# Saving goldfish from horrific pond into tank



## ldevine

Hi all, my name is Louise. I just registered and need some advice.

We recently moved into a rental house which has a pond with some goldfish. The pond is absolultely horrendous and some of the fish have white growths which I assume is a fungal infection. Poor things. I am so angry that they have been just left like this 

Anyway, after trying to treat the water as best we can (we aren't allowed to do too much in the property without permission which is ridiculous), we have decided that we are going to buy a big tank and bring them indoors where we can look after them in a nice environment. We have purchased the Fluval Roma 200 which is nice and big, and all the bits and pieces come with it.

My question is, how do we transfer them to the tank without it being too stressful and killing the wee things? The last thing I want to do is harm them. I know we need to treat the water, but can we just transfer them into the new treated tank or should we bring some of the horrible pond water with us?

Would filling the entire tank with pond water be beneficial and then treat the water in the tank to get it up to standard?

Please help, I really want to improve their wee lives.

Many thanks, Louise x


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## ameliajane

I'm afraid moving these fish into a tank is not really going to help.

Common Goldfish (which is most likely what you have) need a _very_ large tank. They can live for 12-30 yrs and grow a foot in length.

If they are still very small it may be possible to _temporarily_ house them in a 3' tank (i think the tank you have is approx. 3'?) depending on how many there are and how big they are but even then the filter would first have to be cycled - which may take weeks and they would still need to be moved back to a pond as soon as possible.

The best option for these fish would be to talk to your landlord about whether he/she would be happy to let you maintain the pond and care for the fish where they are.


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## Sussexplumber

How kind of you to want to help them. If you have a decent sized tank you would be better off treating them indoors. You want the filters to mature first and you might put a couple of buckets of clean pond water into the new set up to help with this. With a tank of a known size, you will find it much easier to dose the fish correctly with salt or other medication. 

Do u have a local fish shop that can advise you on treatment? How big are the fish? You don`t want to overcrowd them as this would stress them and cause invisible pollution. 

I would run the tank for a week, let the filters start to establish and then slowly move the fish inside, but once again, be very careful not to overcrowd/overstock the tank. 

And be very careful not to overfeed. This will kill them faster than anything. Fish can eat non-stop but they will simply pass it through, into the water.

One other thing, make sure the stand for the tank is up to the job otherwise you could have a tragedy on your hands-water is very heavy! 

Good luck!


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