About tof, the Organic Fish
The Organic Fish was started over twenty years ago, when I first performed a salt bath on a dying fish. I had read about it online, and when I found my three year old fantail, upside down and lifeless, I remembered the life saving remedy. It worked; within moments the fish was breathing again. That was the moment I became obsessed with goldfish. I was determined to keep my fish alive and well
The average life span of goldfish in its native environment is twenty to thirty years, however, in captivity this time is greatly reduced under the best circumstances. What does this tell us? Our fish need more than excellent water. Goldfish need space to swim, and they need to be fed as they feed in the wild, which is consistently throughout the day. Our fish have evolved without stomachs due to the fact that food is hard to come by in the wild. Lucky to catch up a small fry, a worm or a fish egg, vegetation makes up the greater portion of their diet. Digesting food within a few short hours, they must eat constantly to remain active
The digestive tract does much more than sustain them nutritionally. The waste in their intestinal tracts creates carbon dioxide. This gas is utilized by the swim bladder organ which is connected to the tract by a small tube. If the fish wants to rise, the bladder fills with Co2, and if it wants to sink, the gas is released back into the tract. When the tract is empty, there’s little to no gas to keep the bladder functioning
When you feed your fish, you’re also feeding the beneficial bacteria that perform the nitrogen cycle. In a natural, healthy body of water, nitrates cannot be measured. This is because plants feed on nitrates. Our fish make waste, from which ammonia is created. Ammonia is the food source for beneficial bacteria. Converting the toxin first into nitrites and then into nitrates, the food source for vegetation. The fish eat the vegetation and the cycle of aqua life is complete. Mother Nature has come up with the perfect plan for protecting our fish safe from toxins created in the cycle
There’s only one vegetation that forms naturally when nitrates are present, and that’s algae. Getting a bad wrap, often called grunge or bad bacteria, algae is a highly nutrition food source for our fish, and feeds on nitrates more heavily than other plants. No natural ecosystem is complete without it
During my early years of fish keeping, I didn’t know about the nitrogen cycle or how water was oxygenated, or even that fish needed oxygenated water. I performed 100% water changes once a week, scrubbing the entire tank down, filter and all. When a fish got sick, I raced to the pet shop for medicinal cures. The fish got sicker; nothing worked. The websites I found online had a lot of information, and I followed the advice to the letter. Still, my fish perished, one by one. Just when I was ready to give up on goldfish keeping forever, I researched their ancestry out of curiosity, and got the idea to recreate the natural environment they came from; the rivers of China. It’s hard to believe the same fish we keep in small bowls thrived in the icy cold rivers
To accomplish the feat, I learned everything I could about water, and what makes it healthy. I learned about the minerals that make water healthy, giving it the ability to support life, and what it really means. I studied the nitrogen cycle, and the toxins it produces. To get the water moving, I installed a pond pump in a small stock tank.
Over the next few months everything changed. My fish began to thrive. To spread the word, I created my first website, goldfish-emergency.com. It consisted of one page, the 10 Steps to goldfish keeping. Each step consisted of one paragraph
Today, each step is several pages long. Every time I learned something, I wrote an article and added it to the website. Over time, I created self published books from the articles in hopes of helping others Buy the Book
Within a few weeks I had people posting in the forums on my new website. I learned everything I know today by helping these people. I’ve always used herbs and natural teas on my family and my other animals, so why not fish?
What started with salt and garlic grew to a long list of remedies designed to improve a variety of issues. Combine these natural treatments with healthy water, and you get healthy fish
Over the years I’ve written several books on the care of goldfish and Koi, and even though these remedies were originally designed for goldfish, the magic works on all freshwater fish. In the beginning the remedies were offered as instructions on the website, however, members asked me to bottle the remedies for them, as the ingredients were hard to find and pricey, and that’s how The Organic Fish first started
The lifesaving remedies were designed to help fish suffering from the most common ailments. Combined with instructions on how to care for the sick fish, the remedies are a great success. My theory is based on keeping fish as naturally as possible
Freshwater fish need water rich in mineral value. Enclosed tanks are typically low in oxygen, inviting bad bacteria. In most cases, fish benefit from living in tanks with open tops. Contrary to popular belief, air pumps do not oxygenate water. Water is oxygenated by method of diffusion, which occurs as the surface pulls oxygen from the air above
Exposing the surface to fresh air is important, but that’s not enough. Next, the water must be relatively free of carbon dioxide, a gas created from the waste our fish produce. Filters, such as HOB types are helpful, and may be sufficient for types of fish that create little waste, or large aquariums with low stocking levels. Most types of freshwater fish will benefit from the action of a pond pump. Pond pumps sit on the floor, pulling water from the bottom where gas accumulates, shooting it to the top where the gases are expelled. You may believe that including algae or other plants in your set up reduces Co2, however, this isn’t true. Carbon dioxide is absorbed by vegetation during the day, raising O2 levels, but releases the gas during the darkness of night, lowering levels
Learn everything you can about the fish you keep and the water it lives in, and it will thrive in the natural ecosystem you create
tof remedies are produced in the US, and created mostly from my own plants to assure the highest quality of organic substances