So we rescued a fish...

[damack]

Hi all, new person here.

Interesting story, my wife and daughter were out for a walk last week. They were going past a construction site when they saw a pile of dumped garbage, among it was what looked like a fish tank. They walked over and had a look, it was 1/2 filled with green sludgy water. Then they saw something flash. A closer look and they saw a small fish swimming around in the murky water. They came back home and grabbed a plastic bag and got the little guy out and brought him home. He's in a little beta tank we had laying around until the new accomodations are ready. We picked up a 25g tank and are preparing it.

So what I'd like to know is exactly what do we have here? I assume it's a goldfish of some type. It's about an inch or so long now.

[mollyb]

that is a 'red cap oranda' strain of goldfish. Given the young age (size, wen development) it looks to have decent body shape, well worth getting some size on it. good luck.

[Redshrimp2709]

It’s unfortunate that such things happen. Whoever it was could have simply bagged the fish and donate it to a LFS. This goldfish can potentially live for years. In a 25 gal. Tank, it will do well for if kept alone and given good attention. The fish is so lucky to be found by you guys! I hope he or she will give you and your family much joy in the days, months, and years to come!

Cheers.

[damack]

We released him into the 25g tank tonight. He looks like he hit the jackpot, inquisitive, checking everything out and eating voraciously. He seems healthy and enjoying the new environment. Unfortunately we have no choice but to do a fish-in cycle in the new tank. While I'm new at this I have a guide and test kit and will monitor it constantly to hopefully reduce the stress/risk. https://fishlab.com/fish-in-cycle/

[onefishtwofish]

put a thread in the classifieds for some seeded media from filters already going. people are pretty good about helping out that way.

[Fishman21]

Thank you for taking the time to rescue the little guy and spendIng the $$ to house him!

Nice rescue “tail”

[damack]

I'm struggling a bit with PH values in my water. Please keep in mind I'm new at this. I have a Fluval Test kit. It uses a wide range PH test. It consistently shows a drop in PH over the past week. I test every day during this fish in tank cycle. At the beginning it showed 6.5 and lately dropped to 6 which has me concerned. I read about some inaccuracies with wide range testing kits so I bought an API narrow range kit. Testing tonight showed it to be at the max range of 7.6 with the ATI kit, and 6 with the Fluval kit. Testing water right out of the tap reads 7 with the ATI and 5.5 with Fluval.

This seems to large of a variance to be true?

I have a KH/GH test kit on the way. I'm not going to lie, this is proving to be way more complicated than I ever thought it would be. I'm starting to worry that this little fish had a better chance of survival in the green murky tank at the construction site than it does in my care!

[damack]

A bit of an update. Little guy/girl seems to be doing well. The tank is near finished cycling I think. He’s grown substantially, almost doubled in size in a month. The red cap has faded, but is starting to grow. For reference, he used to hide inside that little hollow rock when we first got him.fish(1).jpg

[damack]

Another update. The tank finished cycling finally, it took a solid 9 weeks. Little buddy is growing like a weed. I’m not certain that he’s a red cap oranda. The cap seems to have faded. Seems healthy and happy.

[cherrysparkles]

Thank you so much for rescuing him - that was amazing of you. I really can't believe that someone did that to a living creature, and it's amazing that he survived. I'll be watching for more updates as he continues to grow! The change in a couple of months is incredible!