fish gulping problem

great to hear success stories. The Goldfish Guru taught me a long time ago "when the
fish are looking bad start changing the water and if the water parameters are
pristine believe the fish. Move them to fresh water immediately. Even she could not
always figure out what was going on, but she DID save her expensive fish (she was a
seller of fish in the 100-1000 bucks per range).
and you are correct, when fish stop eating they are seriously in trouble. Ingrid

"lenny" wrote:

As mentioned before, I put the fish into a serperate tub and I have now
cleaned the tank completly, all the water and washed the stones. I tiped it
onto its side outside and gave it a good hose down. I refilled the tank and
left it 24 hours to settle. Placed the fish back into the tank (they were
still not looking too good) and within 5 or 6 hours they have all stopped
gulping air fron the top of the water and are starting to look better with a
bit of rumaging along the bottom. I gave them a feed after 24 hours and as
far as I can see most of them ate so that is a good sign.

There is only one fish worrying me at the moment. He was the one who looked
in the worst state before spending most of the day gulping on the top. That
fish still looks a little bit lathargic and the colour is a little dull but
he isn't gulping on the top or sitting on the bottom so I will give it a
couple of days and see what happens I think. Possibly the salt dip will
help.

Thanks for all the fantastic help given on this forum! Because of it 8 fish
are still alive.

Cheers
Lenny


wrote in message
...
right. better circulation and the fish rest comfortably right under a
stone 1-2
inches up off the bottom of the tank.
now strong powerheads or filter flow can be a problem.
Ingrid

Jolly Fisherman wrote:

The only thing I want to add is that when fish are very sick and weak
and consequently crashing on the bottom, they can have difficulty with
the current generated by an airstone on the bottom of a small
container. One can create a weaker current by mounting the airstone
higher up on the wall of the container. The same thing can be
accomplished by bleeding off some of the air, but that also reduces
surface agitation. Basically one just has to adjust things based on
how it looks.

The environment has to be as stress free & pristine as possible to
heal. Currents in small containers can be stressful. I find
sometimes also reducing room light is calming.

Just another $0.02



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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List at
http://weloveteaching.com/puregold/
sign up: http://groups.google.com/groups/dir?...s=Group+lookup
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I receive no compensation for running the Puregold list or Puregold website.
I do not run nor receive any money from the ads at the old Puregold site.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Zone 5 next to Lake Michigan

On Sat, 01 Apr 2006 23:16:18 GMT, wrote:

right. better circulation and the fish rest comfortably right under a stone 1-2
inches up off the bottom of the tank.
now strong powerheads or filter flow can be a problem.
Ingrid

I think it all depends. If the tank or temporary container is narrow
& tall (like a 5 gal bucket for example) & the fish is in really bad
shape you may want the stone 1-2 inches from the top. 1-2 inches from
the bottom would seriously stress it. If the fish is stronger or the
container is longer, larger, and shorter I think the placement matters
much less.

If the temporary container has no filtration I would try to slow
circulation somewhat esp if it has free floating bacterial or fine
fragmenting constipated poop. That's a nasty soup. But in that case,
actually I think moving to more tubs per day & diet is most important.

On Sun, 2 Apr 2006 18:13:48 +0100, "lenny"
wrote:

As mentioned before, I put the fish into a serperate tub and I have now
cleaned the tank completly, all the water and washed the stones. I tiped it
onto its side outside and gave it a good hose down. I refilled the tank and
left it 24 hours to settle. Placed the fish back into the tank (they were
still not looking too good) and within 5 or 6 hours they have all stopped
gulping air fron the top of the water and are starting to look better with a
bit of rumaging along the bottom. I gave them a feed after 24 hours and as
far as I can see most of them ate so that is a good sign.

Great. Now you need to either reestablish the biological filter or
continue with a tub to tub treatment. I'd go by how strong they look
& get some BioSpira for when they're ready to end the treatment. Until
everything is reestablished they need at least ammonia protection.

There is only one fish worrying me at the moment. He was the one who looked
in the worst state before spending most of the day gulping on the top. That
fish still looks a little bit lathargic and the colour is a little dull but
he isn't gulping on the top or sitting on the bottom so I will give it a
couple of days and see what happens I think. Possibly the salt dip will
help.

There's a point when a fish is too small or too weak to endure the
stress of a salt dip. While I'm not the expert to advise you
specifically, IMHO I wouldn't do it casually on a weakened undiagnosed
fish. Others may disagree with me. Ultimately it's your call.

Thanks for all the fantastic help given on this forum! Because of it 8 fish
are still alive.

It's a good yet small forum. I've been helped a lot here also.