is it the water??

[Philsphan87]

My family recently surprised me with a mac aquarium (turning an old iMac into a fishtank.. check it out www.macaquarium.com). It's awesome, but i have been having horrible luck with the goldfish that we put in it! It's a relatively small tank, only large enough to hold 2 goldfish, but only one was living in it when i encountered problems. My family bought the first fish on a sunday and by today (thursday) it was dead. I noticed its sluggish behavior, but wasn't sure what the matter was. The fish rarely swam around, and seemed uninterested when fed, neglecting the food all together. At first, it would stay in the same corner of the tank, almost ramming its head into the wall over and over. Soon it started to just slowly swim to the top and then lifelessly sink to the bottom where it would stay for most of the time. It looked dead except I could tell that it was breathing when I studied the gills. Every so often, it would move slightly, find a new place to burrough itself, and look dead again. Today, when it did its playing dead act, I thought nothing of it, until I realized that its gills weren't moving this time. It had turned itself upside down and burried itself in the gravel and just died.. it didn't even float!
I went out to petco tonight and bought two new goldfish, these slightly larger than the tiny one i had before. They seemed to be acting like regular goldfish in the tank at the store and in the bag on the way home. However, as soon as they were placed in the mac aquarium, their behavior immediately changed and they started acting strangely similar to the first fish that died in a matter of days.
The only thing i can think of is that maybe something is wrong with the water. I believe the tank is filled with regular tap water, which according to the store, goldfish can survive in. Maybe there is something in the water that is harmful to fish. Any ideas??? Thanks

 

[Cearbhaill]

Welcome to Aquaria Central- we are here to help.
That's the good news.

And the bad?
I don't believe that "Macaquarium" is suitable for goldfish.

I am unable to locate any clear details on the site you provided as far as how large the "tank" is, but even without knowing that I can tell you that you haven't the room for Goldfish.
Goldfish need room- even a conservative estimate runs in the 15-20 gallons necessary "per fish", and I really do not see how a Macaquarium would hold nearly that much water.

Here is a listing of what is considered the minimum requirements necessary to keep Goldfish. Please review it carefully before purchasing any more fish.

Again- without knowing the dimensions and a bit more about the capabilities of this device it is very difficult to comment, but honestly- I see it as little more than a novelty item, and certainly not suitable as a real aquarium.
That is unfortunate- for the money spent on this a pretty good aquarium could be had. A really good one, in fact.

Is it open to air on top?
What are the dimensions of the actual water holding area?
We may be able to suggest something that could tolerate these conditions once more details are available.

But again- goldfish are not going to survive in there and even if they do- it will be a brief and miserable exsistence.