please help - i have a poorly fish...
 

hope someone can help me...i've just joined this site and am new to fishkeeping. one of my goldfish is looking really poorly - he's never grown as much as the others, but always seemed ok, but a day or so ago i found him lying at the bottom of the tank looking listless and thin. His gills are red (not at all pale), and there's nothing wierd on his body, and he's not scratching or anyting. When i added some food, he came up and ate some, but spat some out too, then he went back to the bottom of the tank...am really concerned now and dont know what to do. The following is a summary of the situation:

got tank 15 weeks ago - it measures 15 x 24 inches (18 inches deep), so about 100 litres
it has a 'Fluva' power filter 3
it now contains 2 blackmoors, 4 fancy fantail goldfish and a plec
i measure the water at least once a week, and its always within normal parameters, but the ammonia did go high the other week (1.2)
water at present is: pH 7, ammonia zero, nitrate 5mg/l (dont have a nitrite test kit yet)

what have we done to make our fishy so ill? we followed all the advice from our aqautic centre and not sure what to do.

all the other fish are fine, they've all grown well and seem fat and happy. One of the fish has a tendency to lose balance and float to the top of the tank, but i changed the food i was giving from granules to flake and have started to add some cooked peas occasionally and that has made it better (although he still does it sometimes - is this related to the problem with the other fish? - put some swimbladder treatement in the tank the other day...hope that was ok...)

hope someone can help ... i dont want him to die and its horrible seeing him so miserable, just hope he's not suffering.

"rokki" wrote in message
...

hope someone can help me...i've just joined this site and am new to
fishkeeping. one of my goldfish is looking really poorly - he's never
grown as much as the others, but always seemed ok, but a day or so ago
i found him lying at the bottom of the tank looking listless and thin.
His gills are red (not at all pale), and there's nothing wierd on his
body, and he's not scratching or anyting. When i added some food, he
came up and ate some, but spat some out too, then he went back to the
bottom of the tank...am really concerned now and dont know what to do.
The following is a summary of the situation:

got tank 15 weeks ago - it measures 15 x 24 inches (18 inches deep), so
about 100 litres
it has a 'Fluva' power filter 3
it now contains 2 blackmoors, 4 fancy fantail goldfish and a plec
i measure the water at least once a week, and its always within normal
parameters, but the ammonia did go high the other week (1.2)
water at present is: pH 7, ammonia zero, nitrate 5mg/l (dont have a
nitrite test kit yet)

what have we done to make our fishy so ill? we followed all the advice
from our aqautic centre and not sure what to do.

all the other fish are fine, they've all grown well and seem fat and
happy. One of the fish has a tendency to lose balance and float to the
top of the tank, but i changed the food i was giving from granules to
flake and have started to add some cooked peas occasionally and that
has made it better (although he still does it sometimes - is this
related to the problem with the other fish? - put some swimbladder
treatement in the tank the other day...hope that was ok...)

hope someone can help ... i dont want him to die and its horrible
seeing him so miserable, just hope he's not suffering.


--
rokki

Your fish that has red gills has gill disease, you need to use furan-2
aquarium pharmaceuticals medication or a suitable substitute. If your
ammonia levels are high enough that could easily be the reason the fish's
gills are red. I would recommend you treat the sick fish in a hospital
tank/bucket so you don't destroy the biological filter in the exceptionally
good tank. Use water from the good tank and provide filtration (at least
mechanical) in the hospital tank/bucket. Make sure the bucket is clean first
if you use a bucket (i.e. no chemicals on/in it, etc.). No need for hospital
lighting (in fact no light is preferable in almost all cases of hospitals in
the fish hobby, but some light is required a little), no need for heating
either I am pretty sure. It would be a good idea to run an airstone in the
hospital too, even if the good tank doesn't have one. Good luck and follow
all directions, later!

Thanks for replying, i separated my sick fish from the others last nite, just woke up and he's still hanging in there and eaten a little food. will try your suggestions and let you know...

also, what do you think of the size of my tank? someone told me that it was too small for 6 fantails and that might be why one of them was sick

"rokki" wrote in message
...

Daniel Morrow Wrote:
"rokki" wrote in message
...-

hope someone can help me...i've just joined this site and am new to
fishkeeping. one of my goldfish is looking really poorly - he's
never
grown as much as the others, but always seemed ok, but a day or so
ago
i found him lying at the bottom of the tank looking listless and
thin.
His gills are red (not at all pale), and there's nothing wierd on his
body, and he's not scratching or anyting. When i added some food, he
came up and ate some, but spat some out too, then he went back to the
bottom of the tank...am really concerned now and dont know what to
do.
The following is a summary of the situation:

got tank 15 weeks ago - it measures 15 x 24 inches (18 inches deep),
so
about 100 litres
it has a 'Fluva' power filter 3
it now contains 2 blackmoors, 4 fancy fantail goldfish and a plec
i measure the water at least once a week, and its always within
normal
parameters, but the ammonia did go high the other week (1.2)
water at present is: pH 7, ammonia zero, nitrate 5mg/l (dont have a
nitrite test kit yet)

what have we done to make our fishy so ill? we followed all the
advice
from our aqautic centre and not sure what to do.

all the other fish are fine, they've all grown well and seem fat and
happy. One of the fish has a tendency to lose balance and float to
the
top of the tank, but i changed the food i was giving from granules to
flake and have started to add some cooked peas occasionally and that
has made it better (although he still does it sometimes - is this
related to the problem with the other fish? - put some swimbladder
treatement in the tank the other day...hope that was ok...)

hope someone can help ... i dont want him to die and its horrible
seeing him so miserable, just hope he's not suffering.


--
rokki-

Your fish that has red gills has gill disease, you need to use furan-2
aquarium pharmaceuticals medication or a suitable substitute. If your
ammonia levels are high enough that could easily be the reason the
fish's
gills are red. I would recommend you treat the sick fish in a hospital
tank/bucket so you don't destroy the biological filter in the
exceptionally
good tank. Use water from the good tank and provide filtration (at
least
mechanical) in the hospital tank/bucket. Make sure the bucket is clean
first
if you use a bucket (i.e. no chemicals on/in it, etc.). No need for
hospital
lighting (in fact no light is preferable in almost all cases of
hospitals in
the fish hobby, but some light is required a little), no need for
heating
either I am pretty sure. It would be a good idea to run an airstone in
the
hospital too, even if the good tank doesn't have one. Good luck and
follow
all directions, later!


Thanks for replying, i separated my sick fish from the others last
nite, just woke up and he's still hanging in there and eaten a little
food. will try your suggestions and let you know...

also, what do you think of the size of my tank? someone told me that
it was too small for 6 fantails and that might be why one of them was
sick

What that someone told you is true - that almost assuredly is why the fish
got sick in the first place. I am sorry to break it to you but you really
should only have one or 2 of these fish in your 15 or 20 gallon (u.s.) tank
(100 liters equals 15 or 20 u.s. gallons, right?) tank. If you want to
prevent this in the future return some of the fish to the pet store or buy a
much larger tank that is big enough for all of those fish after making sure
that new tank is big enough. Good luck and later!




--
rokki

thought i'd best let you know that my poorly fish has passed on to the big pond in the sky :( we took him to the aquatic centre we got him from in a jam jar and a sample of the water from our tank - they checked our tank water and it's all fine, he checked over my dead fish and said he couldnt see enything obviously wrong except he was thin, and because he was already dead he couldnt take a scrape to see what the problem was. So still dont know if/what i did wrong but we wont replace him (i'm a bit worried we may have overstocked - 6 fantails in a 110 litre tank??) and i'll have to keep a close eye on the others.

Thanks for your help anyway, much appreciated...

What that someone told you is true - that almost assuredly is why the fish
got sick in the first place. I am sorry to break it to you but you really
should only have one or 2 of these fish in your 15 or 20 gallon (u.s.) tank
(100 liters equals 15 or 20 u.s. gallons, right?)

100 liters equals 26.4172051 gallons, to be precise. One would be
rounding off a bit, but at the ratio of one goldfish per 10 gallons,
having three goldfish in such a tank should be fine. I wouldn't push it
further than that though.

- Logic316



Q: How many liberals does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A: One liberal and twenty eight delegates representing all the social,
economic, and ethnic communities.
A: Two-one to do it and the other to keep the first one's knee from
jerking.
A: None: They can't remove the old ones since they are already part of
the environment.

rokki wrote:
So still dont know if/what i did wrong but we wont
replace him (i'm a bit worried we may have overstocked - 6 fantails in
a 110 litre tank??) and i'll have to keep a close eye on the others.

Sorry to hear the little guy didn't make it. It's hard to say whether or
not he died ultimately from being in an overstocked tank, but it would
seem something caused an internal bacterial infection that kept him from
eating properly. 110 liters translates to 29.06 gallons, and the rule is
to have a ratio of 10 gallons per goldfish. Therefore, you should have
no more than 2 or maybe 3 fish in that tank at most. Otherwise their
immune systems can get stressed and become vulnerable to disease, or
suffer from stunted growth. Actually, lots of people break this rule and
their fish often live for years with no apparent ill effects, but
they're pushing their luck and the fish still probably dont live quite
as long as they could. If I were you, I would add an extra pump with an
air stone in the meantime, but go out and buy a larger tank (or an extra
tank) as soon as possible.

- Logic316



"My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation
which outlaws the Soviet Union forever. The bombing begins in five minutes."
-- Ronald Reagan (Joking during a test before one of his radio
addresses. The KGB overheard it.)

I agree a bigger or extra tank would be good. Actually a extra tank would limit
disease
from fish to fish, but might be a bit more maintenance.