16 New Goldfish, Help With Set Up! Options

[Hamad]

Hello guys, I couldn't do this without your advice so here it is.

I am getting a box with 16 goldfish as soon as I confirm the order and send in the cash, it takes just one day for the box to reach me so I need to make sure everything is fine and set once the fish are here.

I believe that 16 fish will need 10 gallons each, a 160gallon tank is out of the question so I bought a 180 gallon plastic pool instead that I'll place in the balcony [it's much cheaper and the weather is ok now].

I am going to fill it with water today and then rinse it tomorrow just to test and then fill it and add aeration and have it ready for the fish. But what else should I add and should I treat the fish with anything? I would appreciate if anyone can give me very detailed information regarding this period such as how many water changes, how many times they should be fed, how much salt, etc...

Out of the 16 fish, 5 or 6 will move to the main 55gallon tank gradually [one fish every week], and any fish that doesn't look great to me I will sell to any of the local stores and just keep the best ones.

Thanks in advance!

[goldrush]

Dear Hamad I share your excitement to receiving your shipment but let us not let the excitement overwhelm us completely.What you need to prepare for the reception depends alot on the reputation and the preparation each dealer has done to their fishes.Experienced dealers would have starved their fishes to minimise ammonia spikes and unnecessary loss during their long journey.Assuming you are buying from one ,you still need to equalise the following before any introduction to your quarantine tank or pool in this case.
a)Temperature
b)pH
Though it is recommended that ratio fish to water is about 10gallons to a fish you must bear in mind that this is for rearing and not for quarantine purposes as you must be prepared to dose medication or other supplements which may not be too cost effective in such a reservoir during this period.But there are no hard and fast rules,so please read the thread under quarantine for details.
Now it debatable whether to medicate for parasites or bacteria during this phase but personally I do not mind including a mild disinfectant like acriflavine or proflavine based general tonic plus 0.3 % salt to boost up their morale.
What is important is the next few days to weeks which you need to do is to OBSERVE for outbreaks be it parasitic,bacteria or otherwise

Good luck