Goldfish bowl riddle

[brokly]

We recently bought two black moor fish. The guy in the shop said we would only need to change the water in their bowl about once a month, with occasional partial water changes more frequently. However their water gets very cloudy (and smelly) within about 4 days. Are we doing anything wrong?

[JohnLIreland]

Yes, but it's not entirely your problem. No good petshop man should sell any fish in a typycal spherical goldfish bowl - they're just not good enough. The fish need oxygen to breathe. They get this from the water and the best way is to bubble air through it but changing it more frequently is another way.

The dirty water is probably you overfeeding the fish - you keep giving it to them and they'll keep eating it, but it's got to come out again! To keep the water clear, you need to feed less and change the water more often.

 

Better still, put them in a proper tank with an air stone and filtration, they'll be much better off.

[ianess]

Can`t add very much to the previous excellent reply other than to suggest bubbling the air supply through a [fairly small] box filter which will suck the gunge into it and only need cleaning by washing out under a tap say once a month.

Don`t top up the tank [get rid of the bowl] using water straight from the tap....too many chemicals.  Let the water stand for a few days so that chlorine especially evaporates.

[auditt]

Hi,

I have found the 30ltr biorb set up a very good way of keeping fish...I am new to keeping gold fish, but I have found the biorb an almost fool proof way of keeping my two little fish very happy, in crystal clear and very bubbly water.

If you look on the www.reef-one.com website you will see the biorb's and then go to ebay and people are auctioning them.

Hope this helps...........auditt.