The truth about my aquarium, anyone like to read it?

Question

I have 2 aquariums, one is 18 gallon and another 3 gallon. In my 18 gallon aquarium there is 14 fish. 5 goldfish, 8 angel fish and 1 tiger barb. They are living in the aquarium for the last 6 months. I have 2 oranda goldfish about 5 inches long. 2 blackmoors goldfish of 4.5 inches long and 1 comet of 3 inches long. The angel fish are all adults. They are fully grown. I also have 1 speices of live plant, hydrilla plant. I have no heater or any filter. I always do weekly water changes of 20%. I didnt at all cycle my aquarium, at the first day of purchase I stocked all this fish togeather. And my fish werent attacked by any dieseases. They were all fine till now. And no fish died. And I also donot have any test kits. That was my 18 gallon aquarium. The 3 gallon has 4 platys, 2 mollies with 8 guppies and 1 platy fry with the same live plant. They are also in the same state and 6 months old. So what do you have to say for my aquarium.. did I do a good thing or a bad one? I just want ur advice.

PS: Dont give any silly answers pls give serious ones.

Answer 1

Thats a lot of fish for such a small fish tank. Its up to you to say if you did a good thing or bad. I bet they are cramped like none other though.

Answer 2

Sorry, I don't buy this.  

Answer 3

only feed the fish a couple of small pinches of food a day (per tank) as fish can over eat.

if i was you i would get a water testing kit as the water could have diseases like fin rot which rots the fins and can kill.

i would also buy a filter or just something that puts oxygen into the water because they can also die.

there is also too many fish for your tank but you could put the coldwater ones in one tank and the freshwater ones into another!!(but the tank still needs to be bigger)

you really need to buy these things in order for your fish to survive!

good luck!!

Answer 4

If that is true, you are a horrble pet owner and you are practicing cruelty to animals. I dont believe you, and I think this is kind of pathetic.  

Answer 5

Seriously people. This poster say they did EVERYTHING wrong (overstock/coldwater with tropical/no heater/no filter/stocking ALL at one time)...do you really think they are serious. If all that happened there is no way that all the fish would have survived. There is so much wrong with this post it's not even funny. Don't get too hyped up about it. Total troll.

Answer 6

Both of those tanks are seriously overstocked, and you've mixed coldwater fish (goldfish) with tropicals (angels, etc). You really need a much larger coldwater tank for the goldfish (30 gallons for the 1st goldfish and an additional 10 gallons per goldfish after the 1st, so you're looking at a tank of 70 gallons minimum needed for the goldfish alone).

The angel fish need a LOT more space. A pair of them need a 30 gallon tall tank to grow to their full size, and additional fish need additional space. You probably need a 75-100 gallon minimum for the angels alone. There is NO WAY that your 8 angels are full grown in an 18 gallon tank. They are 8" big when they're full grown and they wouldn't have the room to even turn around if you had full grown fish in there.

As for the tiger barb, it needs to be in a tank with other tiger barbs. These are social fish that need a lot of space to swim. They are very active and can be very aggressive as well to other species. I would recommend only having a group of tiger barbs in your 18 gallon. You could get away with 5 of them in there as long as they're the only fish.

As for the fish you have crammed into the 3 gallon, those fish need at least 30 gallons of space to survive.

You need to take these fish to a pet store and drop them off. Or you need to buy bigger tanks ASAP.

Answer 7

I sincerely hope this is a joke or you're not telling the truth.  It's not possible to fully stock these two tanks without cycling them in the manner that you have described without disease and/or fish loss.

All fish need filters.  All tropicals need heaters.  All tanks need to be cycled.  

This is horrible to do to poor fish.  As with any purchase or project you take on you should DO SOME RESEARCH before you just stick all of these fish together in too small a tank with uncompatible species.

Let's start with the goldfish.  They are COLD WATER fish, need temps much lower than your other tropical species, prefer under 74 F, 64-72 F is perfect, and need 20 gallons for one of them and 10 gallons for the additionals with a filtration system of at least double this.  So, if you have 5 goldfish you need a cold water tank of 60 gallons with a 120 gallon filter just for them.

However, the comet is a different story and needs a pond or a 120 gallon tank.

Next, your tropicals.  Tropicals need warmer tanks.  Actual temp depends on species but for the most part most of what you have is okay between 75-78 F.  Angels are agressive and need to be solo, in a mated pair or kept more than 6 at a time.  They also get large, up to 6 inches and need a tall aquarium, preferably at least 30 gallons or more for a mated pair alone.  They don't get along with passive tropicals like guppies or small tetra that they'll eat.

Barbs, like tetra need to be kept in schools of at least 6 or more.  Since they get to be 3-4 inches a school of 6 would need an aquarium of at least 20 gallons.  These are also compatible with angels if kept in the right amounts.  Not with guppies or smaller tetra.

Platies and molllies are compatible with most of what you have except the goldfish but they need 3-4 gallons per fish.  If mollies don't have aqua salt their slime coats will suffer.

Do some research please.  Some good sites are www.kokosgoldfish.com, www.liveaquaria.com and www.aquariumfish.net.  Re-home these fish or buy 20 more tanks to accommodate.

Good luck :)

Answer 8

You did cycle your aquarium.  You just cycled it with fish in it.  All aquariums must cycle.  They will do it whether you work at it or not unless you change 100% of the water so often you don't give them a chance to cycle.  Most people in your shoes would be mourning dead fish.  You are very lucky you aren't.  You probably have very naturally soft water or something.  That helps make ammonia less toxic to fish and they can usually survive a cycling tank in that case.  It does happen sometimes that people will start up a tank and do everything wrong and their fish will still be ok.  I just hope that you don't go around telling everyone that they can do things your way with no problems, because in most cases they can't.  You were lucky.  I hope your luck holds out and your fish don't start to suddenly get sick and die.  It's always better to play it safe and try to make things as comfortable as possible for the fish.

Answer 9

Where to begin....first of all, your tanks are both overcrowded.  Your 18 gallon tank has both cold water and freshwater fish.  The angelfish and tiger barbs are freshwater fish, and need to be kept at a warmer temp, requiring a heater.  Then you are trying to cram 15 fish into a 3 gallon tank?  A good rule of thumb is 1 gallon of water per 1 inch of fish.  you do the math.  It is horrible to keep your fish living like this.  You need to get another large tank, pronto, and do some serious research before you get another fish.

Answer 10

Your a ******* idiot, you just said that you did everything that your not supposed to do in terms of keeping a tank, and then you ask if that's good or bad. What do you want us to say?

Answer 11

The truth about fish, if they don't die, their fine!

You must be very clever and good at fish keeping. Congrats!