Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Shifting gears (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifting-gears/)

-   -   My Fishkeeping hobby (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifting-gears/169664-my-fishkeeping-hobby-42.html)

Hello Guys,

I have a small fishtank setup with 8+1 Black GF as per Vaastu. Recently, one of my GF's is turning white. Not white spots but like half of it has completely turned white. Is this Normal or something to worry about? Coincidentally, this happened after we went for a 4 Days Vacation and we had put 3 Nos. Holiday Food Balls in the Tank.
Are they related or a coincidence?
I do not have a Pic now but i can post if needed.

Thanks.

Gold fish need light to retain colors. A few days in darkness tend to affect the coloration.

Happened when i left my gold fish in darkness, due to lighting conversion from CFL to LED.

Size of tank? Size of fishes? What filtration do you have?

9 gold fishes have no business in a small fishtank.

Pics of the fish would help.

This must be because of holiday food balls. Test your water and you will have high ammonia mostly.

Try the food timer or leave it without food next time.

And Gold fish will need a large tank.

Here are few pics of my Fishtank Setup. You can see the white goldfish in the middle. It is a 12x12x12 inch Tank with VenusAqua Filter and a Thermostat. Is it small for 9 Gold fishes? Also, what should be the interval for Water replacement and Tank Cleaning? I currently follow once in 3 weeks or so. Thanks.

Please read about fishes and then decide to buy them or not.

Try this link out:
http://thegoldfishtank.com/tank-size-calculator/

Your tank is not suitable for even one Gold fish sadly. A 1x1x1 tank would be good for a betta or small tetras.

The filter you have is just for mechanical filtration i.e. it traps solid waste in it. Bio filtration would be very very minimal. Forget chemical filtration.

You need bio filtration to ensure that the water remains healthy for fishes to live in. Uneaten food and fish waste mess up the water real bad. Bio filtration helps to stabilise things along with water changes.

Water changes could be once a week. Once in 3 weeks without proper filtration is really pushing your luck.

Lose the gold fish, get a nice betta.

Do these holiday food balls work? I noticed that generally gold fish will keep on eating if the food is available. They will die out of overeating, but won't stop! In fact that is why I have put an automatic food dispenser for fish tank when I go out.

For making sure we live in a good Vastu, we make the fishes live in a congested home :(

Off topic: This psuedo china Feng-Shui Vastu needs to either stop, or be evolved to make sure fishes are living happily. I have always believed in Vastu, and never in Feng Shui, simply because each was designed for its home country. If I move to China, I will use Feng Shui and forget Vastu shastra.

Holiday food is not a good option. As long as the tank is in a healthy setup, fishes will not die of starvation for a week or so. But then depends on the fish. The holiday food might just end up spiking the water parameters proving detrimental to the fish.

Yes, people conveniently forget each fish has a minimum requirement to thrive and anything less than the minimum requirement would be animal cruelty.

When i see clueless kids buying a small red tail catfish from the LFS saying it\'s cute, it breaks my heart. Or buying and keeping arowanas in 2ft tanks.

Or iridescent sharks in 1ft tank, common pleco saying they eat waste! :(

A few pics of my hobby

Planted community tank







Shrimp tank






Piranhas

Beautiful. Thanks for sharing. If you put your hand into the piranha tank do they bite? I had two Oscars in the last decade that grew to over 10"/11" in size. They didn't think twice about going for my hand. Piranhas are of course in a different league. I have a muumified piranha at work which has been mounted with a label naming it after a certain govt dept that loves me!

Oh yes they do (although, i've never put my fingers in the water, my friend got bit).

I feed the them raw chicken wings, they strip the flesh till the bones in a few mins.

Talking about oscars, mine had bit me twice when I tried to remove the filter canisters. I had got multiple slits on my finger corresponding to each row of teeth he had. :D The doctor couldnt believe that a fish did that to me. I had to give him away since he outgrew the tank(14 inches) and I wanted a bigger home for him. Would love to have them again someday! I think Piranhas will bite only if they are in a group. Alone, I have seen videos where they are usually defensive. It is only when they are in schools that hell breaks loose.

Aaahhh the war marks we fish keepers need to endure. Think of it as the Fishy Veer Chakra:D You mean a 14" long Oscar. :Shockked:What were you feeding it. It probably weighed 5 to 7 kilos I guess.I would love to keep piranhas but my wife wont permit a second tank at home. She might dunk me in it if I sneaked one in.

Yes, he was 14" long when I gave him away, since my tank is only 12" wide and he had a tough time taking turns and swimming just from one end to another. The aquarium guy handed him over to a person who put him in a small pond with other oscars. I used to feed him the regular Taiyo pellets meant for Cichlids, but the guy had a real liking for all sorts of things that would fit in his mouth. Once a week or fortnight, it used to get to eat feeder gold fish. Apart from that my dad had the habit of feeding him worms, sometimes oranges and pomegranates and what not. As if this was not enough, my oscar was also the official cockroach terminator of the house. On random days we used to find cockroach wings floating in the tank, which meant one such specimen would have sneaked into the tank and it would have been hunted down by my oscar.

That was the best fish I have ever had, and he was a monstrous eater. He has also demolished his co-dwellers as well. When I gave him away he was around 2kgs or so.

Piranha care can be a little time consuming at times.

Firstly, you'll need a pretty big tank(i made the mistake of underestimating the tank size). Initially, there was 12 fishes(each around 2 inches). As they grew, cannibalization started. Now only 4 remain (each around size of my palm). So, 5' x 1.5' x 1.5' should do.

Second, they don't like to be kept in bright spots. mine are kept in the darkest corner of the hall. They also need plenty of aeration. During a few hours of powercut, you can see them swimming near the surface gasping for air.

Finally, if you are going to feed them raw meat, then filtration has to be strong. And even then, weekly water changes may be required.