Keeping goldfish alive!

[thesnakeman]

Well folks, all the eggs are in the incubator now. So in a few months if all goes well, I'll be using the old goldfish trick to start these babies. So that means going to the pet shop some 30 miles away with gas at 3 bucks a gallon, {STILL CAN"T BELIEVE IT} and buying goldfish in bulk. Last year I had a heck of a time keeping them alive in any numbers. I kept them in the snake room with a.c., air pump, and filter, in a 5 gallon bucket. But the little buggers just didn't last. They started dying almost immediately. WHY!? How do the rest of you keep them alive long enough to offer? Thanks,
T.

[DAND]

How often do you change the water? How many are you keeping in the bucket? The more you have the more room they'll need. Their waste builds up quickly and they will die quickly. More space or at least more changes of the water.

[epidemic]

Tony,

When you hit the pet shop, you may wish to look into the acquisition of a water chemistry kit, which will allow you to check levels of ammonia, chlorine, chloramine and other nasties (is that a word?) prone to cause the rapid and early demise of fish, such as you have indicated.
If you are keeping a great number of fish, you may want to establish multiple buckets for such, as stress will cause the fish to excrete more waste, which in turn spells poor water quality, which spells early demise of feeder fish, which equals more trips to the pet store and gas station!
Also, you may want to consider some sort of filtration, I would suggest a Fluval submersible filter, as such are relatively inexpensive and easy to maintain, you can often find them on ebay for a song.

Good luck,

Jeff

[thesnakeman]

Hmm,....
I usually only try to keep a couple dozen or so. And they either die or get used up within a day or two. And I have an air stone, and one of those filters that hangs over the back. I'm thinking about getting a livestock tank, and burying it in the back yard, in the shade. Along with air, and filter of course. They live in shallow ponds through the summer heat, so they should be able to handle that, right? I really don't want to have the additional bother of having to monitor the water quality/chemistry/Ph, and all that jazz if I can help it. Or maybe I'll just go down to the river with some crackers, and my trap, and get some minnows. If I did feed minnows, would I really be any more likely to introduce parasites, than by feeding those nasty goldfish? The rivers here are spring fed, rocky bottom, and crystal clear.
T.