New tank!

Well if you have 4 goldfish depending on what type they are you'll need a much larger tank then 25 gallons. What type are they ?

 

I'd go 55g... 48x13x20

 

And that only if they are not commons or comets
In that case it needs to be a 72" tank

Rick

 

Sure Can,
Rick's (cooltow1) our Goldfish go to guy so I'm sure he can tell you what size tank your gonna want.

From the little I know on Goldfish comets/fantails can reach 10" or more (but usually about 8-10")...

once you decide on tank size we can help you with the proper heater/heaters wattage that you'll need...filtration gph (I recommend a canister...easier to clean-quiet-numerous media options-can do heater inline in addition to uv sterilizer if you opt to use one keeping equipment for the most part out of sight)...and anything else

 

Do not overstock

The first basic rule to healthy fish is NOT to overstock. Use at least 10 gallons of water per goldfish, more for commons and comets.
Plan for the Future

He may look like a tiny thing but goldfish live long lives and grow continuously. You need to cover the tank as goldfish may jump.
If you take care of the water, the water will take care of the fish

* Treat your tap water with a high quality tap water conditioner that will neutralize chlorine/chloramines and detoxify heavy metals from your tap water.
* Measure it for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH to make sure the water is stable and non toxic.
* Filter it. The filter on your goldie tank should pass the tank’s entire water volume through the filter at least ten times per hour. Your filter traps trap debris and particles in your tank and also serves as a home for the bacteria that keep the water happy by converting ammonia (toxic) into nitrIte (still toxic) into nitrAte (less toxic). It will take several weeks to establish your biological filter .
* Perform partial water changes weekly or biweekly (20-40%) to take care of the waste not dealt with in the biological cycle and to replenish the minerals and other good stuff the goldfish have used up.
* Clean the filter by rinsing filter media (the fuzzy stuff) in some tank water twice a month.
* Clean the gravel. Vacuum parts every time you do a partial water change. .

Goldfish are living beings and need oxygen

* Provide large surface area. Goldfish fare better in tanks that are long, rather than tall. Longer tanks provide a larger surface area for optimal gas exchange.
* Make sure there is surface movement.
* Do not overstock. More fish means less oxygen per fish.
* Perform partial water changes and tank cleaning weekly. Your tank maintenance assist oxygen production because as you remove dying plant, debris and uneaten food you reduce the number of oxygen consuming bacteria.
* Watch for gasping.

Goldfish have preferences

* Keep a stable temperature around 76F
* pH should be over 7 (preferably over 7.4). However if your KH (which measures your alkalinity) is low (under 80 PPM) you may see pH swings and if you experience pH drops between waterchanges you should look into increasing your alkalinity (KH) so your pH stays stable. Crushed coral or crushed oystershell added to a high flow area can also be used to increase KH and keep pH stable.
* Some hardness (GH) makes for happier fish
* Lights. Goldfish need to see to find food and have fun. Unless your room is bright add artificial fluorescent light. But remember that goldfish do like dark periods as well.

Goldfish are creatures of habit. Keep things stable

* Don't tinker too much. Goldfish adapt to a wide range of pH and hardness. What they really need is for you to keep it stable so they do not have to adjust too often.
* Use a heater to keep the temperature stable. Goldfish can adjust to a wide range. But around 76 Fahrenheit is a good temp for most fancy varieties.
* Use a thermometer to measure temperature. And make sure the temperature of the change water is the same as the temperature of the tank water.

Ammonia: should be 0ppm.

Symptoms include: irritation, flashing, black areas, frayed fins, darting back and forth in the tank in uncontrollable spasms, spinning in small circles, and finally laying on the bottom.

How toxic ammonia is in your tank depends on your water temperature and pH. Higher water temperature and higher pH make ammonia more toxic. If you pH is 8 you're going to have to work harder at keeping ammonia levels low than if your pH is 7.

Treatment:

* Reduce feeding. High protein foods result in more ammonia. Feed low protein foods like fresh veggies until your biofilter bacteria catch up.
* Vacuum the substrate well. The bacteria that consume debris produce ammonia, so reducing the debris in the tank should reduce ammonia production.
* If your tap water has little or no ammonia after it's dechlorinated, partial water changes will help to bring ammonia down to safe levels. Either Prime or Amquel can also be used to convert ammonia to its less toxic form, however, you must have a 2 bottle ammonia test kit or you will not get accurate water test readings. The Seachem Ammonia Alert card will still give accurate ammonia readings when using Prime or Amquel. Note that if your water isn't well buffered (low KH), Amquel will lower your pH (Make it too acidic), so you will most likely have to buffer with baking soda to keep that from happening.
* Ammonia adsorbing resins such as zeolite can also be used, however, they are just a temporary bandaid.


NitrIte: should be 0ppm

NitrIte is toxic. It enters thru the gills and binds up the red blood cells keeping them from being able to carry oxygen. Salt helps protect against nitrIte poisoning because the chlorine in it competes with nitrIte for uptake through the gills. You should not see detectable levels of nitrIte in an established tank. If you are detecting nitrIte in an established tank, you need to reexamine your filtration, fish load and husbandry practices.

Symptoms include: Oxygen seeking behavior. e.g. rapid gill movements, staying near the top of the top, gulping air, etc, lethargy, gills are brown instead of bright cherry red.

Treatment:

* Reduce feeding. High protein foods result in more ammonia and thus more nitrIte. Feed low protein foods like fresh veggies sparingly until your biofilter bacteria catch up.
* Vacuum the substrate well. The bacteria that consume debris produce ammonia, so reducing the debris in the tank should reduce ammonia and thus nitrIte production.
* Partial water changes will help to bring nitrIte down to safe levels. Add salt at one (1) teaspoon per gallon of water. Predissolve in tank water and make sure it disperses well when you add it. You can use table salt as long as it doesn't contain yellow prussiate of soda. Rock salt and picking are cheap and work well. Until nitrIte drops to 0ppm, when you do partial water changes just add one tsp of salt per gallon changed untill nitrItes come down to 0, then you can skip adding any more salt. Your partial water changes will then remove it over time.


Nitrate: 0-40ppm (optimal)

Symptoms: can cause flip over problems, dilated blood vessles in fins, decreased immune response.

Treatment: partial water changes will help to bring nitrAte down to safe levels. Adding fast growing plants may also help keep nitrAte from building up.


pH/KH: 7.5-8.3 (Optimal range)/ 120-300ppm

If your pH is lower, it will have a tendency to slip down over time. If pH gets down to 6, it can be deadly for your fish and for the bacteria that keep your water happy. The pH of blood is around 7.4 and there are only a layer of two of cells between the fish's blood and the water. Rapid swings in pH or extreme pH can cause the blood to get too alkaline or too acidic.

Treatment:

* Partial water changes will help to maintain pH if your water is well buffered (KH around 120ppm).

* Crushed oyster shells, broken up cuttlebone or crushed coral placed inside a media container of mesh bag in a high water flow area will also help maintain pH. They dissolve when pH falls below 7.5 and increase KH (bicarbonates--which help to maintain pH) and GH (your general hardness).


General Hardness (GH): 100+ppm (optimal)

These are the dissolved minerals in your water, primarily calcium and magnesium. Goldfish can tolerate a wide range of hardness levels, and generally your source water should be fine unless it's really really soft (low GH). GH helps to keep your pH from getting too high and aids in the fish being able to maintain proper fluid balance.

Goldfish tanks should be about goldfish

* Decorations. Keep them to a minimum. Goldfish need room to swim. They can get stuck between or under decorations. Avoid sharp decorations that they could get hurt on.
* Substrate. Gravel can provide a home for the bacteria that convert ammonia to nitrAte, however it also provides a breeding ground for bacteria that eat debris and can cause disease. Gravel can also be a hazard if goldfish swallow it or get it stuck in their throats. Either use a shallow layer of gravel small enough to pass through a goldfish, or use a single layer of larger rocks too large to fit in their mouths. You can also have a bare-bottomed tank.
* Tankmates. It is easier to succeed with a goldfish only tank. Tropicals have different requirements and are often sensitive to goldfish medications (like salt). Common Plecos and apple snails do not make good mates as they may suck on goldfish slimecoat and harm or injure them. Smaller hardy snails like trapdoors or small ramshorns would work fine though.
* Plants. Plants can be used with goldfish but not always with success. Goldfish like to think of plants as their own salad bar and you may have to try a few before having success. Good ones to start with are java fern, anacharis, java moss, sword plants, dwarf anubias and Crypts. For more information, see our article on Goldfish and Plants.

Goldfish are omnivours and need good varied food to be healthy and happy

* Feed goldfish once or twice a day (more often if they are babies and juveniles)
* Feed a varied diet
* Do not overfeed.
* If you feed dry food (pellets or flakes) make sure they are good quality ones and not too old
* Feed a varied diet of shrimp; krill and some live foods such as daphnia and worms. See our Goldfish Diner for more ideas for healthy goldfish foods.
* Omnivours like their vegetables. Feed washed greens, spirula, peas, oranges and more.
* Some goldfish are sensitive to dry food - particularly dry flakes. You may have to presoak your dry food or if see problems (like flipover) eliminate it from the diet


Plan for the unexpected

* Quarantine new fish (three to four weeks) to prevent illness spreading
* Have a Hospital Tank ready (or something that will work as a make-up tank) just in case.

Be the best veterinarian you can

* If fish get sick or out of sort try make a specific diagnosis rather than poison fish with too many medicines.
* Always check your water first
* Isolate sick specimens


Thus plenty of water, generous space, regular water maintenance and good healthy food and your goldie should enjoy a long happy life with you

Last but not least: Enjoy your fish!

Rick

 

haha, see..I told you Rick was our goldfish go to guy

 

That my standard goldfish answer I just copy out of documents and paste it.
I have refined it over time and will continue to do so.

Rick

 

well it's very nice might I add!
Covers just about everything...but you might want to add a tank size recommendation for this person in particular being it sounds like they need one.

 

Use at least 10 gallons of water per goldfish, more for commons and comets.
Second sentence Dawn

 

[icon_cool.gif] I seen that, but with having a mix I kinda thought you'd just come out with it and be like get a X gallon tank.

 

I addressed tank size in a PM this morning and not mixing long body and round body goldfish
But in away Mad_Dawg is right some tanks size just are not suited to goldfish, a standard 10 gallon tank with 1 round body goldfish is still going to cause problem like wise many of the tall tank are problematic with goldfish. Really the best tanks for fancy goldfish are the breeder tanks. They have a lot of surface area or more suited depth wise that standard tanks
But so as to not confuse the subject any more that it already is "Use at least 10 gallons of water per goldfish, more for commons and comets."

 

45g, imo you can never really OVER filter your water so go big gph wise!
FILTRATION:
I'd suggest doing a canister (I like rena Filstar line, another good line I've heard is Eheim).
More about filtration
and - which filter should you choose for your tank?


HEATING:
I'd do either hydor inline heating to save tank space-or-a rena SmartHeater if your doing a rena filter (always go higher wattage than they suggest for you tank size, especially if you run a/c during the summer). Also the Stealth Heaters are an excellent line (pure black ones, some of the pro stealths are having issues).
More about choosing a heater for your tank here

CYCLING:
Get yourself a good test kit, such as API Freshwater Master Test Kit (make sure you get a liquid test kit as the strips are fast..but unreliable).
might wanna take a read of these --> cycling your fish tank, nitrogen cycle AND
breaking in / cycling a new tank

 

not familar with that type, couldn't help you online since you're in india.
Can try some of the site recommendations here on the forum and see about the shipping to you (if the free/flat rate applies to you).

In random order:
TRY EBAY

free ship on orders $75 or more excluding heavy weight items http://www.bigalsonline.com

$8.99 flat rate ship http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/"

Free ship over $99 - http://www.petsolutions.com/Default.aspx

$6.99 Flat rate ship - href="http://petmountain.com/

Free on $65 or more - http://www.petco.com

$6.99 shipping - http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/cat/info/23204/category.web"

low price guarantee - http://www.petstore.com/

 

Here the Eheim site http://www.eheim.de/eheim/inhalte/index.jsp?id=24901&lang=en possibly the woulds greats canister filter. They are a German co.

Rick