom.. they like things that float so if they catch something that floats they're ok but won't look at bottom. What do we do then???

Are pellets good for feeding? I want to try and get something else that all fish will be happy with, and I also bought some peas I want to attempt to feed them tomorrow since their poops are long and stringy (constipation? from what i'm reading).

The white fluffy stuff that are on the fake plants, is that algae? Would you recommend buying some snails to clean the tank? I saw that there were 2 snails coming out of nowhere (well maybe from the plants we bought)....

Let me know, I really want to find a balance between overfeeding them to death or starving them to death *sigh*

also I'm going to go home for Xmas vacation.. I know about the floating food that you put and they nibble on it, but would the black moor even attempt to go up there and feed??

and last... would u recommend getting the sticks to feed them?

thanks!!!
Lydia

I can't for the life of me find the Edit button.

In case you were wondering on the floating bit, yes 1 Black Moor died I'm taking water to be tested tomorrow!

Ohhh also I keep reading that you are supposed to get out the uneaten food but how the22 do you get the flakes, they seem to dissolve in your fingers and do you really want a net poking around and scaring the fish? also would u say use a net to grab their poop thats all over the place??

and is it normal for them to eat food then spit it or even ewww attempt to eat poop and spit it (Black Moor).

sorry if i'm driving you nuts, i'm not looking forward to another flush one way trip

thanks!!!!
Lydia

With regards to feeding the two fish who don't eat off the ground, just make sure to get their attention, and drop the food near them...mine always scoop it up long before it hits the ground (I feed mine soaked pellets). I have a black moore too, and he's actually the only one who eats at the surface, cause I feed him from my finger, cause he can't see too well. As long as you feed your fish slowly, and give them only what they can eat in 2 mins, twice a day...or 5 mins, once a day...you shouldn't have any food left over.
I'm not sure what the white fluffy stuf is....my knowledge is that algea is usually black or green...but I could be wrong.
The long stringy poop could be a number of things. If it's white, then it could mean that your fish isn't eating well, or an intenal bacterial infection. If it's brown, then it could mean constipation. Try the peas...making sure you cook them, pop them out of their shells and squash them, before giving them to your fish. I'm sure they'll love it...mine do.
Also, what size tank do you have? You said that you had 4 fish, and one died? In that case, you should really have a 30 or 40 gallon aquarium. Also, you should be vacuuming your gravel, every week or so, to clean up all that poop that's floating around. You can buy a vacuum from the petstore for about $7, which is basically a tube, with a wider tube at one end...the wider tube will suck up the gravel and crud, and only the crud will get sucked out, via the smaller tube, into a bucket...it works like a siphon. You should also be changing about 30% of the water every week, which will be done when you vacuum.
Anyways, hope this helps and answers some of your questions.

Well it seems tank is too small I didn't know that or else I wouldn't have bought more fish!! *sigh* its only 49L which converts to approx. 13G. I've also posted in diseases section where I'm being talked through taking care of the probs for the remaining fish!

I'm pretty sure its not white. It looks like colour of their food. So yeah it must be constipation.

We have gravel vacuum which we have used but it seems I'm going to have to do more water changes to help the other fish

I tried the 5min thing but I think they need training to get used to that cause for 2 mins they couldn't be bothered, then they were eating as if there was not tomorrow and when there was no food they started looking around on the bottom as if they were being starved to death *sigh* so I caved in 5 hours later and gave them some more which they all ate again literally snatched through the water. Especially that Black Moore, I think it even pushed the bigger goldfish to get the food LOL

Crazy goldfish!!!

Lydia

Try feeding them as much as they can eat in 3 minutes, twice a day. Add a bit of food, wait for them to eat it all then add a little bit more. Keep doing this until their time is up. Doing it this way means that you don't ahve any left over food to scoop out. They might end up not eating so much for a little while but they'll soon get the hang of things. Fish often miss sinking food once they have been fed floating for ages but soon adapt so don't worry too much about it.
High proten sinking pellets are great for goldies so try to get hold of some (you still need to soak them though).
Don't feed them more than twice a day, no matter how much they beg and act like starving puppies! Also, don't worry about them eating the plant. All goldie slove munching on plants and you're lucky it lasted that long!
Most goldies also accidently suck up bits of poop but as soon as they realise what it is they rapidly spit it back out again! I do have one who sucks it in (sometimes direct formt he other fishes bums <eewww> and doesn't spit it out after - yucky fish!!).
How long are you going away for at Xmas? Most holiday food is rubbish, pollutes your water etc. I have used the holiday floating sticks by Tetra before though and they weren't too bad. If you're going away for less than a week then I'd be tempted to not bother leaving anything at all as they'll be fine for that long. If you feel really bad you could add loads of live plants just before then they'll have a salad bar to munch from when they want to! If it's longer than a week then you can buy automatic feeders, or you could measure out their daily portions into bags and get someone in to feed it to them.
As you are so overstocked,make sure you are rigorous with your tank maintenance until you can get a bigger tank. I'd be doing 40% every other day to keep the water qulaity good, perhaps more depending on your water parameters.

I just came back from the Aquarium shop and she said that my water is good!! wohooo but we do have a slight problem on the smelly department due to the fact that they had too much food, so im going to be 'hoovering' their gravel to get out of there the nasty bits and do a water change at same time so that they get some new fresh water! this should take care of ammonia levels and the poop haha.

Thank god my fish don't eat through other fish's bums *yuck* hehehe I'd be disgusted to death to see that happening hehehehe.

I'm going to go through my flakes until there are no more, the owner said that she feeds them 1 flake per fish per day!!! omg lol and I bought some blood worms to feed them 2 times per week as a treat.

I'll be gone for about 3 weeks - 4 if I can't find a ticket sooner so they have to have food!!!

I will do a water change and stock the water up with plants for them , as well as try the floating or dissolving thingie (although I'm scared on the dissolving killing them off slightly) but it lasts longer!

where can you get the automatic feeder that you mention?

The lady mentioned not to get EasyBalance as it won't do for my fish tank, said its good for exotic fish... and that our tap water although a bit on the hard side not that bad and they shouldn't be affected.

Thanks!
Lydia

You can buy automatic feeders from most aquatic stores.
As for your water tests - did the assistant give you the actual readings? They often give wrong advice so if you've got them post them here so we can double check that they're ok.

I was watching them with her, I don't remember everything but I think ph was about 7 and the nitrates she said nearly 0 (it was very pale pink). said the water was a little hard..

Why would she lie or give wrong advice?

hmm must've not had them automatic feeders there or I would guess she'd suggest them, any ideas on where else I can get them from?

thanks!
Lydia

They don't lie, it's just that a lot of the staff don't really know what they are talking about and tell you that certain levels are safe when they aren't. She should have tested for PH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Next time you get your water tested ask the assistant for the results just in case. Ammonia should be 0, nitrite 0 and nitrate under 20.
If your PH is around 7 then that's fine. Goldfish can adapt well to any Ph as long as it doesn't fluctuate so leave that well alone.

As for the automatic feeders, if you can't get them at your lfs you will be bale to get them online.

Ahhh no I think she might be the owner of the shop. She spent like 15 mins explaining everything to me and telling me about feeding etc.

The test she did was for everything bad ammonia!!! grrrr I asked about that she said they don't do them but from my own conclusion with your help I figure if the water smells then that won't be good so today I did some water change and soaked some '######' from the bottom lol

I plan on doing this every other day until it smells better, I don't want to do it every day in case I stress the goldfish. also is the new water supposed to sit outside for 24hours? I let it sit for a while cause it was a bit cold and was spilling it slowly so that it wouldn't turn the water temperature very cold. In the end I don't think it made any difference at all and the fish resumed what they were doing.

When I did the water change it didn't smell but after a while it still smelled, I guess I can't expect complete change overnight so I should be patient.

Do fish get really worried when you do water changes?



Lydia

P.S. I plan on buying some test kits, one that has them all and another one for ammonia so I can check on my own as well but I feel a bit stupid keep going to the pet store every day, she'll think I'm nuts LOL