Way Off Topic - Goldfish and Low PH

[etrain16]

Same here. A bowl, water, a plant or two and a couple of snails. Fed them once or every other day and they seemed to be perfectly happy. An an aside my daughter when she was young(now 31) got a pair of gerbils. I wasn't thrilled but was told they only live for 2-3 years so I figured that was ok. One died around 4 and the other lasted for over 8 years. For some reason all the animals we have had as pets over the last 35 years seemed to have lived longer than average and we do nothing special to them. Just food and a place to sleep, makes me wonder about all these expensive special diets and whatever for pets actually shorten their lifespans. They seemed to have survived on their own for tens of thousands of years without human internention.

Our fish isn't our only pet. We also have a Roborovski dwarf hamster and 2 guinea pigs. We have just the one daughter, so we're trying to appease her love of animals to some extent. Me, I'd rather have a dog in the house, but our current schedules would make that difficult at the moment. The guinea pigs are kind of fun, I can just perch one on my shoulder and he'll read NWFA right along with me.

 

[Member 5605]

Well, he's back in his pH corrected tank tonight and is a completely different fish - lively, ready to eat, seems to be acting as if nothing happened. Still a mystery as to what caused the pH level to crash when it's never happened before, but at least we know what to watch for now.

Something interesting to look out for on wild Ph swings...

Stuff on your hands. Really. Any soaps, detergents etc. I always tried to never get my hands wet.

 

[etrain16]

Something interesting to look out for on wild Ph swings...

Stuff on your hands. Really. Any soaps, detergents etc. I always tried to never get my hands wet.

I use disposable gloves when cleaning the tank, and even try to rinse them off if I've touched something else, but a good point and something I'll need to keep an eye on.

 

[SparksFly]

I had a beta that lived 8 years. I let the water sit overnight to settle and somehow it took some of the chlorine out. Did just fine. I would agree with Joe though, ditch the bleach and stick with vinegar and baking soda. Too much bleach is toxic.

 

[SparksFly]

Huh we had a half whiskey barrel with a plastic liner thing in it under one of our downspouts. Last year the wife started buying $.29 goldfish and throwing them 4-5 at a time in the tank. Most died within a few days then she had 4 of 6 make it a week. and so on Now its almost 9 months later they were out in the barrel all winter including having the roof redone (no tear off but all Moss removed) the gutters cleaned after the roofing and to date the wife has seen 3 at a time. They tend to hide in holes in the cement blocks in the bottom of the barrel she sets a pot with some water plants in it.

A few years back we had one live almost 3 years in the barrel we think a Blanking Neighbor cat got it.

My dad got a half wine barrel and put little goldfish in it. After 40+ fish he decided to flush it. Fill it, let it sit for a week, for a month. Takes out any alcohol residue and while yours had a liner you would still want to flush it. Could be why that fish lived so long is the residue was gone. Had 3 fish for 4 years now since flushing it. Your fish killer could have been a raccoon too. A coon was bathing in ours and eating the fish and plants until my dad put chicken wire over the top.

 

[Mark W.]

We lost two of the first batch to a coon I then made a slotted wood cover that the coons couldn't get under. As to the flushing out ours had like 3 months of rain run off through it before we put any fish in it.

There are currently 3 very much alive fish in the rain barrel all having made it over winter with no fuss.

 

[elsie]

Filtration is probably the biggest denominator, I use to make large 3 and 4 inch PVC and ABS filter housings and slip fit them together and use stainless clamps on the pump hose connections. I'd fill French drain socks with carbon media. I'd cut filtration foam of different densities and plastic filter screen. The best was the stuff I could rinse and reuse.

I'd have a couple of cinder blocks in a small molded livestock trough to give them shade in the summer and weigh the containers down.

I'd buy water cress at the super market and feed them Koi pellets. I could gauge the effectiveness of the filtration on the clarity of the water and how fast the fish were swimming. I'd always use the dirty water and stuff I'd rinse out of the filters on my plants.

After a while I'd add some liquid that was to reduce the ammonia and protect the their scales from ich.

 

[Stomper]

Phhhppttt..... that's nothing, we've had threads raised from the dead that were buried for SEVEN YEARS!

 

[Mikej]

And getting a notification of someone "Reacting" to your 2-7 YO post is another sort of rush.

 

[Kristina]

So @etrain16 , is your goldfish still alive?

 

[etrain16]

Nope. He finally died earlier this year, we guessed he was about 9 years old at that point. Did continue to battle pH issues in his tank since I originally posted here, but with help from the local pet shop, we managed to keep things pretty stable. Baking soda ended up being the most effective at keeping the acidity from creeping back up. Just had to be sure to check the pH on a regular basis to keep on top of it.

 

[Stomper]

Bubbles finally died?!

 

[Rickenbacher39]

So, your little fish died and we didn't get a forum wide notification of this?
Humph........
Now I have all this grief and nowhere to direct it.
I will send you the bill for my therapy.
Stomper looks like he may need a bit of help too.

 

[mrblond]

sure he was dead ?

 

[Stomper]

Nobody gets out alive..... not even the fish!!

 

[etrain16]

Bubbles finally died?!

Nemo. Get it right man!!

 

[etrain16]

So, your little fish died and we didn't get a forum wide notification of this?
Humph........
Now I have all this grief and nowhere to direct it.
I will send you the bill for my therapy.
Stomper looks like he may need a bit of help too.

I should have asked Joe to create a new area of the forum, dedicated just to him! (the fish, that is, not Stomper)

 

[etrain16]

sure he was dead ?

Yeah, I wanted to be absolutely sure, so he sat out of the water...for a good while.

 

[jbett98]

My two fish just passed 18 years old and they from the looks of them they'll live longer then me.