I agree, wait a bit. In my little pond I prefer to see a few thriving pretty fish than a mass of babies I can only hope to find homes for.... I started with tons of plants and then had to add a second small 275ga pond, a 150ga stock tank and a 60ga veggie filter cause I couldn't see the fish for all the plants! I now have 2 dwarf lilies, 3 anacharis, and ~ 6 or 7 potted marginals in my 300ga pond. My how they grow! But each spring I am tempted to get more...'til they fill in. 'Course plants are easier to find homes for. Have fun! PS: Provided your aquariums are healthy I don't see that adding rocks or fake plants can hurt, but the beneficial bacteria in an aquarium may not survive in the 'real' world. Temp flucuations, sun, shade, etc. So I don't know if it'll help either. But I've never done it and I've been known to be wrong :0)

idk, ....I have a huge tank, H-U-G-E ......A 190 GALLON tank ......and I have each pair of black Moore, red head white oranda, red head orange oranda, orange bubble-eye, black-orange stripped bubble-eye, paradise & a pair I don't know the name ....... among other fishes, there are 2 stripped angelfish, 2 black angelfish, 2 silver angelfish ........2 loach, a few sucking catfish ......& 2 pairs of betta this has been 4 years, and all the fishes are here since then ......no death at all ......but I take Kate of the tank very little, except weekly cleaning & adding some salt immediately after changing of water I think its more of luck that they'll either live or die

He's dead now. Why do my new goldfish keep dying right after the 2 week warranty period? while a tankmate might keep going fine for months. Still, none live as long as goldfish are supposed to live. It looked like swim bladder, but he never ate enough while in my care to have overeaten himself into a blocked swim bladder. And he can't have been just a weak fish, because someone kept him alive and healthy for the couple years or however long it took to get him to the 2" size I bought him at. The only fish stores in this area are the big boxes. I won't buy fish at PetCo because all their fish die within two weeks, so I go across town to PetSmart, their fish live longer than two weeks as often as not. Not this one. He was perfectly healthy looking when I got him, I always watch the fish carefully before making a choice. And he was Gorgeous. Such a waste, to take that gorgeous creature home and kill him. So he was fine when I got him, but he never really ate for me, and wasted away and died. This has happened many times in the past. Is that just how it goes with fish these days? I don't remember having this problem when I had a tropical community tank back in the day of independent fish stores, pre - PetCo. I feed them fairy moss and mosquito larvae and milfoil from my little 25 gallon outdoor water garden. Could they be contaminated with something that's killing the fish? I never add anything except fish safe pond products to it, and not much of that, but it is Rubbermaid material, with plants in plastic nursery pots. the fairy moss came from a nursery but it lives in the pond. The milfoil came from Lake Washington but I washed it carefully before adding it to the pond, and then to the aquarium. What would milfoil carry that would be toxic to goldfish? The oranda is still fine, but now lonely. I've had him a few months now but I'm afraid to get him another companion until I know why my new fish keep dying.

Also... here are the levels in the tank.. I started the tank on 7/12. day 7 (7/18) - Nitrate 0, Nitrite 0, Hardness 75, Chlorine 0, Alkalinity 40, pH 6.8 day 11 (7/22) - Nitrate 0, Nitrite .05, Hardness 25, Chlorine 0, Alkalinity 80, pH 7.0 day 15 (7/26) - Nitrate 5, Nitrite 3.0, Hardness 50, Chlorine 0, Alkalinity 40, pH 7.0 day 15 (7/26) added the salt, tested again, - Nitrate 5, Nitrite 3.0, Hardness 75, Chlorine 0, Alkalinity 80, pH 7.0 day 18 (7/29) - Nitrate 15, Nitrite 10, Hardness 75, Chlorine 0, Alkalinity 60, pH 7.0 day 21 (8/01) same - Nitrate 15, Nitrite 10, Hardness 75, Chlorine 0, Alkalinity 60, pH 7.0 Here is a link that might be useful: