Why does the water in my goldfish bowl go musty after one day?

Question

It is making my fish constantly come to the top and gulp for air

Answer 1

You need oxygen in your tank. Try some live plants or an airpump.

Answer 2

Water should be prepared b4 introducing fish....Ideally good bacteria should be allowed to build up.

Answer 3

Bowls are meant for cereal, not fish....put Captian Crunch in the bowl and get your goldfish a 20-30 gallon tank, goldfish get big and need oxygen circulating in their tank...your fish will eventually die from suffocation and burns from their own waste, bowls cannot filtrate the poo and pee that they produce.

Answer 4

You really need an aquarium for sure.  I tried filtered purified water and my goldfish died from it.  Get an aquarium or your fish probably will die.  karen h

Answer 5

Do you have the fine gravel in the bottom of your fish bowl?

If it's getting old, it might be a good idea to replace it soon with clean gravel from the pet shop, because the gravel in my fish bowl gets dirty quite easily and takes quite a lot of effort to properly clean it when I have to (I have a manual fish bowl with normal goldfish).

It also might be a good idea, if you haven't already, to buy some water steriliser from the pet shop (the type safe for use in goldfish bowls). You can normally find this in a small bottle and it's not that expensive to buy. Basically, when cleaning out, after a few drops have been put in, it makes the water safe for the goldfish to thrive in. This hopefully should stop them going to the top of the water.

Answer 6

Gold fish are the dirtest fish you can have.  Maybe you have too many in your bowl and the water needs to be change twice a day. I mean could you live in all that p**p even for a day?

Answer 7

Because the bowl is way to small for the Fish to start with and they need more space and a good Fluval filter to keep the water quality clear and clean.

They are coming up to the surface because they can't breath as there isn't enough oxygen in the bowl they are in!

Answer 8

because you have a goldfish in a bowl... they are dirty, grow too big and he has no oxygen to breath so you are basically suffocating your goldfish

Answer 9

You would be better off getting a proper tank and putting a filter in it.

This would create oxygen for the fish from the constant flow of water.

Otherwise you should be doing regular small water changes to keep the water clean and to make sure the fish have enough oxygen.

You can buy oxygen tablets from pet shops so it may be worth getting some of those.

Answer 10

One or two fish should be fine in a normal godfish bowl. It sounds like you are overfeeding. Try a trip to your local garden centre, they normally have a wee fish department and the guy can advise you better then I can. Good luck...

Answer 11

If you only have 1 fish in it, it could be another problem such as over feeding. If you overfeed your fish, you bowl will be come cloudy. A single fish should be able to live in a bowl without any problem.

Also, put clean gravel in the bottom so the "stuff" in the water has a place to settle. Get the gravel from a pet store, not your driveway.

Good luck.

Added:   Goldfish do not need to live in an aquarium, that's the beauty of them. The make "fishbowls" for...FISH! Oh, and they make cereal bowls for cereal. Goldfish also don't need circulating water like tropical, aquarium fish do. It might keep the bowl cleaner and longer but not necessary.

Answer 12

Because he is in a bowl and needs a 20 gallon filtered tank.

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