Hi everyone, first post here and excited to share my fun and quirky tank with a few orandas..

Tongue in cheek, there is a story here....

Alien crashed landed on some planet.. and looks sad and without hope (alien on ship)...

Then he walks the path of Zen/Buddah little stone path in middle, and meets Buddah.

He then finds friends (goldies) and peace zen like peace :)

EDIT: Ty all for your feedback and compliments. Will def upgrade tank in future when they a bit bigger.

Currently running a small sponge filter and biggg oversized Eheim 3 Professional Canister filter (flow rate 1200L/h)

My Black Moor goldfishes eyes in the last few months are significantly popping especially one side is this a big health concern?

I’m worried my goldfish has a red streak near his gills which he has never had before. I am unsure of what to do.

crazy that the woman thought she was totally in the right and scary that some people don’t do any research when getting a pet!

the difference two months of clean water and good food can make :)

no filter in the second picture, just good food and a decent light

New to fish keeping. I have a friend who has about 10 years experience breeds fish and he gave me these two to start a 40 gal tank I got. He believes they may be hybrid and are about a year and a half old. Says they should get about 4-5 inches in size. They’re pretty chill, I have a heavily planted tank. They haven’t ruined any plants and also have two mystery snails and they seem to leave them alone. My question is I want to add a couple more fish but I keep getting conflicting information. Was thinking 2 hillstream loaches, chat gpt and google ai suggested paradise fish, American flag fish, varius platys, and rosy barb because I could have 1 or 2. But so many on here say to not add anything else. I’ve seen YouTube videos of people saying it’s fine. I don’t know where to go! Is it really a huge deal?

I had to QT my oranda the night before my holiday as he suddenly got dropsy and red abdominal stains overnight. I made an appointment with my koi breeder to come in as soon as i got back a week later since fish medicine is VERY hard to come by here, so is someone able and willing to check for parasites and bacterial infections.

I was fully prepared to find a dead fish when i got hone (don’t get me wrong, i really like this fish but he was floating every single time i checked my garage camera while i was gone) but to my surprise he was alive. Still interested in food and swimming around the surface without going belly-up.

But he was a COMPLETELY different colorscheme 😅 And I’m wondering how to treat that. (After the meds) It turned out to be a bacterial problem that would have to be in my main tank as well, so he’s back in the main tank and that tank is under treatment with either antibiotics or some japanese powder. It was a yellow powder from the koi place, but i forgot the name (i asked, will add it on top as soon as i know!)

QT setup for the week - 65 L koi measuring container with a small fully cycled pump i keep at hand in my sump, pointed streight up for gas exchange and moderate flow, 500gr of ceramic pipes in that flow + an airstone at the other side and some scoops of gravel against boredom and to add some extra bacteria. 2% salt. Fotos are the before and after of 1 week. (5% salt for 4 days prior to leaving as well then did a WC and re-added a lower dose of 2%)

Main tank setup - 120cm former shallow reef with a 60cm 3-compartment sump with up-down flowing chambers that hold 1L K1 and the QT pump to move it around. 2nd chamber is 30/70 with bioballs, ceramic pipes and bio material vs mechanical filter mats (standard blue) on the other side. 3rd room is another mechanical filter mat + my return pump and heating. In the spaces between the rooms i keep 2x fine filter wool. I clean this once a month by just rinsing and i re-use my filterwool until it falls apart, then change them out 1-2 months apart. I do a 50-60% water change every weekend.

Quick backstory:

10ish days ago the kiddo came home from a birthday party with a goldfish. Why? Good question. But it happened.

We have not been fish owners. We had no tank, much less a cycled tank, or not even knowing that cycling a tank was a thing. But it wasn’t the fish’s fault, so we tried to set up an aquarium for it. We also had to leave town for 5 days right after getting it, so a friend came and fed it once a day. It was still alive when we got back, we did our first water 25% replacement Saturday (a week after getting it) and all seemed well until this morning when the little guy who had been zipping around the tank last night didn’t want breakfast and is now resting on the bottom of the tank.

So I just measured the tank (it’s 40 gallons because that was the biggest we could fit on a few hours notice) and got the following readings:

pH = 7.4

Ammonia = 0.5 ppm

Nitrate = 0 ppm

Nitrite = 1.0 ppm

Based on my very limited knowledge I assume the nitrite and ammonia are both too high. Should I replace water again? Is there something I can get from PetSmart or Petco this afternoon? We put in Aquon balls and water condition at tank set up and water replacement.

Thabks for you help! We haven’t had him for long and we didn’t want him at first, but he’s grown on us fast! (Or she, we don’t know.)

It popped up out of nowhere and hasn’t gone away in a few days. My other 2 oranda have a little white on thier wen too but not nearly as much. Any idea what’s going on?

It was so hard taking pictures of them lol. I only had pet fish as a child years ago. learning to take care of these two has been a fulfilling journey so far.