Lethargic goldfish

[Andy Jacobs]

Hi all

We have a small tank with 2 goldfish in. This was a kit and the filter
packs are no longer available. We went and bought one of these Biorb
tanks and have had it running for about a month. I had the water tested
at an aquarium centre and they said that the Nitrite was a bit high so
we left it. I bought a test kit and tested the water last night. The
Nitrite was barely detectable, ph was about 7.5, maybe 8.0 at the most,
Nitrate was well within the acceptable rate and ammonia was barely
detectable as well.

So, I put the first fish in last night and he seemed to be doing fine.
Today he is just sitting on the bottom of the tank and it looks like
he's sort of coughing, or maybe gulping. I put some bloodworms in and
he went straight for them and gobbled them up. He then went straight to
the bottom of the tank and just sits there with his tail all flat.

Does it sound like he's distressed, missing his buddy, or what? My wife
wants me to put him back in the old tank where he was fine. I'm loathe
to do this in case the stress of moving him twice in 2 days is worse
than just leaving him where he is.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received as it's daft how attached
you can become to a fish and we'd hate to lose one!

Regards

--
Andy Jacobs
www.redcatmedia.net
Intelligent Websites For Intelligent Business People

[Elaine T]

Andy Jacobs wrote:
> Hi all
>
> We have a small tank with 2 goldfish in. This was a kit and the filter
> packs are no longer available. We went and bought one of these Biorb
> tanks and have had it running for about a month. I had the water tested
> at an aquarium centre and they said that the Nitrite was a bit high so
> we left it. I bought a test kit and tested the water last night. The
> Nitrite was barely detectable, ph was about 7.5, maybe 8.0 at the most,
> Nitrate was well within the acceptable rate and ammonia was barely
> detectable as well.
>
> So, I put the first fish in last night and he seemed to be doing fine.
> Today he is just sitting on the bottom of the tank and it looks like
> he's sort of coughing, or maybe gulping. I put some bloodworms in and
> he went straight for them and gobbled them up. He then went straight to
> the bottom of the tank and just sits there with his tail all flat.
>
> Does it sound like he's distressed, missing his buddy, or what? My wife
> wants me to put him back in the old tank where he was fine. I'm loathe
> to do this in case the stress of moving him twice in 2 days is worse
> than just leaving him where he is.
>
> Any suggestions would be gratefully received as it's daft how attached
> you can become to a fish and we'd hate to lose one!
>
> Regards
>
I'm confused - did you fishless cycle the tank? Otherwise there's no
source for ammonia and nitrite in the first place. If you did, you
don't have enough bacteria. Take the filter cartridge from your old
tank and squeeze as much gunk as you can from it into the new tank to
seed the new filter and water quality will improve much faster.

Barely detectable ammonia is quite toxic at pH 8. That plus the nitrite
is probably overwhelming your fish. I'd change some water, add AmQuel
or Ammo Lock for ammonia, and 1 tsp/gallon salt to help with any nitrite
toxicity.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html <'__><
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

[Andy Jacobs]

In article >,
Elaine T > wrote:

> Andy Jacobs wrote:
> > Hi all
> >
> > We have a small tank with 2 goldfish in. This was a kit and the filter
> > packs are no longer available. We went and bought one of these Biorb
> > tanks and have had it running for about a month. I had the water tested
> > at an aquarium centre and they said that the Nitrite was a bit high so
> > we left it. I bought a test kit and tested the water last night. The
> > Nitrite was barely detectable, ph was about 7.5, maybe 8.0 at the most,
> > Nitrate was well within the acceptable rate and ammonia was barely
> > detectable as well.
> >
> > So, I put the first fish in last night and he seemed to be doing fine.
> > Today he is just sitting on the bottom of the tank and it looks like
> > he's sort of coughing, or maybe gulping. I put some bloodworms in and
> > he went straight for them and gobbled them up. He then went straight to
> > the bottom of the tank and just sits there with his tail all flat.
> >
> > Does it sound like he's distressed, missing his buddy, or what? My wife
> > wants me to put him back in the old tank where he was fine. I'm loathe
> > to do this in case the stress of moving him twice in 2 days is worse
> > than just leaving him where he is.
> >
> > Any suggestions would be gratefully received as it's daft how attached
> > you can become to a fish and we'd hate to lose one!
> >
> > Regards
> >
> I'm confused - did you fishless cycle the tank? Otherwise there's no
> source for ammonia and nitrite in the first place. If you did, you
> don't have enough bacteria. Take the filter cartridge from your old
> tank and squeeze as much gunk as you can from it into the new tank to
> seed the new filter and water quality will improve much faster.
>
> Barely detectable ammonia is quite toxic at pH 8. That plus the nitrite
> is probably overwhelming your fish. I'd change some water, add AmQuel
> or Ammo Lock for ammonia, and 1 tsp/gallon salt to help with any nitrite
> toxicity.

Thanks for that. Yes, we were told to run the tank with no fish. We
had something that we had to add at the start to 'kick start' the
bacteria in the filter.

This is going to sound daft, but can fish get lonely? My wife persuaded
me to put the other fish into the new tank as well and immediately we
did, the one that was sitting on the bottom came back to normal and
they're both swimming about happily. I'm going to test the water every
24 hours or so and will do small water changes if anything starts to
look odd. We've got some conditioner that we can add to 'new' water and
leave so we're keeping a stock of that so that any water we take out can
be replenished with water that has been treated.

I keep sort of thinking "But they're only goldfish", but of course
they're not "only". I will do what you say and we'll keep everything
crossed.

--
Andy Jacobs
www.redcatmedia.net
Intelligent Websites For Intelligent Business People

[sophiefishstuff]

In message >, Andy Jacobs
> writes
>In article >,
> Elaine T > wrote:
>
>> Andy Jacobs wrote:
>> > Hi all
>> >
>> > We have a small tank with 2 goldfish in. This was a kit and the filter
>> > packs are no longer available. We went and bought one of these Biorb
>> > tanks and have had it running for about a month. I had the water tested
>> > at an aquarium centre and they said that the Nitrite was a bit high so
>> > we left it. I bought a test kit and tested the water last night. The
>> > Nitrite was barely detectable, ph was about 7.5, maybe 8.0 at the most,
>> > Nitrate was well within the acceptable rate and ammonia was barely
>> > detectable as well.
>> >
>> > So, I put the first fish in last night and he seemed to be doing fine.
>> > Today he is just sitting on the bottom of the tank and it looks like
>> > he's sort of coughing, or maybe gulping. I put some bloodworms in and
>> > he went straight for them and gobbled them up. He then went straight to
>> > the bottom of the tank and just sits there with his tail all flat.
>> >
>> > Does it sound like he's distressed, missing his buddy, or what? My wife
>> > wants me to put him back in the old tank where he was fine. I'm loathe
>> > to do this in case the stress of moving him twice in 2 days is worse
>> > than just leaving him where he is.
>> >
>> > Any suggestions would be gratefully received as it's daft how attached
>> > you can become to a fish and we'd hate to lose one!
>> >
>> > Regards
>> >
>> I'm confused - did you fishless cycle the tank? Otherwise there's no
>> source for ammonia and nitrite in the first place. If you did, you
>> don't have enough bacteria. Take the filter cartridge from your old
>> tank and squeeze as much gunk as you can from it into the new tank to
>> seed the new filter and water quality will improve much faster.
>>
>> Barely detectable ammonia is quite toxic at pH 8. That plus the nitrite
>> is probably overwhelming your fish. I'd change some water, add AmQuel
>> or Ammo Lock for ammonia, and 1 tsp/gallon salt to help with any nitrite
>> toxicity.
>
>Thanks for that. Yes, we were told to run the tank with no fish. We
>had something that we had to add at the start to 'kick start' the
>bacteria in the filter.
>
>This is going to sound daft, but can fish get lonely?

goldfish are social fish, certainly. lonely. hmmm. I'm not sure whether
or not they get lonely, but a fish in a new (and slightly toxic)
environment would be likely to be more stressed without its "buddy", I'd
have thought.
--
sophie

www.freewebs.com/fishstuff
(under construction. ish.)

[Geezer From The Freezer]

I believe goldfish do get lonely, well from my experiences with mine anyway.
Another note, you may eventually need to upgrade your bi-orb at some stage
as your fish will outgrow it (don't think of size of fish compared
to the orb, think of the waste they create in that water).

Good luck and hope your fishy is better :D

[andy smart]

Elaine T wrote:
> Andy Jacobs wrote:
>
>> Hi all
>>
>> We have a small tank with 2 goldfish in. This was a kit and the
>> filter packs are no longer available. We went and bought one of these
>> Biorb tanks and have had it running for about a month. I had the
>> water tested at an aquarium centre and they said that the Nitrite was
>> a bit high so we left it. I bought a test kit and tested the water
>> last night. The Nitrite was barely detectable, ph was about 7.5,
>> maybe 8.0 at the most, Nitrate was well within the acceptable rate and
>> ammonia was barely detectable as well.
>>
>> So, I put the first fish in last night and he seemed to be doing
>> fine. Today he is just sitting on the bottom of the tank and it looks
>> like he's sort of coughing, or maybe gulping. I put some bloodworms
>> in and he went straight for them and gobbled them up. He then went
>> straight to the bottom of the tank and just sits there with his tail
>> all flat.
>>
>> Does it sound like he's distressed, missing his buddy, or what? My
>> wife wants me to put him back in the old tank where he was fine. I'm
>> loathe to do this in case the stress of moving him twice in 2 days is
>> worse than just leaving him where he is.
>>
>> Any suggestions would be gratefully received as it's daft how attached
>> you can become to a fish and we'd hate to lose one!
>>
>> Regards
>>
> I'm confused - did you fishless cycle the tank? Otherwise there's no
> source for ammonia and nitrite in the first place. If you did, you
> don't have enough bacteria. Take the filter cartridge from your old
> tank and squeeze as much gunk as you can from it into the new tank to
> seed the new filter and water quality will improve much faster.
>
> Barely detectable ammonia is quite toxic at pH 8. That plus the nitrite
> is probably overwhelming your fish. I'd change some water, add AmQuel
> or Ammo Lock for ammonia, and 1 tsp/gallon salt to help with any nitrite
> toxicity.
>
I posted a while back about a sudden and castsrophic death of fish - and
we now think this was due to ammonia (as a result of advice I got here
and down our local aquatic centre) - ours were keen to eat but basically
just lay around on the bottom apart from that.

We're just reviving our tank now.....

[Elaine T]

Andy Jacobs wrote:
> In article >,
> Elaine T > wrote:
>
>
>>Andy Jacobs wrote:
>>
>>>Hi all
>>>
>>>We have a small tank with 2 goldfish in. This was a kit and the filter
>>>packs are no longer available. We went and bought one of these Biorb
>>>tanks and have had it running for about a month. I had the water tested
>>>at an aquarium centre and they said that the Nitrite was a bit high so
>>>we left it. I bought a test kit and tested the water last night. The
>>>Nitrite was barely detectable, ph was about 7.5, maybe 8.0 at the most,
>>>Nitrate was well within the acceptable rate and ammonia was barely
>>>detectable as well.
>>>
>>>So, I put the first fish in last night and he seemed to be doing fine.
>>>Today he is just sitting on the bottom of the tank and it looks like
>>>he's sort of coughing, or maybe gulping. I put some bloodworms in and
>>>he went straight for them and gobbled them up. He then went straight to
>>>the bottom of the tank and just sits there with his tail all flat.
>>>
>>>Does it sound like he's distressed, missing his buddy, or what? My wife
>>>wants me to put him back in the old tank where he was fine. I'm loathe
>>>to do this in case the stress of moving him twice in 2 days is worse
>>>than just leaving him where he is.
>>>
>>>Any suggestions would be gratefully received as it's daft how attached
>>>you can become to a fish and we'd hate to lose one!
>>>
>>>Regards
>>>
>>
>>I'm confused - did you fishless cycle the tank? Otherwise there's no
>>source for ammonia and nitrite in the first place. If you did, you
>>don't have enough bacteria. Take the filter cartridge from your old
>>tank and squeeze as much gunk as you can from it into the new tank to
>>seed the new filter and water quality will improve much faster.
>>
>>Barely detectable ammonia is quite toxic at pH 8. That plus the nitrite
>>is probably overwhelming your fish. I'd change some water, add AmQuel
>>or Ammo Lock for ammonia, and 1 tsp/gallon salt to help with any nitrite
>>toxicity.
>
>
> Thanks for that. Yes, we were told to run the tank with no fish. We
> had something that we had to add at the start to 'kick start' the
> bacteria in the filter.

If you add both bacteria and daily "feedings" of ammonia to an empty
tank, you can establish a filter without fish. Most 'kick start'
products are only bacteria and very few are actually helpful.

> This is going to sound daft, but can fish get lonely? My wife persuaded
> me to put the other fish into the new tank as well and immediately we
> did, the one that was sitting on the bottom came back to normal and
> they're both swimming about happily. I'm going to test the water every
> 24 hours or so and will do small water changes if anything starts to
> look odd. We've got some conditioner that we can add to 'new' water and
> leave so we're keeping a stock of that so that any water we take out can
> be replenished with water that has been treated.
>
> I keep sort of thinking "But they're only goldfish", but of course
> they're not "only". I will do what you say and we'll keep everything
> crossed.
>
Now that there are no more fish in the old tank, put the old filter
cartridge somewhere in the bio-orb for a couple of weeks. Float it or
prop it against the side of the tank in a way that does not impede flow
through the bio orb filter. It won't be beautiful to look at, but it
will keep the water clean and provide more than enough bacteria to
colonize the new filter. Your tank shouldn't cycle at all this way.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html <'__><
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com