I had two goldfish

On previous Sunday, my mom and dad brought home 7 cute little fish home and a box-shaped aquarium. My siblings and I were just ecstatic because we were not aloud to have any pets before, not until now. We had asked for pets like cats or hamters or cute guinea pigs for hundreds of time (lebaaay). But our parents never get tired of saying ‘No’ to us. I guess by having 7 children in a house is enough to make a riot and turn the house up side down. So maybe, just maybe, we’ve been very well behaved that they decided to get us 2 goldfish an 5 tiger-something-fish as starters.. Yaaayy…

Goldie looked just like this (of course..)

Without further delay, we filled the aquarium tank with fresh tap water and placed some decorations like rocks and shells (we’ve been collecting them from our trip to beaches). Then we moved the little cute and healthy fish to their new home, gently. We didn’t want to upset the fish. 🙂

There… Our fish had settled.. Or not. Roughly an hour later, one of the goldfish started to float. It moved a little, but it was floating. We noticed that one of its fin was damaged and there was a speckle of blood on another. We were horrified. Our very first pet is going to die an hour after it was bought??? Noooo!!!

 

We started to examine our new aquarium. By saying examine means that we were sitting closely to the aquarium, all 7 of us.. Then we found out what had happened. The tiger thing nipped the goldfish’s fins! And the pet shop owner said they will be okay living together.. Hufff!! So that was our first mistake and we learned it the hard way. Never ever put green-tiger-barb in the same aquarium with goldfish.

 I got this article about greenie just now from here..

“Tiger Barbs are notorious for nipping the fins of Angel fish, and Tiger Barbs should nor be kept with small fish like Neon Tetras and Guppies, that are usually bullied by the bigger Tiger Barbs.” 

 We had to say goodbye to the dying fish.. 😦

Little guy, big ambition.. huahaha (ups)

 At least we had one more goldfish on Monday. I evacuated the surviving goldfish to a round container (my siblings were at school at that moment). It was big enough for the fish but I didn’t have any pump to circulate the water. So, I thought it’s going to be okay for a day, because I’ll rush to a store and get one tomorrow. But then, it was another mistake. Goldie was gasping for oxygen on the surface of the water. It was not a pleasant sight.

 Here’s another info I just found. According to Mr. Wiki, Goldfish need a lot of oxygen and has a high waste output.

“Like most carp, goldfish produce a large amount of waste both in their faeces and through their gills, releasing harmful chemicals into the water.Build-up of this waste to tixic levels can occur in a relatively short period of time, which is often the cause of a goldfish’s sudden death. Because of this, goldfish need a large volume of water in which to live. For common and comet varieties, each goldfish should have about 20 gallons(US) or 75 liters of water. Fancy goldfish (which are smaller) should have about 10 gallons(US) or 37.5 liters per goldfish. The amount of ‘water surface area’ is also important in determining how many goldfish may live in a container, as water surface area determines how much oxygen diffuses and dissolves from the air into the water. A general rule is have one square foot of water surface area for every inch of goldfish length (370 cm²/cm). If the water is being actively aerated by way of a water pump, filter, or fountain, a smaller volume of water is needed.”

 We said goodbye yet to our last goldie yesterday..

 One sure thing I’ve learned from this is it takes only a little research to find out about goldies to save them from the torture o f the tigers.. Oh well.. So friends, don’t do what I did

 .. Okay? It will save yourselves from grieving for the the lost goldies..