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Time from home to fish lethargy was ~2 weeks. grogg0316 Send a noteboard - 03/06/2010 07:43:22 PM
The nitrates and ammonia were acceptable. I did weekly water changes (~25 of the tank). I let the tank establish for about two weeks before adding the fish the last time (Goldfish try). With the platties I let it establish for a week.

I tried 3 platties and I tried 2 gold fish (these were on two separate tries). The water I used is from the town.

I bought the appropriate food for each fish as well when I tried the different breeds. So I'm not trying to give them something inappropriate.

Before the fish died, each one was lethargic, tending to hide in the fixtures and not bothering to eat. Usually the next day or so I found it dead on the tank bottom or stuck next to the intake for the filter. Hence my thought that maybe the filter pump was too powerful for the tank. The pump/filter I have is linked below. I got mine at Petco.

I had heard that I may want to try and hide the filter intake behind some scenery to prevent the fish from getting sucked towards it. Would you agree?

I miss the goldfish I had when I was a kid. It swam in a glass bowl with marbles on the bottom and was frickin' indestructible. He lived for 8 years. :(


i've never used that brand of filter before, but you do have the right idea that you should have *slightly* more filtration than the tank size. so a filter of 10-20g capacity is right on with what will make most fish happy. hiding the intake behind something usually ends up with choking the filter off, so i would tend to disagree with that. healthy fish will be able to get out of the current, although if the filter was *too* strong of course it would be a problem. you can tell by how the fish act if they don't like the current in the tank and adjust the flow accordingly. they'll usually hide behind a rock/plant to escape the current if it's too much for them. also, it's usually better to block the output of the filter before considering blocking the input as a general rule.

if you are getting your fish from petco as well as your filter, that may be a reason for concern. those fish are not always the healthiest, it's all a matter of watching them for a bit before you decide which ones to buy. make sure you get strong fish that don't have oddly shaped bodies and no abnormal marks or signs of disease. from your description it sounds like your fish were not the healthiest specimens, but you didn't say how long it was between when you brought them home and when they started acting lethargic.
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Re: what brand/model of filter do you have? - 02/06/2010 05:26:10 PM 629 Views
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Time from home to fish lethargy was ~2 weeks. - 03/06/2010 07:43:22 PM 490 Views
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