Question for the fish keepers
 

Having had to fork out £30 for a fishtank for a goldfish my daughter won from the local fair (which promptly died costing me another £2 for more fish) I wanted to have a look at what places near me sell tropical fish.

There used to be a very good centre near me but they have stopped selling fish. Another place about 30 mins away has also stopped selling fish.

There is only two places I can get fish from in town - Pets At Home and one of the local garden centres. Neither of which have much of a selection and the plants are rubbish.

I used to live close enough to Oxford to be able to go to the Goldfish Bowl which was frankly awesome.

My question is how long can fish and plants last in the travel bag? Theres some places that I want to check out but they are about an hour away. Will the fish survive for an hour? Would they survive longer?

In this kind of weather Trops should be ok for a couple of hours just don't go banging the bag so they get more stressed.

Ads :thumb:

Ta! :)

Had a quick look and some of said they can last as much as a couple of days - although wouldn't want to test it.

If they can manage a couple of hours, that gives me as far as Cardiff so should be able to find something interesting to fill our tank.

You can buy fish online fella :thumb:

You may already know this but just in case you don't, having kept tropical fish in the past i was told you shouldn't put gold fish & tropical fish in the same tank, something to do with bacteria from the goldfish affecting the tropical fish, you will need a tank filter to keep the water clean, a tank heater to keep it at the right temperature and a thermometer so you can keep an eye on it, its also advisable to get a water testing kit to make sure the water conditions are right for the fish, hope this helps.:thumb:

Oh, so you can. I did not know that!

Thanks :thumb:

They'll be fine for a couple of hours. Large bag, a bit of water and as much air as you can get in bag before tying knot in top of bag. Some shops may have some Oxygen they can squirt in bag as well. Don't give fish any sharp temperature changes and don't worry if there is some blood in water as they can leak blood through their gills when stressed. My mate used to post live fish all over the world so an hour or two should be OK. dl

A £30 fish tank is the start of your spend if you're going tropical. Heater, air pump, light, filter will all add to the cost. You might be better continuing with cold water fish (e.g. goldfish, the odd loach to keep the algae down).

Various things may have harmed the goldfish:

- you used fresh tap water which was too cold / hadn't been left to stand (fresh tap water has a level of chlorine in which takes time to evaporate off - best to introduce water to a tank at room temperature)
- over-feeding. children love to feed fish and the fish are thick enough to eat it - they then overeat and die / the water gets filthy (goldfish are especially filthy)
- tank wasn't established (it can take weeks to get the bacteria / nitrates etc balanced and a filter running 'normally'). I'd advise setting the tank up, filtered, and sticking at most two small hardy fish in there for the first month or so. Ideally, seed the tank with water from someone else's (even wash one of their filter sponges in your tank).

Good luck!

Gordo

Thanks chaps.

Kept tropical in the past when I lived in Oxford but not since living in Wales. Goldfish are for the nipper.

Our daughter is 9 and we are slowly turning the toy room back into a dining room and plan for a nice big tank in there. Want one of these.

http://www.aquariumsdelivered.co.uk/...ano-p-590.html

Gold fish blow, get tropical. For a start gold fish grow to the size you see in outdoor ponds so, effectively, they are stunted in pretty much any tank that isn't massive. Secondly, they can live for ever and IMHO are pretty boring to look at. Most of the time they act like they have downs. Once ours bought the farm we got a selection of tropical fish and the tank is far more vibrant and interesting.

They are a bit rubbish compared to tropical but they'll do for the kitchen and for my daughter to be happy.

The tropical is for me :)