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Hey, I am 20 and just bought my first fish and tank. I didnt have much cash so I bought a small fish tank from walmart to see if I could take care of one. I bought the most expensive fish WalMart had. It is orange and silver. I believe it is called a Comet... Any tips? Right now I have had my fish for a day and it seems lazy. It sometimes goes crazy and kicks the peebles around, searching for food.

yea its a comet goldfish..... they like cold water and they and they can get pretty big i got one in my dads tank that is about 13 inchs right now. they are kinda big eaters and they are cool fish i would have gone with some type of small cichlid or danios for my starter fish more hardyer if u have a heated tank.

Hi Kellis, welcome to the site .

Have you read about the cycling process? If not, read that link!!! Its very important and will help you out a lot. Feel free to post any questions you have about it.

Now, goldfish are great fish, I absolutely love them! But you're tank is half the size they should be in as a minimum. Goldfish are pond fish and should have as much water per fish as possible. Your fish will be able to survive for now but unless you get a larger tank for it in the next few months it will be stunted. Stunting leads to pain and deformities and early death for fish.

I highly suggest if you cannot upgrade your tank to at least a 55gallon you take the fish back and get something that is more suitable for that tank. It's very important that you get the fish that is right for the tank, and right for the water you have.

Take a look at this article for some more ideas.

Now, depending on how much ammonia is present in the tank, your fish may be getting stressed from the cycling process. Goldfish are generally pretty hardy when it comes to cycling a tank, but often they are not taken care of properly in stores such as Wlmrt and are stressed before you even buy them. Taking them home is a stressful process, then dumping them in an uncycled tank is even more stressful. With fish, stress = death. We try very hard not to stress the fish. If you don't have a test kit, get one! Find an actual fish store in your area (try the yellow pages) and get a master test kit. Or, just order from big als, they've got pretty fast shipping and pretty low prices. During the cycling process you'll really want the master kit over individual kits as it is more cost effective. You'll also likely need to test water throughout your fishkeeping career. Once you have a kit, test at least once a day until the cycling process is complete. As the article above states, cycling is done when ammonia rises then drops, then nitrIte rises and drops, and finally when nitrAtes are present with zero ammonia or nitrIte.

Now, as for the fish, since hes in a too small tank, I'd suggest making sure you over filter, get an Aquaclear 50]http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS/ctl3684/cp19169/si1378653/cl0/aquaclear50powerfilter[/link] for the tank, don't over feed, make sure you feed him some veggies (pop a frozen pea out of its skin mush the halves between your finger a bit and let him go after it) and keep up on water changes once the tank is cycled being careful to get all the waste from your tank with a [link=gravel vac.

BTW, if you have a local fish store, they really are the best place to go, they can give you some advice, but usually it's best to check back in with us here, many times LFS give out rather poor advice all in the name of a sale. If you don't have a LFS, ordering stuff online is usually much better than trying to get something from wlmrt.

I know I threw a lot of info out there, but we want whats best for your fish and to keep you as addicted as the rest of us are!

^_^

Welcome to Fish profiles.

Firstly it looks like you have been given a lot of misleading information from where you bought that fish and tank.

BUT you have come to the correct place where all the "correct" information will be given all you have to do is ask. There are several links as Babelfish has pointed out to you I strongly suggest you read and understand them before you do any thing.

Looks like you have two options first take it all back and get some thing a lot bigger or keep the smaller tank with a fish which which is far more suitable to that tank.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info
Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

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