I have a ten gallon fish tank,why do goldfish die but the catfish lives on?

[maxineschleisner]

Goldfish last a few weeks, other things a month or two but that catfish is fine after a year? It's a small tank but easy to keep up, yet all goldfish die and I know they are the easy fish to keep alive. I have had ponds and I know goldfish live in some real bad stuff but as long as the oxygen is good they are harty. This catfish has done well, and we even had snails die in here. I am not sure what is going on with this tank. Algee eater lasted a couple months and he went belly up too? It's really weird. We treated for ick and everything. Anyone know if the tank could be the problem or any other solutions? Filter works great, with extra bubbles, and I do replace the filter and keep it clean, as in once a week filter rinse, etc.
Turns out it's a 20 gallon but beyond that everyone has been great at giving me answers. I had this tank in Wisconsin last year and all was well in the winter there. Fish were well but now in Florida it must be too warm for what we were putting in there. Never did like the catfish...he is much too big for the tank. We also had a shark in there and he just died a month ago. I would like to get rid of the catfish and forget the tank period. Thanks all.

[fish boy]

Are you using a chlorine dissolve when you clean your tank, if your not that might be why the others are dying,
You might have too many fish in the tank which may cause diseases or you might forget to clean the tank which would cause ammonia build up which kills fish easily.

What you should do is to clean 3quarters of the tank with a dissolver and then the filter. Then check to see if you've got any diseases in your tank(you can find out by books& Internet) and if so then buy some medication. Remember you should clean 30% of your tank every week.

hope this helps, good luck
.

[megan]

Your ammonia level might be too high. Get a test kit or have your local pet store check the water for you. It is most likely that your tank is not well cycled yet. But fish are fish, they can't all live a long time.

[John]

HI Maxine, Unfortunately the short answer is because you're vastly overstocking your tank all the time. Just to break a few myths-Goldfish are quite difficult to keep, they need vast, filtered tanks & at least 10 gallons each, they are very poor community fish-they only do well with their own kind & a small tank such as yours may seem easy but if you had a 50 gallon you would be amazed at not only the extended life expectancy of your fish but also the extra amount of free time you had-large volumes of water always = less work.

Regarding your filter maintenance, I wonder if you are causing your tank to be constantly in cycle? True you need to clean it regularly but it's very bad practice to put new media in there all the time. The old media has the good bugs that eat the toxins-all you need do is gently rinse this in old tank water taken at a weekly partial water change. The link below tells you all about stocking, compatibility, maintenance & every other problem you may encounter with Goldfish.

[**ice queen**]

the reason your gold fish are dying is because there tank is to small each goldfish needs 20 gallons.
unless you are prepared to upgrade to a 50 and above gallon tank please don't get any more gold fish

[daxshasd]

you have tooo small tank and for gold fish you need a begger tank