Black moor bottom-sitting with droopy fins, but acts normal when I come close.

[LunaSnow]

I have two black moors and three goldfish. Reccently I found the larger one (still smaller than the golfish, though) sitting at the bottom of the tank, all droopy fins and just looking really sad. However, when I went closer to check if he was dead, he just started swimming back to normal. No clamped fins, no wonky swimming whatsoever. He also went swimming all around the fish tank with no problems, eating is all fine. This continued for a couple of days, but I didn't think much of it since he always looked fine enough later. This would happen multiple times in a day, with him sitting on top of the gravel and me rushing out to check, and then he's fine. He's always sitting at the same spot, somewhere beneath the filter. Then today, one goldie and the other black moor started lying on the bottom with him too. That got me worried, so I'm asking here. They all show the same symptoms, completely normal afterwards. They were also lying straight up, not sideways or anything.

So I'm just worried if there's a problem or if they were just taking a nap? Seems a little too frequent to be naps, though...

Before anyone asks, no, unfortunately I can't get my water tested because my parents wouldn't allow it, and also because of covid. However, I do have some aquarium salt around just in case I need it, and anti-chlorine. I also have a bottle of something that can "supposedly" treat all kinds of fungus and bacterial infection, but I'm hesitant to use it because "can be used for anything!" usually translates to... not very good at everything. All I can do rn is change the water and put aquarium salt, not much besides that, so any and all help is appreciated.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Why not buy your own test kit, and have it delivered to your house?

 

[Colin_T]

Just do a 75% water change and gravel clean every day for a week and see if it improves. If it does get better, then there is a water quality issue, possibly from a new tank or filter?
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

The following link has information on what to do if your fish get sick. It's long and boring but worth a read.

What to do if your fish gets sick

If your fish ever looks sick or unwell, then the following steps might help. Test the Water and Clean the Tank. Test the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH and write the results down in numbers. Check it for general hardness (GH) and carbonate hardness (KH) too if you can, but...

www.fishforums.net

 

[LunaSnow]

Why not buy your own test kit, and have it delivered to your house?

I'm still a minor and living with them, unfortunately

 

[LunaSnow]

Just do a 75% water change and gravel clean every day for a week and see if it improves. If it does get better, then there is a water quality issue, possibly from a new tank or filter?
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

The following link has information on what to do if your fish get sick. It's long and boring but worth a read.

What to do if your fish gets sick

If your fish ever looks sick or unwell, then the following steps might help. Test the Water and Clean the Tank. Test the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH and write the results down in numbers. Check it for general hardness (GH) and carbonate hardness (KH) too if you can, but...

www.fishforums.net

Alright, I'll take a look at it in the morning. By gravel clean, do you mean taking them out and flushing it with water or can I just unsettle them and let the filter do its thing? As for the new filter thing, no, the filter is still the same as before. However I have been feeding them some veggies a week ago (half a lettuce per day for 3 days) since I read somewhere that it's good for them (?) I stopped already and they're back to eating small pellets.

 

[Boundava]

A gravel clean is done with a water siphon, you stick it into the gravel/substrates and clean off any uneaten food and waste. Many use a product called a Python that hooks up to you faucet and uses the faucet's water to pull the water out of the tank and then return clean water to the tank to refill it. Though you can use any larger open tube to do water changes/gravel cleaning using gravity and a bucket. Depending on the size of the tank you may want to have a couple buckets so you don't stop the gravity siphon.

Don't want to pull the gravel out to clean it in an established tank, you could put a lot of waste into your water column and it can negatively affect your goldfish.