Two (of four) GF died after feeding!

Dave Doe · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 14

Hi,

I've been doin the normal thing and have four goldfish that have been
doing well for three years now.

I got down to the last of the food, and got my flatmates daughter to
feed it to the fish. Only a couple of pinches left in the bottom (but
very fine, ie many squashed flakes). It's Tetrafin stuff.

Next day, two were floating!

What on earth can cause this.

BTW: This happenned about two months ago, and I've not bought any more
food for the remaining two goldies. They seem to be surviving ok without
any food - just not growing of course!

The tank is outside, it's a big plastic jobbie burried in the garden. I
dribble water into it constantly (or it gets incredibly cloudy,
especially in summer time (now) when the sun makes the algae and stuff
grow very fast. It also helps stop the water heating up to 30 odd
degrees (and then cooling off at night to 15 or so). The tank is approx
2.5m in diameter, and about .4m deep.

--
Duncan

Archived from group: rec>aquaria>freshwater>goldfish

Tynk · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 200

On Feb 20, 4:07�pm, Dave Doe wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've been doin the normal thing and have four goldfish that have been
> doing well for three years now.
>
> I got down to the last of the food, and got my flatmates daughter to
> feed it to the fish. �Only a couple of pinches left in the bottom (but
> very fine, ie many squashed flakes). �It's Tetrafin stuff.
>
> Next day, two were floating!
>
> What on earth can cause this.
>
> BTW: This happenned about two months ago, and I've not bought any more
> food for the remaining two goldies. They seem to be surviving ok without
> any food - just not growing of course!
>
> The tank is outside, it's a big plastic jobbie burried in the garden. �I
> dribble water into it constantly (or it gets incredibly cloudy,
> especially in summer time (now) when the sun makes the algae and stuff
> grow very fast. �It also helps stop the water heating up to 30 odd
> degrees (and then cooling off at night to 15 or so). �The tank is approx
> 2.5m in diameter, and about .4m deep.
>
> --
> Duncan

You need to start feeding your fish again.
They are *not* fine.
They are slowly starviing to death.
Fish don't die from starvation in a couple of days. It's slow,
agonizing death that can take months.
One can only put out several guesses as to why the other 2 Goldies
died the next day.
Sounds "fishy" to me. Sounds to me like something else happened.
What...you might never figure out.
You said this happened 2 months ago. Other than something obvious
having happened to it, there's not going to be any way to figure it
out.
So instead of dwelling on something from 2 months ago, you need to
start taking proper care of the 2 that are left.
Do you have any type of filtration in your pond?
What type of area do you live in? Warm climate, mixed, tropical, etc?
Are there any live plants, other creatures?

dr-solo · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 194

rancid food will kill fish fast.
if it was the biggest fish that died, then there might have been a lack of oxygen.
could have been an ammonia spike, depends how much food was put in.
most fish can go quite a while without food outside if the pond has greens in it to
feed the itty bitty critters GF eat. large ponds with low fish load some people
never feed them. sounds like this pond does not have a filter, aerator or anything
else.

On Thu, 21 Feb 2008 11:07:01 +1300, Dave Doe wrote:
>I got down to the last of the food, and got my flatmates daughter to
>feed it to the fish. Only a couple of pinches left in the bottom (but
>very fine, ie many squashed flakes). It's Tetrafin stuff.>
>Next day, two were floating!>
>What on earth can cause this.>
>BTW: This happenned about two months ago, and I've not bought any more
>food for the remaining two goldies. They seem to be surviving ok without
>any food - just not growing of course!
>
>The tank is outside, it's a big plastic jobbie burried in the garden. I
>dribble water into it constantly (or it gets incredibly cloudy,
>especially in summer time (now) when the sun makes the algae and stuff
>grow very fast. It also helps stop the water heating up to 30 odd
>degrees (and then cooling off at night to 15 or so). The tank is approx
>2.5m in diameter, and about .4m deep.