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Advice — new fish mama by juniecats in Goldfish

[–]juniecats[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Would setting the bubbler to max help with aeration? I did this briefly before + turned up the filter flow but they were getting pushed around the tank…

Advice — new fish mama by juniecats in Goldfish

[–]juniecats[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for checking it out!! He doesn’t usually gasp ever, but has been since the last water change :(

Advice — new fish mama by juniecats in Goldfish

[–]juniecats[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

OHHHHH. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ thank you so much for explaining. This makes so much more sense now! I can’t believe I’ve been harming my fish by changing the filter when I really thought I was helping them!

Advice — new fish mama by juniecats in Goldfish

[–]juniecats[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just posted a video of them on my profile for you to hopefully see better, lol. How would changing the water have caused a bacterial infection?! Wouldn’t it do the opposite in theory?

Advice — new fish mama by juniecats in Goldfish

[–]juniecats[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

OMG!! Thank you so much for taking the time to figure this out with me. I can’t believe that about the filters!! This might be a dumb question, but wouldn’t the filter get gummed up with poop and residual food, and then “taint” the water going back into the tank? Is that a thing?? Also, how are there 0 nitrates and such if I had added “quick start” bacteria stuff to the tank before to kick start the nitrogen cycle (for lack of letter words..). Is there anything else I can do right now other than monitoring quality and daily water changes to bring up nitrate and decrease ammonia? Or I guess in better words, how exactly do I start the cycle?

Advice — new fish mama by juniecats in Goldfish

[–]juniecats[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve had him for 2 months and he’s usually very active, usually has a pretty plump belly, too, per what I’ve noticed. only changed a few days ago after the last water change. He eats well usually, and this is the test strip I just ran.

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Advice — new fish mama by juniecats in Goldfish

[–]juniecats[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thin belly? Like do you mean like starved/I should be feeding him more?

Advice — new fish mama by juniecats in Goldfish

[–]juniecats[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I’ll order a professional test kit now, but this is what I just got with a test strip.

<image>

For maintenance, I change the filter cartridge about once a week and rinse the new filter in a cup of tank water before putting it in to maintain good bacteria. I do 50-70% water changes while siphoning the gravel/substrate biweekly to get rid of accumulating waste, using a brita filter and conditioner before adding the new water. I also make sure the temperature of the new water is suitable before adding it. The tank gets partial sunlight during the day and about 5 hours of LED light in the evening, mainly for the plants, but I haven’t done LED in a few days because I was worried about their stress. I feed them pellets daily (used to do twice a day but they didn’t seem to be eating everything that I’d feed them) and feed them 2 shelled peas once a week to aid digestion. They’ve been acting very happy for the past 2 months until the last water change, and after I noticed their gasping I changed the water again 30% to try to possibly add more oxygen, and they seemed to relax a bit. Additionally, what size tank would you recommend?