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

[CyberET]

make sure the water is ready the night before.. aerate the water.

upon arrival, equalize the temp for quite awhile (at least 30mins). add the tub's water into the box slowly, wait a few mins, pour 1/2 away.. and repeat.. until u r pretty confident the water parameters are almost equal to the fresh water tub.

transfer them into the tub without the original box's water. raise salt level to 0.5% salt..
observe them for a month at least...

try not to feed for the first week. aerate strongly.

have fun ;) do take some pictures in between when you are going thru the process

[Hamad]

Thank you so much for the comments Goldrush! Do you suggest that I go with a smaller container? What size would you go for?

I still have around a week before I confirm which also gives me enough time to prepare everything. The farm is TungHoi and if I'm not wrong they're very experienced and reliable, I will ask them some questions as well about water levels and such to make sure the fish are not in high shock when introduced to their new home.

I also have Goldmed (which contains Formaldehyde and Malachite Green and limited carcinogenic effect) which a store owner around here recommended to be used only as half the dosage to disinfect any new parasites with new fish and then 80% water change. Of course I am not convinced about this but thought I should check your view on this.

Thanks a lot again and reading the quarantine details!

[Hamad]

make sure the water is ready the night before.. aerate the water.

upon arrival, equalize the temp for quite awhile (at least 30mins). add the tub's water into the box slowly, wait a few mins, pour 1/2 away.. and repeat.. until u r pretty confident the water parameters are almost equal to the fresh water tub.

transfer them into the tub without the original box's water. raise salt level to 0.5% salt..
observe them for a month at least...

try not to feed for the first week. aerate strongly.

have fun ;) do take some pictures in between when you are going thru the process

Easy-to-remember steps, thank you! I'll make sure I take pictures of the process, hopefully they'll arrive during the day and not night time or else I'll deal with flash which isn't as good.

[gohks]

Hamad,
Given a choice, why do you need to order such a huge load at one goal. Isn't that too much risk exposed.
Advisable to order in small quantity, the first most important thing to consider is to have a condusive home for your fish. Make sure they can adapt before you make a plunge.

[Hamad]

No choice my friend That is the minimum, in fact they wanted me to get over 60 fish as their minimum but a friend of mine in China went to their office to convince them and finally they let me have one box.

I didn't order AA goldfish because I did not want to spend a lot and then lose so much when something wrong happens, I got B graded fish and if all goes perfectly maybe in the (far) future when I have extra cash I'll get A/AA graded ones.

Anyway, they replied to me concerning the water levels and temperature and their way of care. They feed three times daily [9am, 12am, 3pm], PH range between 6.5-8.5, temperature ranges but they make sure no sudden change, 1/3 of water changed weekly and twice a month during winter.

So temperature and PH will not be a problem I guess. Should I add sponge filters or is air stones enough? I am filling up the pool as I type, I also have a large electric fan to cool the water when necessary.

Let me know if there's any thing to keep in mind, I have quarentined fish before but never that many at once together which is why I am making a big deal out of it, sorry if it's annoying.

[CyberET]

12am = 12midnight ? i think they meant 12noon.

air stones for the moment, you may need to change water, or add medications and you aren't surpose to be feeding yet

oh ya, how hot can your tub water get?

[Hamad]

Oh AM, that's my mistake sorry LOL

At 4:30/5pm the water was pretty cold today when I stuck my hand in there even though the weather was quite hot, hopefully that will still be the case in the summer

I still didn't get the fish btw, perhaps after a week they'll be here. So do you suggest 100% water change weekly with airstones? Thanks for your reply ;)

[CyberET]

depending on water condition

[aronkhj]

Hey Hamad,

personally, i will advise you not to worry too much.
clean you tanks and provide good areation and maybe a sponge filter.
you will should not be feeding the fishes for the first 2-4days, depending on the overall condition of the fishes, if they are lively and have adapted well, only small feeds after min of 48hrs.
don't worry about medications... but have them on stand by. JYP and the blue stuff for fin rot is good enough. jus remember... your fish will be really tired flying half way round the world... so don't stress them on arrival.
water change.... try changing at least >90% everyday for the initial 3-4days... then extend a bit... once every 2days.... again for 3 changes. again... extend to once every 3days for 3 changes. after that you fish should be in qt for ~21days...
jus monitor their conditions... and don't be too worried ok.

like i say.. they travel half way round the world.
i'd be really tired if it was me.

cheers !!! ARoN

[Hamad]

Thanks everyone, I needed details on how you would do it with this number of fish and this space.

I'm going to drain and refill the pool again and add the airstones. But changing water everyday will be a HUGE job though since this is 700 litres, I'll try my best and hopefully will work out fine.

Only worried fish sitting in basin waiting for drain and refill will get stressed as it takes more than an hour to go through that. Any other suggestions will be appreciated and thanks a lot again.

[goldrush]

How about refilling the pool to half its height. That will half the amount which will save you time,water and executing subsequent water changes and medication if required.

[CyberET]

how big are the fishes?

[aronkhj]

Thanks everyone, I needed details on how you would do it with this number of fish and this space.

I'm going to drain and refill the pool again and add the airstones. But changing water everyday will be a HUGE job though since this is 700 litres, I'll try my best and hopefully will work out fine.

Only worried fish sitting in basin waiting for drain and refill will get stressed as it takes more than an hour to go through that. Any other suggestions will be appreciated and thanks a lot again.

Hamad,
as ur in-coming stock will be quite large, will u have the possibility of seperating the lot?
and you might want to consider jus filling abt 50-60% full only.
fish sitting in the basin is really very stressfull.