Goldfish Babies

[Kashta]

Well, I've been real busy on Craigslist, locally. I have all those baby fish to house so they'll have enough space to grow up healthy, plus many new fish coming (as you've seen, though many of those will go into my 80 gallon and/or 40 gallon). I knew I needed a lot of extra tanks. Here's what I've managed to scrounge up through Craigslist ads and a few "fish tank wanted" ads.

$ 20.00 - 10 gallon tank with equipment + metal stand for 10 or 20 gallon.
$ 25.00 - 20 gallon tank with equipment/supplies
$ 50.00 - 30 gallon tank with equipment/supplies + 1 wood cabinet (plus a tiger barb and a pictus catfish - darn!)
$ 50.00 - 30 gallon tank with equipment/supplies + 1 wood cabinet
$ 65.00 - 30 gallon tank with equipment/supplies
$ 25.00 - 30 gallon tank with equipment/supplies
$ 40.00 - 55 gallon tank with equipment/supplies
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$275.00 total spent on 7 tanks for a combined water volume of 210 gallons.

(Works out to $1.31 per gallon, overall.)
​

All tanks are glass and came with a top, standard light, filter, heater, and air pump for that size tank. Plus lots of outdated test kits, fake plants, assorted colored gravel (ughh), decor items, and other misc. junk I didn't need.

Once the baby goldfish grow up and are gone, I'll still use the tanks for other fish, snails, shrimp, and for growing plants and mosses. Will upgrade some of the lighting then too.

 

[Kashta]

Update on the fry... well, it's not good news, I'm afraid. I've lost most of them now. Everything seemed to be going along just fine, then within half a day of so... most of them were just gone. I hadn't changed anything I've been doing. They were all eating like normal, still getting both First Bites and newly hatched Brine Shrimp. I didn't see anything wrong. So I don't know why this happened, just that most of them have died.

There are now 15-20 fry left. I just hope the dying won't continue. It's very disappointing. I'm going to wonder now what went wrong for a long time. I know this just happens sometimes, but not knowing why really bothers me.

 

[irishspy]

Shucks, I'm so sorry. I wonder if some sort of baterial infection ripped through them.
I hope some of the remaining fry make it for you.

 

[Kashta]

Thank you, Irish. I was so proud of those little things, you'd almost think I'd spawned them myself. lol.

It's okay, though. I knew the odds weren't real good when I first saw all those eggs. But I still tried and always hoped for the best.

 

[DooSPX]

I really hope that the rest survive. Good luck and keep us up to date.

 

[Kashta]

Thank you, DooSPX. It's been a full day now and I haven't had any more losses. I hope the worst is over.

 

[AquaGem]

wow I'm so sorry I hope the rest do well. It sounds like you have a great plan for them and have been taking care of them beautifully I'm sending my short supply of luck your way!

 

[squabeggs]

Maybe a chlorine spike? City water or well water?

When you feed them hatched Baby brine shrimp...Do you ever have problems separating the hatched brine from the shells? The shells can be harmful to the little guys. I always decapsulated mine. Kind of a pain in the a** but I never had to worry about seperating the shells...gave me better hatch rates too.

Or maybe like you said...could have just been natural selection.

Have you been testing the water...im sure you have...just asking. Do you have a sponge filter in there yet?

just suggestions.

I hope the worst is over. They are fun to watch grow.

 

[Kashta]

I don't know, guys. Raising fish fry isn't all that complicated. People do it all the time. You look stuff up from multiple sources and follow the instructions. But something about the way I did this wasn't right. Everything went well while I had them in that glass. But there got to be too many of them for that. Once they all were swimming around, feeding them on that scale wasn't practical anymore. The glass was a really small space. I had to change the water too often and I knew I needed to regulate the temperature better. Plus, not disrupt them so often. I moved them back to the tank in the breeders net then and they did fine there for a while. I didn't have to change the water 3 times a day anymore (which was a relief for me), the tank water was good and well oxygenated. But then I couldn't see them well enough to tell when to feed again or gauge how much they needed. I know I must have overfed them there because of that, but I siphoned out the excess so it wouldn't go bad. Eventually, some of them died. I didn't think the water circulation was good enough in there through that fine mesh of the netting, so I moved them to a 10 gallon tank in the kitchen. That went well too. I still couldn't see them well, but that bigger space was more stable for them. I'd set up a 20 gallon tank on the dresser near the main tank so it would be ready once they outgrew the 10. They started dying in big numbers. I tested the water.. didn't forget to dechlorinate the next batch. Had a small clump of java moss on the bottom right side so the smaller ones could hide from the bigger ones.. floated a tuft of guppy grass at the top for the same reason. Sponge filter.. it was easy to keep clean. I just don't know where the problem is.

The brine shrimp eggs I hatch aren't decapsulated. But I know if the salt-to-water ratio is right, the hatched shrimp stay well separated. That was manageable to control. I also rinsed the shrimp before I fed them, so I wouldn't be squirting salty water at the baby fish. I just don't know what was wrong.

Day 16 update.. yesterday. I was down to 4 fry still alive. As a last resort, since there were so few.. I moved those survivors back to the drinking glass. Continued to use conditioned tap water instead of scooping it out of the tank. Took some pictures to show you how well developed they were now, even though all of the others were gone. (Those are attached.) The tails were starting to get pointy.. they had grown internal organs. These 4 were fine all day yesterday. Very active, eating well, swimming around. Had a new glass with fresh water ready to change it, when needed.

This morning, 3 of the 4 have died and the last fry is struggling to swim sporadically... mostly just floating now. So it's not going to make it, either.

I took these photos yesterday when I fed them. So you'll see how far they made it.

 

[serissime]

Oh, no.... that's so sad. It seems like your fish spawn a lot though, if you wanted to try again.....