Wen Trimming Video of Sun
This is a surgery I’ve decided to do by myself. Sun had this surgery a year of so ago at KSTATE University at Manhattan, KS. The cost of the surgery was nearly 150 dollars. However, the Wen grew back and also another Oranda I have needed surgery. The cost of raising goldfish is surprisingly high when you consider the filters, cartridges, chlorine remover, water conditioner, food, utlra-violet light pump and replacement bulbs and the list goes on and on.
Sun’s Wen had grown tremendously covering his eyes from above. Also Wen or some jell growth also grew over his jowels, covering his eyes from below. I first started cutting and could not find the eyes. I had to remove lots of Wen before I could even see the eyes. Had to be careful not to cut or pierce his eye during the procedure. Was more difficult than I thought it would be, however it was doable. I will not allow the Wen to grow over his eyes again. Next time I will remove the Wen before it overtakes his eyes. I had the clock in the video so you could see the time span of the procedure. Took about 30 minutes from taking him out of the tank, putting him to sleep, operating on him, and for him to recover. The end of the video is of Sun the next day swimming in his tank. He can now see his food and find food hidden within the gravel on the floor of the tank.
Goldfish and Plants
So I go and make some changes from comments I have received about this Goldfish Tank. First Madi and Sheri both said, “Get some plants in there”. Now there are plants. Sheri also suggested a veggie clamp which is now in the tank. Haven’t tried to feed them any veggies yet, but this will surely happen in the near future. Everyone has suggested for me to put the gravel back into the tank. Bacteria and algae form on gravel they say. The trouble is Sun and Wabi are both blind and can’t find food in the gravel so I’ve kept it gravel free for sometime now. Thought it through and have decided to put gravel in one half of the tank. The side clear of gravel is where the fish will eat. Other recommendations is never change the filter cartridges or clean the filter media while doing water changes. Then only change like 10 gallons a week. Another suggestion is since I have two filters to change cartridges and/or clean media material in one filter and leave the other one alone for awhile. I’ll be playing with these ideas. Nearly three years now and the water is not cycled yet. Hopefully soon the water will be cycled.
Bewildered
I’ve become so bewildered about these goldfish and this aquarium. Take a look at the far left hand corner of this tank and you will see Wabi-Sabi laying on his side on the bottom. Sometimes he lays on his side, sometimes upside down, sometimes he will lay kinda curled up. Looks as if he is dying, but I don’t think he is. He use to swim around so boldly always protecting Sun, the Oranda in the upper right hand corner of this photo. However, ever since his Wen has grown over his eyes Wabi has become so despondent. Wabi has been doing this side thing and upside down thing for several weeks. He eats and swims but still looks like he is dying. It is very dissappointing. Bubbles has grown so huge and stays near the bottom of the tank all the time, kinda’ keeping and eye on Wabi. Now Sun is doing fantastic swimming around like a champ as well as Lil Joe and Barri.
These poor fish have suffered so much and now for a couple of years. The ammonia level is as usual a deadly green when tested as well as the nitrites a deadly purple in color when tested. The PH and Nitrates are great. Somehow these fish have survived all the chemicals and water changes I have done. A viewer, Sheri, as made some recommendations to me which I am going to do. One I’m not going to mess with the filters for six weeks. I will change about 5 to 10 gallons of water once a week. I am going to put in some floating plants. Also I’m going to get a Veggie-clamp and feed these fish some broccoli.
I’ve thought about giving up working with these fish for the difficulties both they and I have suffered trying to maintain a decent environment. Sometimes the fish are like puppies and happy and other times the tank of fish look so pathetic. Then I figure what good is recording a history of raising these goldfish if I don’t explain the good as well as the bad times? What good is this blog if I don’t share how others have helped and advised me? I will not give up because the truth be known, I really want to be successful and I want to do what is best for these fish. But on top of all of that, I want to share this entire learning experience to all whom really care. I’ve searched the internet and have found forums and blogs about fish with tons of advice, but not a blog where trial and error is recorded. Where mistakes are openly admited and discoveries are discovered. I’m hoping viewers can turn to this blog and learn from my mistakes.
Barri, Bubbles, and Little Joe ~ Fancy Goldfish
Barri, Bubbles, and Little Joe ~ Fancy Goldfish
I’ve done everything I can think of but still can not get my tank to cycle. I’ve been told to change 10 gallons of water every other week and about 15 to 20 gallons every three weeks. I have the finest filters working as hard as can be but the levels of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are extremely high. This is why I always changed 15 to 20 gallons of water almost twice each week, for even though this is lots of work, the levels stayed halfway decent. I put some Zyme Stress in the water hoping this will bring down the Nitrites and am restraining myself from changing anymore water. I changed about 15 gallons 2 or 3 days ago and then I had changed about 10 gallons a week or so prior to that. After 3 years you would think this tank would cycle… This is a 55 gallon tank with 5 goldfish in it. The fish probably total about 35 to 40 inches in length if all of them were lined up tail to nose. Maybe this tank isn’t big enough, but according to all I’ve read it should be sufficient. Oh well… I wish I knew the secret. I wish there was someone else out there with a 55 gallon tank with five goldfish and they could tell me the secret on how it is done.
Bright Wabi-Sabi
So I get this idea to remove all the pebbles/rocks from the aquarium for several reasons.
1. Because Sun, my Oranda with the overgrown Wen, is blind and can’t see his food and the food falls between the rocks.
2. Food fallen into rocks calls for a messy aquarium.
3. After they eat for a few minutes I can easily see if I’ve over fed and can recover any excess.
All in all it makes it easier for Sun to eat and for me to keep the tank clean. I’m discovering if there is anyway to make it easier to keep the tank clean it might be worth you while to do so.
Also I removed the background paper and put black construction board in it’s place. So far so good. This is a pretty inexpensive background and the black really makes the gold color of the fish stand out.
Six Fancy Goldfish
Finally my tank is back into prime condition. Now back to enjoying the fish. Here are all six of my Goldies. The one on the bottom left is a new Ryukin. The little calico Ryukin died when my tank became unsettled. This is the fourth Ryukin I’ve had. All of them have died over the last couple of years. Now the bigger fish, the two Oranda’s and the large Dragon Eye have overcome all sorts of obstacles. My belief is Ryukin’s are a more frail goldfish. My goal is to maintain the perfect tank. It is not an easy job, but I’m learning and maybe things will smooth out as I go along.
Prime Water Conditioner
Saved by Prime Water Treatment. Geez, I’ve been battling this Ammonia thing for quite sometime now. Mojo died a while back and I tested the water and found it as green as in the test tube on the right in the photo above. I figured I let the water get too dirty somehow even though I was changing water every 3 or 4 days. Never could get a handle on the Ammonia. I used Ammonia chips in one of my filters and it brought the level down to a light green. What I do is fill 4 five gallon water containers and let them sit for a few days and use that water for my water changes. I thought by letting the water sit, the bad stuff in the water would just go away. Nope, that wasn’t the case. In the above water test, the water was taken from one of the five gallon containers which had been sitting for a few days. The test proved the water to be in the toxic green level. Never a fish has been in this water, but yet it is toxic green. This is what I’ve been putting into my tank all along.
So, I put a little Prime into the water I had tested which came out toxic green. After waiting just a few minutes I retested and you can see the results in the test tube on the left which is in the safe yellow area.
The purpose of this blog is to record what I learn about raising goldfish. My goal is to raise several goldfish for a decade or longer (the same fish). So far the longest I’ve had a goldfish is just over two years and that was my beautiful Mojo.
The thing is, I had this bottle of Prime from a long time ago when I was setting up my tank and then I’ve forgotten about it. When I’ve noticed this toxic levels in my tap water, I went to research how to remove the Ammonia and came across this Prime Treatment. I knew I had a bottle of it somewhere and my wife helped me find it. Now I will be using Prime all the time. I put a little bit into each of the five gallon containers so when I do change the water it will be with safe water from the get-go. I only learn by hard knocks. I read about how to take care of a tank, but it doesn’t register with me until I actually do it or experience it.
Red Splotches on Goldfish
I’m so frustrated. The photo above shows Barri with all these red splotches. Goldfish change colors and their wen grows so strangely that I’ve grown a bit complacent. The water was sparkling clear and I thought all was right with the world, but I tested it and found the PH, ammonia, and nitrate great but the nitrite was hovering in the light to dark purple range. The thin white parts of these fish fins, rotted off within a day as the red splotches and dark red colors coated them.
The fish in the above photo is now known as Raggedy Anna. My wife Anna named her. Look what the red splotches did to her. Her fins are nearly bare bones. She had rolled over on her side and floating on the top of the tank looking pretty much gone. I moved her to a community tank for a bit until I got the Nitrite levels back down and I moved her back. She is still hanging on but I’m not sure for how long.
My guess is my tank (55 gallon) is too small for my six goldfish. Four of the goldfish: Barri, Bubbles, Sun, and Wabi-Sabi are all over six inches long. Bubbles is actually nine inches.
I put some Melafix into the water and some Stress Zyme hoping this will help. I’ve used Stress Zyme before and when I do, Bubble’s eyes cloud over. I think Stress Zyme is not good for all fish. Bubble’s eyes will clear and the red splotches will go away. I was very lucky to save these fish.
Then there is Lil’ Joe. As Raggedy Anna was floating on top of the tank barely surviving Lil’ Joe was nipping at her. I put Lil’ Joe into my 20 gallon community tank for a while.
Right now I’m replacing 5 to 10 gallons of water every day on my larger tank. This is really quite a job. I have to figure out what I’m going to do. I need to figure out how to drain the water and bring water up the stairs. It is quite the job hauling it. To get a larger tank means more water to haul up and down stairs. I need a source of water upstairs as well as a drain to continue with this goldfish raising.
Raising goldfish has turned into a huge job, taking the fun out of it. The community tank takes care of itself. I do maintenance on it once every week or so. Goldfish require everyday maintenance. I wish I knew more. I wish there was an easier way. I have two huge filters, each requiring two carbon cartridges (a total of 4 cartridges). I replace these cartridges every two weeks and that is pretty much at a cost of 20 dollars. We are talking nearly 40 dollars a month on cartridges. Is there a cheaper way? The cost and work of raising of these fish is making me wonder if it is worth it. There must be a better and more efficient way to raise goldfish, but I’m certainly learning by hard knocks.
Aquarium of Goldfish
Today I put two glass hoods on my goldfish tank. I was so glad to get rid of the plastic ones which were all scarred up and restricted light. I also put in a new heater for the thermostat on the other heater was stuck keeping the water too warm. I’m still struggling trying to keep the water well cycled. It is tough. I’ve got the ammonia to light green, almost yellow according to the chart. The best of course is yellow. When Mojo died the ammonia registered very dark green. The PH is just a wee bit high, but all in all the nitrates and nitrites are looking real good. I’m still trying to master this water situation. Since Mojo’s death I change five gallons of water every day to every other day. Every two weeks I give an extreme clean where I completely break down both empire 400 filters, clean them, put them back together and replace all four carbon filters. I clean the ultra-violet light pump, and change 15 gallons of water.
If anyone is planning on raising goldfish, be ready to do a lot of work. It is not easy at all. I have a 20 gallon aquarium which I have community fish in, now this aquarium is easy. A community tank is pleasing and relaxing however, goldfish are more like pets and have terrific personalities. They swim to the front of the tank to meet me like puppies every time I enter the room. Goldfish are great fun, but boy are they a challenge to raise. I will continue to report my successes and failures on this blog. Hoping of course to have less failures as I go along.
And Now There Are Six
The little Red Cap Oranda will most likely be called Lil’ Jo filling in the fins of the Late Mojo. Not sure yet for the name of the calico Ryukin. I still miss Mojo and realize I’m responsible for his death. I grew complacent after putting in some new filter systems and didn’t change the water as often as I should and the Ammonia Levels quickly grew to the toxic level. Even Sun was becoming listless. Lucky for the fish and me I didn’t lose them all.
I scanned the internet trying to figure out how to bring the ammonia levels down. All I learned was maybe I have too many fish. Accordingly I should have 20 gallons per fish. That is good and fine, but I’m unwilling to give up any of my fish and am unable to get a larger tank at this time. So I changed about 30 percent of the water, but the levels were still much too high. I replace the four carbon filters and still the levels were too high. The next day I replaced 5 gallons of water in the Am and again in the PM. Now the ammonia levels are finally dropping. My plan now is to change out 5 gallons of water per day with a major clean once a week. Will see how that works.
This blog is mainly a recording of what I’m learning about raising goldfish and of course about the goldfish I’m raising, as time goes on. I’ve never claimed to be an expert; far from it.
Later I’ll get a larger tank, probably 125 to 150 gallons. However I have to figure out a system of handling the water supply and how to drain the water. Right now I’m hauling the water up and down stairs and this is wearing me out. The larger tank will have to be downstairs near the television. However it works out I’ll be sure to record the experience.
Baby Red Cap Oranda
On Thursday afternoon 18 November 2010 this Baby Red Cap Oranda became a new member of my Fancy Goldfish Community. There is a pretty strong likeness between him and the late Mojo. He is so small around Barri, Bubbles, Sun, and Wabi-Sabi. I’ve yet to name this little guy, I’ll have to wait for a name will come in time. I couldn’t stand the void left by Mojo. I also acquired another goldfish I will post about soon. These two little fish will take a long time to grow the size Mojo was. When they do get as large as Mojo I will need a larger tank. They are both very cute and doing their best to fit in.
Mojo in Memory Of
Last night Mojo died. I figure I must have fed him too much. Little fish totally depended on me to take care of him. Nearly two years I’ve had this fish and now he is gone by my mistake. These fish will eat and eat and eat until they die. As owner you have to be so careful. I was feeding the fish three times a day and with various foods. Mojo bloated up, floated upside down, and then died. My tank only has four fish now and I miss Mojo. From now on I am only going to feed the fish twice a day with granular food which settles on the bottom of the tank.
This is the last photo and entry for Mojo. I buried him outside underneath a tree and I feel rotten.
Nitrite, Nitrate, Nightmare Survivors
Back in March of this year I put my fish through an awful ordeal. It was a nightmare and my fish suffered. Provided are the THEN and NOW photos of my Aqua-babies.
In the photo of carnage you see Lil Fish in the far left ~ he died. In the middle is Mojoanna with a deep scarred red varicose fantail. Below, almost dying on the bottom is Wabi-Sabi my once gray Oranda. In the upper right is Bubbles my Dragon Eye. To the far right near the bottom is Sun my golden Oranda. Not pictured is Barri, the baby lionhead. My wife had put Barri in her community tank until I made my tank safe. All of this was brought about by my ignorance on not cycling my tank.
However…
In the photo of beautiful life are the same fish minus Lil Fish. In the far left eating food off the gravel is Sun my goldie Oranda. Since the first photo Sun had surgery removing Wen from around his eyes so he could see. Beside Sun, is Bubbles my Dragon Eye. Bubbles is now 9 inches from tail to nose. Above Bubbles is my angel Mojoanna with a flowing beautiful flawless tail. To the far right completely opposite of Sun is Wabi-Sabi my little gray Oranda now turned richly gold with a highly developing Wen. Swimming off in the upper right coroner is Barri, the lion head my wife had a really hard time letting go of, but relented knowing he needed to be with the other goldfish.
Click here to see a larger version of Fish Family of Five.
Portrait of Mojoanna a Red Cap Oranda Goldfish
Click here for larger viewing of Mojoanna
So I find taking care of goldfish can be quite a task. The major job is cleaning the tank. This has to be done every 3 to 4 days with my growing goldfish in this 55 gallon tank. I remove 15 gallons of water, break down and completely clean the filter, break down and clean ultra-violet light filter, scrub sides of tank and remove debris when I suction the water out. Put filters back together and place onto the tank and then refill the 15 gallons of water from 3 five gallon jugs. Then I have to re-fill the five gallon jugs so this water can be used at the next cleaning.
My five goldfish are growing fast and this 55 gallon aquarium is becoming quite small for them. I saw a 125 gallon aquarium today which I think will do quite nice. It will be a while before I can get it. I need to study and find what is the best filtration system I can get. Presently I have an emperor 400 pump which does a good job, but I am having to clean the tank often. Is there a system out there which will keep a 125 gallon tank clean for a longer period of time? I mean having to change 25 to 30 gallons of water every 3 or 4 days will really become quite a job.
I really enjoy my five goldfish and I plan on having them for a long time. As I learn about them I will record my findings on this blog. A 125 gallon aquarium will provide 25 gallons of water per fish. Maybe in a few months I’ll get this new aquarium. So much to learn before I do…
Fancy Goldfish Swimming
This photo captures all my aqua buddies. Bottom left corner is Sun, above him is little Barri, above Barri is my dragon eye Bubbles, in front of Bubbles is Mojoanna, and to the far right is Wabi-Sabi. Between Sun and the bridge near the bottom of the aquarium is my little cory cat Charlie. I have a smaller 2o gallon aquarium which contains some neons, guppies, balloon mollies, a loach, and a snail.
All of these fish started out smaller than Barri. Now their bodies fill my palm with their tails extending way beyond my palm. I suspect they will grow two palms long. They are housed in this 55 gallon aquarium, but when they grow larger I will have to get a larger tank. Here is a video I took of them a little over two months ago:Five Fancy Goldfish.
I will have to make another video soon so you can see how much these guys have changed. Wabi-Sabi has changed the most. He was a totally gray little guy when I first got him. Bubbles also changed lots. Bubbles fins were totally black and lacy looking, but now he is almost total brilliant gold. My goldfish bring me lots of contentment. I will share my goldfish and their stories as time goes passes. I’m an amateur with these fish and am learning as I go along. I hope you will enjoy watching their journey.
Fancy Goldfish and a Cory
Here are all five of my goldfish. From left to right they are Mojoanna, Wabi-Sabi, Bubbles, Sun, and Barri. The catfish, I just call him Charlie. I had almost ran out of their favorite food which is Saki-Hikari Fancy Goldfish Food. My first supply of this food came from Doctors Foster and Smith on-line store so I ordered from them again. However they were out and put a back-order in for me. So I thought in a week or two longer I would get it, but it never came. This was like over a month ago. So I email them and they say it will be another month before they get any more from their supplier. Since I already paid for the shipping, I’ve let the order remain and maybe in a few weeks I’ll get the two packages I ordered. Well my fish don’t really understand why I’ve rationed them on the good stuff and were getting impatient with me. They kept giving me this worried look. So I go ahead and order a package from Amazon while waiting on the order from Foster and Smith. The food came in yesterday so I give the fish the rest of the food I had been rationing out. They went crazy. They really love this food. I feed them crisps and flakes, but this stuff they go nuts over. So my fish will have to work with me here because the food is rather expensive along with the shipping. I will not feed it to them at every feeding, but every other day or so I will. I sure do enjoy these fish. They are a pleasure to watch.
Work and Worry
Mojoanna is in her own little world swimming by the Bonsai Tree. As I grow older I find myself wrapped into my own world. This is not necessarily a bad thing. I wish I could have been this way many years ago. Work, life, people, and stuff was always on my mind. Many times I’ve been worried about this or that. I bet if I could ad up all the hours and minutes I’ve worried over something it would equate up to months or even years. Was all that worrying a waste? Probably most of it was misspent time, but some of the time worrying I probably put two and two together and figured out things which help alleviate the situation.
Keeping busy and working hard is what works best for me. There is a time coming when I can retire if I choose to do so. This worries the hell out of me. Should it? Many folks, most folks, count on and get real excited about retiring. I guess if you retire you can go to restaurants with all the other old folks and collect on your senior citizen discounts. You can go fishing…. Yikes… no fishing for me…. What a terrible thing to even cross my mind. Maybe I could buy a Harley and hit the streets. Only problem is I couldn’t hold the bike up and would most likely have an accident before even leaving the driveway. Maybe I’ll just work until I can’t work any more. Tis’ all I know…
Fancy Goldfish and Budda
Fancy goldfish do originate from China and I do have a bonsai tree in the tank, seems only fitting to have a little Budda as well. Have to admit these fish bring a lot of peace and contentment into my life.
Sun is doing so much better. He is pictured on the bottom left in this photo. He is swimming around and is much more frisky. Quite an improvement since his Wen Trim Surgery.
It is hard to believe Wabbi-Sabbi, Oranda on the bottom right, was completely gray when he was smaller. It is amazing watching these fish grow. They are constantly changing in shape and form right in front of my eyes.
Mojoanna
Mojo I’ve decided to rename Mojoanna. I’ve had Mojo/anna for over two years and he/she is almost the smallest fancy goldfish I have. She is so pretty and nurturing. She always hangs with the weakest ones until they build their strength back up. I could be wrong, but I’m deciding at this point on calling this fish Mojoanna. The terrible things I’ve put my fish through while learning how to raise them, and Mojoanna has survived it all and comforted all the others. The worst thing I’ve done was putting them into the large 55 gallon tank before it was cycled. The Nitrates and Nitrites were at toxic levels for quite some time. I nearly lost them. Anna, my wife, came to the aide of the fish and helped save them. She put Barri, the baby lionhead, into her community tank and transferred cycled water from her large tank into mine until the toxic levels were brought down. Later after my tank was cycled she returned Barri – sorta’ reluctantly.
I started taking a lot of photos of Barri for I was going to do a post about him. During the photo process I took a few photos of Mojoanna. In one shot she was swimming towards the back of the tank. The background came out black with white specks from the front glass sprakling. Looking at the photo the specks could have easily of been stars and the black the night sky. So I run the photo through various software programs to come up with the above image.
As for Barri, he is doing fine and I will be getting a post up about him soon.
Sun’s Wen Trim Journey Begins
Today Sun and I make a visit to Kansas State University Veterinary Hospital. I will draw about three gallons of water from Sun’s tank to put into a plastic bucket I’ve been using for fish water. Inside the bucket I will place a one gallon glass bowl which Sun will be in. This way I’ll be sure to have enough water to make this journey. The trip to K-State is 30 miles. So I figure between the trip there and back along with the visit, Sun will have to live in this temporary world for nearly three hours.
At K-State they will exam Sun and decide on the procedure and cost. Then I have to make a decision. I know the local vet will do the job for $250 with the knowledge this will be his first time ever working on a fish. Maybe K-State will be cheaper and they have more experience? But what if K-State comes off with some ridiculous amount; say three or four hundred dollars? Do I fix something which isn’t really broken? Sun is very happy, I just want him to be happier. I am going to chronicle the life of this fish so I want to give him the best quality of life possible. However, I would be crushed if this procedure killed him or caused him irreparable damage.
In the photo you can see Sun swimming by the new Bonsai Tree I’ve put into the 55 gallon tank. His wen covers his eye but he does alright. Will see what happens.
