Goldfish

GAB's Goldfish Basics - Things you need to know to set up and maintain a healthy goldfish tank.
Goldfish Nutrition Part 1: The natural diet and digestive processes - One of the keys to healthy and long lived goldfish is their diet. To understand what constitutes a healthy diet, one has to understand what goldfish have evolved to eat and how they digest their food.
Goldfish Nutrition Part 2: Food and Nutrition - Information on the nutritional content of foods and recommendations for a healthy diet.
Gel Food Recipes - Recipes for making your own home made gel food.
Goldfish External Anatomy - This article has a picture of a fancy goldfish with the parts labeled. Roll over a label to get a short description. Click on a label to read the full description of each body part.
Goldfish Internal Anatomy - The more we understand about the anatomy and physiology of goldfish, the better we can be at keeping them healthy and treating them when they get sick. This article contains pictures of the internal anatomy of my fancy goldfish, Lumpy.
What Fish Gills Look Like - Some sites from the web that show pictures of healthy and diseased gills.
Developmental Color Change in Goldfish - Information regarding why goldfish change colors.
Sexing Goldfish - How to tell if your goldfish is male or female.
Fish Profiles: Overview of Goldfish Types - Liv describes and shows pictures of the types of goldfish. NEW!

Water Quality

Water Quality - An overview of water quality for goldfish.
Water Quality: The First 30 Days (Cycling your tank) - An explanation of what happens in a new aquarium and how to keep the water from getting toxic while your biofilter bacteria are getting up to speed.
Our Experience of Fishless Cycling with Household Ammonia - How Carolyn and Peter used household ammonia to cycle their aquarium.
Aquarium Filters and Filter Media - To help you decide what type of filtration may work best for you, this article discusses the three primary types of filter media, the basic types of filters, and last but not least filter maintenance.
Aquarium Filter Profiles - Photo documentaries of some common aquarium filters. NEW!
Summary: Interactions of pH, Carbon Dioxide, Alkalinity and Hardness in Fish Ponds - Betty summarizes information from a Southern Regional Aquaculture Center article. NEW!

Tropicals

Power of the (BN) Pleco! - Photo Diary - Photo documentary of a bristle nose pleco cleaning up brown algae. NEW!
GAB's Betta Basics - Things you need to know to keep your betta healthy and happy.
GAB's Tropical Freshwater Basics - Things you need to know to get started with tropical fish.
Aquatic Frogs: African Dwarf Frogs Care Sheet - Things you need to know to get started with ADFs.

Plants

Goldfish and Plants: The Low-Tech Approach - Liv describes how she set up a low tech/low light planted goldfish tank.
How to: Pot Aquarium Plants in Topsoil - If you want a nice planted tank but do not want to have to worry about high lighting, CO2 and dosing with liquid fertilizers you can pot your aquatic plants in topsoil.
Setting up a Walstad Natural Planted Tank - A Walstad-type natural planted tank is low maintenance requiring only pruning of plants and infrequent partial water changes.
Step by Step: Setting up a Walstad Natural Planted Tank - A pictoral guide to setting up a Walstad-type natural planted tank.
Natural Planted Betta Bowl - Ingrid explains how she solved the problem of having her betta at work in a gallon bowl and not having to do weekly water changes.
Do It Yourself (DIY) CO₂ - Betty describes how to make a do it yourself (DIY) carbon dioxide CO₂ generator and reactor for your planted aquarium. NEW!

Illness and Treatment

Illness and Treatment
- Quarantine Recommendations for New Goldfish - New goldfish may come to you with bacterial infections or parasites, so it's important to quarantine and nip problems in the bud, so that you don't take the chance of making your other goldfish sick by adding unquarantined goldfish.
- Hospital or Quarantine Tank - Information on setting up a hospital or quarantine tank and how to disinfect it after use.
- Quick Reference: Goldfish Illness - An overview of the most common illnesses affecting goldfish and how to treat them.
- Buoyancy Issues in Fancy Goldfish (aka flipover, Swim Bladder Disease) - A summary of goldfish swim bladder anatomy and physiology, prevention of bouyancy issues, diagnosis and treatment.
- Swim Bladder Pictures from Necropsies - Pictures of fancy goldfish swim bladders from necropsies. Includes photos of swim bladders from fish who had buoyancy (flipover) issues and fish who did not. NEW!
- Buoyancy Cases with X-Rays - A summary of buoyancy (flipover) cases with x-rays. Each case has a summary of the history and treatment along with links to GAB threads on each case. NEW!
- Treating Ich with Salt - How to use salt to treat ich.
- Common Fish Parasites Reference - Great pics and a description of common fish parasites from the University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS).
- Diagnosis Chart - A list of common disease symptoms to help fish owners diagnose fish ailments. Includes pictures.
- Mycobacteriosis- the Stealth Disease, by Diana Walstad - This article describes Diana's experience with Mycobacteriosis in her rainbowfish, typical symptoms, types of mycobacteria, and explains how trying to kill them may actually make it more likely to grow in our tanks.
- Oranda Goldfish with Polycystic Kidney Disease - Case study of a severly bloated oranda goldfish who likely had polycystic kidney disease. Includes information from history/treatment and necropsy.NEW!
- Disease Pictures - Some pictures of common fish diseases. NEW!
- Gill flukes (Dactylogyrus) and Skin flukes (Gyrodactylus) - Ingrid describes flukes, their diagnosis and treatment. NEW!
- Ingrid's Moor Rashi and the Mystery Spots - Ingrid describes white spots on her moor's tailfin and how she performed a fin snip, and looked at teh tissue under a microscope. NEW!
- Maggie (myxobolus) - Marilynn describes a case of myxobolis in her oranda goldfish Maggie. Maggie had a large mass on his gills that was debrided by Marilynn and Dr. Helen Roberts. Lab results indicate it was myxobolus.NEW!
- Swim Bladder Anatomy and Physiology - Ingrid describes the anatomy and physiology (funcrtion) of the swim bladder in fish. NEW!
- Bacterial Diseases in Fish - Summarizes an article by Dr. Helen Roberts that describes the disagnosis and treatment for common bacterial diseases in fish. NEW!
- Parasitic Diseases in Fish - Summarizes an article by Dr. Helen Roberts that describes the disagnosis and treatment for common parasitic diseases in fish. NEW!
- Fish Medications Dosing Recommendations - A compilation of fish medication dosing information. NEW!
- Videos
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Medications
- Fish Medicine Cabinet Recommendations - Like kids, fish usually get sick on weekends. Here are some things you'll may want to have on hand in your fishie medicine cabinet.
- Quick Reference: Medications - The following list explains how to use the most commonly recommended cures/medications.
- Medicated Food: Explained and Explored - This article outlines the available common medications, discusses the ingredients and attempts to narrow down which medicated drug may be better for our needs.
- An Easy Medicated Gel Food Recipe - How to make home made medicated gel food using kanaplex. NEW!
Procedures
- How to: Sedate a Fish with Finquel or Clove Oil - Sometimes it's necessary to sedate a fish to perform a proceedure such as cleaning an ulcer or finrot. You can sedate larger fish with either clove oil or Finquel (MS-222).
- How to: Clean an Ulcer or Fin Rot - Treating an ulcer or finrot can often be done without having to resort to using water antibiotics.
- How to give a goldfish an injection - The greatest advancement in koi and goldfish healthcare is the use of injectable medicines. Injections allow administering a known dose of medication into the fish (where it's needed) and can be used even if a fish has stopped eating.
- Euthanasia - Perhaps the kindest thing you can do for a pet fish that is extremely ill or severely injured is to induce its death humanely through euthanasia.
- Diagnosing with Necropsy An article showing how a deceased fish was diagnosed after death. The article shows how to perform a necropsy and discusses the findings.
- Goldfish Tumor Removal Surgery - A photo documentary of Doc Johnson removing a tumor from a fancy goldfish.
- BE and the Surgery (pdf) - A photo documentary of Dr Helen Roberts removing a tumor from a fancy goldfish (BE). Published in the Niagra Frontier Koi and Pond Club Newsletter, January, 2006.
- Panda Paws Wen Trim Surgery - A photo documentary of Dr Helen Roberts trimming the wen of an oranda goldfish (Panda Paws).
- WendyLove's Renal Cyst - A photo documentary of WendyLove's health problems and treatment for a renal cyst.
- Goldfish Veterinary Procedures - Links to articles and threads on goldfish veterinary procedures.
- Randi's Surgery to Remove a Squamous Cell Carcinoma Tumor - Robyn describes surgery performed by Drs. Thompson and Lavie to remove a tumor from her calico oranda fancy goldfish Randi. NEW!
- Dr. Helen Roberts Performing X-Rays on an Oranda (Panda) - Marilynn documents Dr. Helen Roberts performing x-rays an an oranda fancy goldfish named Panda who had buoyancy issues (flipover). NEW!