A Time for Change
Whatever it is I have been trying to do for three years has not worked and has failed. I’ve tried using Prime and Zymestress…. did not work. High levels of Nitrites and Amonia continue in this tank. I’ve had surgery on an Oranda to have the Wen removed from his eyes…. the Wen has grown back. I’ve installed two of the most recommended water filters, the over the tank Emperor 400 and the Eheim Canister. I’ve made frequent and not so frequent water changes. I’ve changed large amounts of water and lesser amounts of water. Still the ammonia and nitrites are pitifully high. I’ve a 9 volt ultra-violet light to kill bad bacteria. I’ve tried using live plants and no plants at all. This tank has never cycled for three years so I will no longer do what I’ve been doing.
I will only change 10 to 15 gallons of water once a week, that is it. I will clean one water filter every two or three weeks. If the fish die, they will die for I’ve tried so many different things and have invested tons of money on trying to raise these five goldfish. The strongest of these fish may survive or maybe they won’t. This tank will have to cycle by me doing much less to it. Maybe less is more. Will see…
Wabi-Sabi has been laying on his side for weeks now. He is partially curled around, however he will swim and does eat. However I’ve thought of ending it all for him by taking off his head. I’ve also thought maybe he doesn’t get around because he is blind for his Wen growing over his head. I’m not going to take him in for surgery when it appears he is dying anyway. So yesterday while cleaning the tank I took Wabi out and with a small pair of scissors, removed a little Wen from both his eyes. Thought what the heck…. Removing Wen is harder than you might think. That stuff is tough to cut. Seeing my limitations I stopped while I was ahead. I would like to say it was a success but Wabi still lays on his side and swims around to eat. He does appear to move slightly better. I’ve ordered a special pair of scissors for cutting tissue and will use them to work more on Wabi’s Wen. If Wabi survives this homegrown surgery and continues to thrive, later I will remove the Wen over Sun’s eyes. I can not afford to pay for such surgeries for these fish. It may appear cruel, but if it works I will do it my way from now on.
My plan is to change 10 to 15 gallons of water once a week. Monthly I will address the filters and ultra-violet light. If the Wen appears to start growing over their eyes, I will cut it off. I will not use any more chemicals of any nature in this tank. I will let my stored water sit for several days before putting it in the tank without using any chemicals. This will either work or not work. What I have been doing has not worked, so it is time for change.
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.
Tails of Orandas
Wabi-Sabi and Sun are inseparable. Sun has been blind for some time now since his Wen has grown back over his eyes. He would sulk and not swim around so much when he became blind again however, mighty Wabi-Sabi would swim around Sun and encourage him. Sun now swims around and acts squirrely. Sun eats well since I’ve removed the gravel from the tank and seems to have a really good time.
Now Wabi-Sabi is going blind. His Wen has nearly covered both his eyes. Sun swims around him trying to encourage him. Sun will get Wabi to swim and has taught him how to collect the food which settles on the bottom of the tank. Both my Orandas are the best of buddies. This summer I will take them both in for Wen Removal surgery for not only around their eyes but also some removed which is growing and covering their back. Their Wen is so huge they tend to be top heavy.
I certainly enjoy these goldfish and intend on taking very good care of them.
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.
Two Oranda Goldfish ~ Sun and Wabi-Sabi
Two Oranda Goldfish ~ Sun and Wabi-Sabi
My two Oranda’s, Sun and Wabi-Sabi, are the best of pals. Wabi is Sun’s eyes. Here is what Sun’s eye’s looked like after he had wen, head growth, surgery: Sun’s surgery 7 months ago. However the wen has grown back over Sun’s eyes and almost over Wabi’s eyes as well. I may consider surgery for both of them this coming summer. The fish can smell their food out and Wabi leads Sun to his food, but their head growth is so huge when they go for the food their head gets in the way. They obviously eat well so I guess this isn’t too much a problem.
Now Wabi-Sabi was a little gray Oranda at the start: Wabi-Sabi Then and Now. It is interesting watching theses fish develop.
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.
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.
Portrait of a Goldfish ~ Wabi Sabi
To see a larger version click here: Portrait of Wabi Sabi.
Wabi keeps growing and changing. To see a progress of his morph click here: Wabi Morphing. It is actually exciting watching these goldfish progress along. I’m learning day to day about goldfish. How big will they get? How long will they live?
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.
Wabi-Sabi Swims by Bridge
My goldfish are doing so good, they really are. They all have turned so golden as in this photo of Wabi-Sabi. I had a photo of Bubbles, my dragon eye goldfish, turned into my mouse pad. You could have this photo, or any photo from my gallery, turned into a mouse pad by clicking onto the following link GOLDFISH MOUSE PAD Then you will have to click around and you will come upon the mouse pad thingie under merchandise. It will cost you $9.95 and shipping, but it makes a really cool mouse pad.
Wabi-Sabi Continues to Change
This is not two different fish, both photos are of Wabi-Sabi. Actually when we acquired Wabi-Sabi we thought him to be a rather large goldfish. We thought it pretty cool he was gray. As he continued to grow an orange tint evolved, as can be seen in this link. As the gray started spreading out and the orange started to appear it was as if lava was rising breaking up the crust of his older self. Wabi is rather large now and his head growth (wen) is developing even further. It is fascinating watching these fish turn into the engineered fish the Chinese created.
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.
Fancy Goldfish and the Pet.com Buddha
Wanting to give my goldfish aquarium more of an Asian flair, I acquired a Buddha from Petco.com. I will be taking a lot of photos of these fish and to make it interesting I need interesting Decor. I make sure my fish have plenty of swimming room first and foremost. The fish are the main subjects, but props are nice.
I had ordered this Buddha and a couple more items from Petco and they shipped them right away however, Fedex miss-delivered my package. The tracking had the item out for delivery and later had it delivered, only not to me. Petco was real good about it and sent me another order. While waiting on the new order the old order appeared by way of a staff member of the local high school. The high school was the recipient of my miss-delivered package. I called and emailed Petco to let them know I had received the items. Petco was able to stop the second order. The second order was shipped from Canada, to Tennessee, and made it’s way to Kansas before it was turned around and headed back to Canada.
Wabi Sabi Glows
To capture this image, I was laying on the floor with my head propped against my chair. As I was snapping away my little dog, Moppet, came up crying and whimpering. He was concerned I was hurt or something for I am not normally lying on the floor. Moppet is a true pal. I will do many entries about this little dog over time.
Wabi-Sabi The Once Gray Oranda Fancy Goldfish
Wabi was almost completely gray at the start. Then life happened and things changed. Kinda’ funny, I was quite colorful when I first started out and now am quite gray. Life does tend to change all of us. We learn things throughout our life. I’ve asked lots of older folks about life and for the most part they have the same answer, “Do what is fun, what brings enjoyment into your life. If what you are doing is not fun then stop doing it.”
Well I get a lot of enjoyment from watching and learning about and from my fish. I believe one can learn from other species. I know I’ve learned quite a bit from the dogs I’ve had and have. I tend the think the purpose of life is to learn.
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.
Fancy Fish Dining on Saki Hikari
Recently I purchased some Saki-Hikari Fancy Goldfish food from Foster and Smith Aquatics. These are very small granules which sink to the bottom and my fish simply love them. For experiment I put in a few floating pellets and some flakes along with the Saki-Hikari. The fish ignored the pellets and flakes moving the small pebbles like little earth moving machines to get to the Saki-Hikari.
Quartet of Four Fancy Goldfish
Mojo swimming straight down acting the clown.
He is so pretty even upside down.
The Dragon heading upwards with a destination in mind.
His colors so elegant and refined.
Wabi-Sabi going forward with great determination,
Seeking further wisdom of his vocation.
Little Barri, the growing lion. moves on ahead,
As delicate as a caterpillar may tread.
Each and every one a pet,
These four making a great quartet.
