So I walked up to the pet shop today, to pick a filter, gravel, plants etc...but kind of forgot that it was a real shop. ^_^;; I'm so used to buying things online, I didn't think about how much more expensive it would be in there...and ended up not being able to afford the size filter I need, it being about £60. The only gravel they had was weird with red bits...which is ok I guess, but I really just don't like unnatural looking gravel. They didn't sell plants and they didn't sell anything but fish bone shaped air stones...

It was THE tiniest pet shop I've ever seen and it depressed me. It means that tomorrow, I'm going to have to put blue gravel in the tank and have no light, no filter, no anything. I'll just have to clean more often for a while. I mean, I have to do that now anyway...and people had healthy, happy goldfish before filters were around, right?
I'll cope.

I just found the £60 filter on ebay for less than £20. I hate real life! xD

Eh, sorry to hear about the bad shop experience.

If you're going to have fish in water without a filter, I recommend daily water changes of a substantial about (80+%) to keep levels of ammonia in control while you look for a new filter.

It might be easier to go without the gravel until you get a filter. That will make it a bit easier to clean.

£60!!?? Which one are you buying? And where from?

It was only an internal Fluval 3...nothing special. That's why I wasn't swayed into buying it. I'm not wasting £60 on a basic filter that isn't well known for working... >,>;

And yeah...I didn't put gravel in. Even if I was willing to do such a rigorous cleaning everyday, then having to put up with blue and then clean out all the blue when I get good gravel would just be a nightmare!

*Sigh*

I was given a large filter system by my ex-in-laws today, which is fantastic. It was in the hood of a much more expensive aquarium, so it isn't a perfect fit, but it works fantastically. Only problem now is a mystery illness which has just cropped up. *Has posted in diseases*

): I feel I'm letting these fish down now.

I can have 3 fully grown fish in a 30 UK gallon, right? Or 14" of any fish?
Just wondering for when all illness is gone and everything is sorted...because I'd love to have about 5 or 6 babies in there first and then set another tank up when they get a little bigger.
(The new tank will work much better since I'll have warning! xD)

I would consider a 'fully grown' goldie to be around 6" - of course they can get bigger, but to me that sounds like average fullgrown size. When they get that big it is said that they are better off with 15 metric gallons each, so if your fish get super huge you might only be able to keep 2 in there. Mind you, 10 Imperial gallons for one large goldie isn't so bad - that's 12 metric gals. You can do that if you keep on top of waterchanges. But depending on your goldie's genes and the care you give them it will take a year or so for them to get that big!

I'm glad you didn't buy anything. When it comes to taking care of our goldies properly, you just can't cut corners or "settle." And this is where the patience comes in. Keeping fish, especially goldfish, requires patience and going slowly. It is also usually a long, drawn out learning process. We've all made mistakes when we first started out and, sadly, that's usually the only way we learn, but we get better. Anyway, I've bought almost all of my stuff online, save the actual fish, because LFS just don't seem to have what I want. Your fish won't have a problem with hanging out in a bare tank. The decorations aren't for them, they're for us, so, really, the only thing they need is the filtration and if you don't have that right now, like everyone has said, you can make up for it by doing more frequent maintenance until you can get what you want. Good luck!