Goldfish

[tomscaper]

Hi

 

My girlfriend has 2 goldfish but one of them seem unwell at the moment, does anyone have any experience with goldfish or looking after them, as i have never had them before.

 

One fish seems fine, swimming about, feeding fine. The other hang around the bottom of the tank alot, comes up and moves around for a bit but often goes back, it also seems as if the goldfish is loosing balance and tilts to the side having to readjust.

 

If there is anyone i could pm or speak on to msn i would appreciate the help.

 

Thanks

[SYNACK]

I am no fish expert but if it is consistently loosing its up-down orientation in the water it could be a problem with the swim bladder, a small internal bubble of air that a fish uses to counterbalance its weight in the water.

 

There is some more information here that may be helpful indicating some treatment options like isolating the fish etc. , if your lucky it could just be constipated.

[tomscaper]

I have googled a bit on the net but to be honest it could be anything, and i dont know enough. I was just thinking that someone on here may know more about this and be able to help diagnose or ease my mind.

[FN-GM]

It could be due to the lack of air flow, do you have a pump?

[tomscaper]

It has a pump now, the old one had broken and i think it had been without for 5 days.

[FN-GM]

could be that, just leave them for a while and see what happens. Fish are very sensitive the slightest change can effect them.

[tomscaper]

it may of been more than a week without a pump, it was replaced monday afternoon, the fish doesnt seem any different today, will do a partial water change on the weekend to see if that does any help.

[flyinghaggis]

Also worth bearing in mind is that fact that goldfish all look the same so if goes up to that big tank in the sky you can always replace it with another one before she notices

[Oops_my_bad]

If you are doing a water change, partial or not, and are using tap water, leave the water to stand for a day before you put it in because the chemicals in tap water can irritate or even burn your fishies

[RabbieBurns]

they're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year

 

Its probably just a bit dizzy from swimming round and round and round

[FN-GM]

If you are doing a water change, partial or not, and are using tap water, leave the water to stand for a day before you put it in because the chemicals in tap water can irritate or even burn your fishies

 

He has treated the water prior to that, but the temperate of the water straight out of the tap is allot colder than temperature the fish are used to. You should always let it stand for those reasons.

[elsiegee40]

We keep tropical fish and I'm afraid the prognosis is probably not good.

 

You may find this website helpful: Fish in the .Net Their forums have helped us out a couple of times when we've had problems.

 

The forums are here: http://www.fishinthe.net/html/forum/index.php?sid=125c056e3346b8434907bcd3ff751487

Edited August 13, 2008 by elsiegee40

[FN-GM]

We keep tropical fish and I'm afraid the prognosis is probably not good.

 

You may find this website helpful: Fish in the .Net Their forums have helped us out a couple of times when we've had problems.

 

Oh you keep them too Do you find tropical tend to get more disease? White spot clear out my tank last year.

[elsiegee40]

Oh you keep them too Do you find tropical tend to get more disease? White spot clear out my tank last year.

 

We've only kept tropical and the tank is well established and stable... after the first couple of years we have had very little problem with disease. The real key is to spot problems early and treat them or remove the fish quickly. We've got a great little chart from waterlife ( http:Waterlife Research Industries Ltd. ) which is a really handy quick diagnosis guide for most problems.

 

We've had fish behave like this goldfish and TBH we've removed the fish rather than have it affect the others... or get eaten by the others if it dies! We lose fish occasionally, but it's usually the older fish.

[tomscaper]

The fish still sits at the bottom of the tank i bought a kit to test the water. The only thing that flagged up was the nitrite's in the tank were high. So we will do partail warter changes and test the water till it goes down. Spoke to a few people at local set shop and they think the fish could be constipated prob due to over feed and just eating same food. So am trying to vary food. Hopefully this makes a difference. Posted via Mobile Device

[laserblazer]

Try putting half a disprin in the tank. This may also help.

http://wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/gldfshdisease.htm

Edited August 17, 2008 by laserblazer

[tomscaper]

Well we have tried all sorts of things, but it isn't looking good for the goldfish, i think that it must be swim bladder disease. Some days he seems fine and it swimming about but others he just lays on the bottom.