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*Another* one dead today. :-( This one was about Floppy's size, was lying on the tank floor like Floppy was, and like Floppy, it appears to have a ridge where the lower abdomen is distended compared to the upper side. (This is easier to see on the right side of the fish.) But I don't know how...

It doesn't matter how many established filters are on the tank; if the tank is overstocked, there will be ammonia readings. Thus the two water changes every day. These filters have been running since I moved the teeny tiny fry into this tank on September 5. But the filter media in them came...

I emailed the vet and sent the picture of last night's dead fish. Got a reply back saying he doesn't think this is the same thing that was going on with Floppy (that's my impression as well), and he doesn't think water conditions are at fault, but the only way to find out for sure is to send out...

IF all these go to good homes before they grow too large and everything crashes, I will be overjoyed! I might throw a party. I might dance a jig. Or more likely, I'll fall into bed and sleep for 12 or 18 hours without having to get up to do water changes!

There were a couple of days when I only did one water change instead of two, including the day Floppy died. But if it were a week or two back, and the skin was healing, why would the fish suddenly die yesterday, when the water parameters were fine? I haven't been able to see any similar black...

As I described earlier, I fill the buckets with water and add dechlorinator immediately after each water change, then leave them sitting next to the tank until the next water change. Even when doing two water changes a day, that means they're sitting there for several hours between having...

Yes, and I received some great help along the way! Including being warned that a lot of them don't survive. And I did find several dead ones during the first weeks--not as many as I'd feared, maybe a dozen or fewer, but any dead baby is a sad thing. But now, after three and a half months? And...

I thought the same thing about chemical burns, specifically ammonia. But then I did that water test and got those results which I posted last night (basically perfect parameters). And I use Prime in the water before adding it to the tank. And there are almost 200 other fish in the tank, and as...

I do have an old gravel vac left over from when my adult fish lived in an aquarium. (They're now in a basement pond with a canister filter, which makes it MUCH MUCH EASIER to do water changes!) But the old gravel vac must have a pinprick leak somewhere, because it won't maintain a vacuum...

I'll post pictures tomorrow. There are pictures on my phone, but the phone battery is taking an exceedingly long time to charge (I probably need to replace the battery) so I turned it off. I'm not changing that high a percentage of the water because I simply don't have the equipment to do it...

Actually from what I've seen, they haven't started getting color yet. I'm feeding Tetra Pond Spring & Fall pellets and homemade gel food, small amounts 3 times a day. After each water change I refill my buckets (which originally contained bulk tofu from a local Asian market and have been used...

I recently posted about a sick baby fish in the thread at http://www.fishforums.net/threads/floppy-baby-goldfish-maybe-constipated.449974/ Briefly, the baby fish (either common goldfish or common/comet hybrids) hatched July 21. A couple of weeks ago I saw one lying on the floor of the tank...

Hi. Thanks for replying. One of the things I got is big (a laundry hamper, which I think will make a nice roomy cave for them), and I'm concerned if I put it in the sink or bathtub to clean, there may be soap or detergent residue. Is there anything safe I could wipe it down with?

I bought some food-safe Sterilite plastic containers to put in my basement goldfish pool. How do I safely clean them before putting them in with the fish? These are things that have a lot of holes in them for the fish to swim in and out.

Thanks. I know the vet and I both did everything we could. This seems to be my last-resort vet, that I take animals to that no other vet knows what to do with, and then usually they die anyway. But, yeah, at least we gave them the best chance they could have had. I have to empty and put away...

Sorry to keep everyone waiting. I brought my cats along for updated weight checks and for a couple of them to have blood work, then the hospital's computer went down while they were trying to check me out, then I had to rush to get one of my dogs to a vaccination clinic. I am very sorry to...

This is Floppy, whom I wrote about in my intro post. Floppy was hatched July 21st and is three months old. Floppy's mother is a common goldfish and the father is either a common or a comet. (I'm not sure which of my adult fish are the parents, but I know that all of them are commons except two...

Yes indeed, I am grateful for multiple sources of information. Thank you to everyone who replied. I did a ~7 minute bath yesterday with 1 TBSP per gallon and then a rinse. Today I am just doing a regular water change until after I talk to the vet. About to start a new thread with a new picture.

I have, but a long time ago, with a very bloated adult fish (who turned out to have polycystic kidney disease, so the Epsom salt didn't help). I just gave Floppy a 7 minute Epsom salt bath. It didn't seem any different in there than in the hospital tank: no apparent agitation, also no...

I just got home with groceries, including some organic garlic. I now have groceries to put away, water changes to do, and need to research Epsom salt baths. For now, I've got three blanched shelled peas in an empty baby food jar soaking in a very dense solution of clean conditioned water and...

That does sound like it would be best for immunity benefits. But what I'm trying to use garlic for is to convince the fish to eat some peas to alleviate suspected constipation. Doe soaking freshly chopped garlic in tank water, and soaking food in the same water, confer the same...

Yes, I've heard pretty crazy stuff from LFS people before too. Like, for example, a 30-gallon tank is plenty big enough for a dozen goldfish! This guy, though, I've known for five years, since I first got my fish. He's been very helpful, and I think he knows his stuff. I've also read about...

Does anyone have a good source for information about Epsom salt baths for goldfish--concentration, duration, frequency? The LFS guy just suggested it for my possibly-constipated fish, but it's been so long since either he or I have used it that neither of us can remember the details.

Thanks. I just had a long talk with the LFS guy, who said regular garlic extract (with no additives) should be fine. He also suggested Epsom salt baths.

Is there anything special about Garlic Guard that makes it better than plain garlic extract (obviously nothing with alcohol or other additives), or homemade liquid garlic? I have a floppy baby goldfish that I've posted about in my intro thread in the welcome section. Wondering if the problem...

Is there anything special about Garlic Guard, which I would have to order online or else drive to another town during the limited hours the nearest LFS is open? Or can I also use pure garlic extract (obviously none with alcohol or other additives) from a food service store, or make liquid garlic...

I don't know what Garlic Guard is. I'll look it up tomorrow. I do use garlic powder in my gel food, and it smells pleasantly garlicky to me. The other fish like it () but Floppy hasn't been eating that either. All it shows any interest in is the powdered Tetra Pond pellets. Is there a better...

I feed a few blanched peeled peas to my adult fish as part of their dinner every day, so I already had some in the refrigerator. Given the tiny size of the fish and even tinier size of its mouth, I took only half of a pea, mashed it a bit to make it easier to nip tiny bites out of, and put that...

She's already been helping me a lot. ☺ Today I realized that my floppy fish (named Floppy because of the floppiness) has been isolated in a hospital tank since Thursday, and didn't seem to be eating until Sunday when I finally figured out how to make food accessible to a floppy fish, has...

Okay, they look like snails to me. ;-)

I'm having trouble trouble envisioning a snail that looks like either a rabbit or an elephant! Going to Google....

I think I recognize you too. But what's a rabbit snail??

I'm here from Fishlore too. But I only recognize a couple of the people you listed.

I'm new here and with plenty of questions. I have goldfish: 7 commons and 2 comets. I did not plan to have goldfish. I'm a longtime dog and cat rescuer. Six years ago my housemate, who worked at the State Fair, told me (months later when it was too late to do anything about it) that after the...

Hello to you both! You're the reasons why I'm here. I'll go post my own introduction now.