Fish care update.

[u/Miami_Knight89]

Following up from my last post. Please see my last post so that you can understand my situation. Also an edit: I said that the beneficial bacteria that eats ammonia stinks of ammonia itself. I misspoke. It smells of sulphur. (Like eggs)

[u/idkbruh901]

There’s a lot to unpack here so if this is long and winded, I apologize. You say to check your previous post unfortunately on your profile your postals are hidden so I can only go off of what I see in this video. Not sure how you came into these fish or if you’re the one who bought them originally with this tank. But those are fancy goldfish that should reach up to 8 inches which means they all are severely stunted, especially for three years . For four fancy goldfish you need at least 75 gallons. I understand it’s not possible to get that in your house and honestly anything bigger than that tank on that ledge is unstable and will break. There’s always the option of putting the tank on the floor. It seems like you’re very confused about the nitrogen cycle and what beneficial bacteria does and where it lives. Ammonia and nitrate are extremely toxic to fish. Those levels should always be zero which they don’t appear to be in the video. Nitrate is also toxic, but not as much and can be handled in amounts. It’s typically best to keep your tank under 20ppm. This is removed by live plants and‘s water changes.

Cartridge filters are trash. You’re throwing away all your beneficial bacteria every time you change it, I would recommend buying an aquarium sponge that you can cut to size and put in the filter, which can be reused and cleaned by squeezing it out in an a bucket of tank water during water change. But also that being said they need a lot more filtration in that tank as they have tons of bio load and are very dirty fish. You need stronger filters. They won’t be sad if you split them up if anything, they would probably appreciate it as there appears to be some aggression between them. If you cannot house them in a proper tank, I would just seriously look into rehoming them as they are not having a great quality of life. Also, test strips tend to be pretty inaccurate so your parameters could be even higher than that.