What is a pleasant and easy yet good looking fish to take care of for a novice?
I got a fish from biology class today and then I realized the only thing I knew I had was the small amount of flake fish food the teacher gave me and the ziploc bag it was in. It wasn’t a project or anything it was just to own a fish 
. Any who, I did some research after I put my small goldfish in a tall, somewhat wide clear glass vase.
What I discovered was, my vase was not nearly large enough, for surface area.
I should get a different kind of food than flake because flakes cause fish to swim to the surface which put air pockets in the fish and can cause illness.
I do not have a near as needed efficient way to supply the fish with oxegenated water.
The room I have put it in has too bright of a light, what is preferrable is a roof with dim lights on at least 8 hours of the day.
And many other things that I forgot.
I feel like I am torturing my fish now and don’t know what to do with it, because it is winter here and I live in Alaska so it’s not I can let it "free", with it being safe for that matter.
I need to know what to do about that since I know the soonest I can get a fish tank is in like 1-3 days.
Plus I found out how hard it is (comparativly speaking) to take care of a goldfish.
So please reccomend: What I should do about my goldfish. and what is a good, pleasant, easy to take care of fish that looks nice?
What is a RO unit and how does it work?
Tags: air pockets, alaska, biology class, cause fish, clear glass vase, dim lights, fish tank, flake, Goldfish, ro unit, surface area
November 24th, 2009 at 15:11
For about $40 you can get a complete 10 gallon tank set-up at walmart, with plants, gravel, tank, lights, filter. A thing of fish food costs about $2 and last pretty much forever. (It may be a little but more since you live in Alaska, though.) With this tank you can have him and get him a few friends too. The first rule to the aquarist hobby is don’t believe everything you read. If you do, you’ll get confused. Many people write things and mean well, but are only unnecessarily scaring people. You don’t have to worry too much about how cold the water is (as long as you just have only goldfish in the tank, and the water isn’t frozen), but you will have to get adequate filtration, since goldfish are particularly dirty fish, and really can’t be kept in a bowl like most people think it’s cute to do. You will also probably need Aquasafe, if you don’t have it already. It kills chlorine and other bad things in water that harm fish. Just make sure you change the water atleast every couple of days while he’s in the bowl, so the ammonia ("poop" level, to be more blunt) doesn’t get too high and kill him. Have fun with your new friend!
ADD: RO stands for reverse/osmosis. It removes a lot of impurities in water. Usually these systems can get a little pricey. For your particular situation, I say just use tap and Aquasafe like I mentioned before. I personally buy RO water from the pet store, but I have a few large tanks, one saltwater (which is very fragile), so it’s more of a necessity.
November 24th, 2009 at 15:11
get a betta also known as a siamese fighting fish. punch in betta on your keyboard and get more information good luck enjoy yourself
November 24th, 2009 at 15:11
That’s quite irresponsible of your teacher to just be handing out living animals that need a lot of care with no care instructions or equipment, I’d have words with them about that!!
Meanwhile, you cannot let a goldfish go "free", that’s illegal. Its unlikely any stores will take the fish off you either. Look on craigslist, local papers and ebay local to you for cheap second hand tanks - for a Goldfish you need around 20-30 gallons but a 10 gallon may do in the interim. Have you read through the nitrogen cycle? You’ll have to do it with the fish which will be challenging.
Http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/The_Nitrogen_Cycle
See what you can source, you need a filter suitable for double the volume of the tank - external canister filters would be best for this fish.
Concentrate on the fish that is in your care before you start to think about getting something else.
You don’t need an RO, or reverse osmosis, unit for Goldfish. These are mainly used for saltwater tanks, to use with freshwater you have to know what minerals to add back to the RO water and it all gets very complicated and technical!