I knew I'd be making a post like this but didn't think it'd be quite this soon...
Our goldfish went to fishy heaven this morning or sometime last night. We sent her down the porcelain tunnel to reunite with all of her fishy friends.
We saw that the fish wasn't doing well. Before we left for the day yesterday, I explained to Ava that our fish was sick and looked like it was going to die. The fish had a fuzzy look and wasn't moving very much. She was sad but understood and then said a prayer and said goodbye to her fish, which she's been calling "Gum" for the last several days. We did take a water sample to the pet store and consulted with their "fish expert" on what to do. We added some drops to the tank but it wasn't enough or soon enough. This morning I showed her the empty tank and told her that "Gum" went to fishy heaven. She was sad and said "Oooooh, I don't have a fish anymore," and slumped her head. I gave her a hug and told her that we might be able to get another one sometime. She took it well and is going on with her morning.
I think we're fished out for a little while. And I thought fish were easy.
Melisa Osmond: Finding the Power in You
4 years ago
4 comments:
I have kept fish for many years and even had 4 salt water reef tanks set up before my accident. While salt water is a lot more challenging then fresh water, even the fresh water fish can die from the tap water here. When I lived in CA I always just used tap water for my fish and I had goldfish live for 5 or 6 years before and get huge. Well not in this town.... I set up a tank and used the tap water and even treated it and all the fish died. You need to buy at least RO (Reverse Osmosis) or RO/DI (Reverse Osmosis, De-ionized) water from the pet stores. The chain store has the RO water and it was always fine and the non-chain pet store has the RO/DI. For salt water the RO/DI is better but for fresh water either one is fine. I wouldn't use pre-bottled water from the grocery store because some brands are not that good. BUT if your grocery store has a Culligan water machine where you can fill up your own jug they have the right kind of filters system and it is RO water so it is fine. The "D-named" grocery store by my house has one so I would think the other "D" stores have them too, but I don't know about the "H" or the "C" store as I never go there. You could also get your own RO/DI water system from Air Water Ice for about $250 but that is totally overkill for a gold fish, but a necessity when you are changing 75 gallons of water every couple of weeks. But they do give you a TDS meter so you can check the Total Dissolved Solids in the water. For a reef tank you want it to be 0, you don't want to know what is allowed in tap water. I filter our drinking water with a Brita filter even the water I mix in with food when cooking something or making crystal light.
We actually did buy the RO/DI water from the non-chain pet store.
Good, then it wasn't the water. There is also a very good chance that the fishy was not totally well to begin with.
We have sadly killed a few fish in our house...I've decided they're too hard for me.
Post a Comment