HELP! after weeks of hardship, fish growing black on fins, burst bubble eye bubble?

if you didn't cycle..there was NO way the ammonia nitrates and nitrites read
normal....sorry
"Steven C" wrote in message
oups.com...
to summarize this:
two fish left, one of them with extensive black on the edges of his
fins (but this looks like a part of his normal color, but 2 weeks ago
he was 100% orange) , one of them starting to get black blotches, and
(its a bubble eye) with a burst bubble.

is the turning black normal?

I have two goldfish. i started with five and far to little water (5
inches or so of fish and only 10 gallons, we were misinformed by a pet
store employee), and after about a month or so all but two fish have
died. One is a bubble fish and the other i cannot recall the name of. i
believe it is LIKE a lionhead. it does not have a dorsal fin, is
completely orange, and both seem happy finally.

this is what happened:

1. the fish started sitting on the bottom of the tank. they seemed
depressed, so i got the water tested, and ammonia, nitrates, nitrites
were normal... i bought some more plants for them and they started to
get better until one of them (the actual lionhead with the "growth" on
the head) got white spots... the others started to get SOME white
spots, but the lionhead really had them badly.
i changed 50% of the water and started to treat with rid ich and
unfortunately the lionhead died... the other fish had their ich clear
up.

2. a second fish (which was one of the more stressed out) died...

3. a third fish (a tiny little one) died.

4. the fish that remained stopped going to the bottom of the tank and
are now simming very happilly.

today though i was siphoning out some water to do a water change (a 25%
change) and install a bubble setup to make the tank livelier and the
bubble eye got too close to the siphon and his bubble burst.

i also noticed a week or so ago that the completely orange lion head
type fish started to grow black on the edges of his fins. the fins
appear completely normal and healthy, but there is black, as though the
fish is just growing larger and turning black...

the bubble eye is getting a few black spots, but it still looks very
happy, swimming all the time, eating, etc.

so any advice? what is with the black??? why are they changing colors?

thanks.