Cycling And Goldfish

[andyG44]

3-4 weeks ago I set up a 40lt tank to house a one fancy goldfish. I got a brand new Elite Stingray 10 immersible water filter. There is coarse gravel and stones at the bottom. The goldfish has shown some weird behaviour which he has repeated in the past.
 
8 months ago, and also now, he sits at the bottom of the aquarium, he chooses one corner and puts his head right up against the glass and just sits there for hours. When it is feeding time he goes around chasing food, and sometimes he looks for food outside of feeding times, and then he goes back to his corner. Last time this happened I thought he was dieing, although he continued to eat. He came out of that phase and was well for a few months, and now he is doing it again.
 
I checked his water today to see how the new filter is doing. Although I measured 0 ammonia, there was high nitrite (around 0.5-1.0). I made a 50% water change with treated tap water.
 
From the nitrite readinds it would appear the filter is doing the first part of the nitrogen conversion cycle, but is not doing the other part.
 
Should I add some of the ready made bacteria or should I just wait for the filter to mature? Any ideas why the goldfish is behaving in this way? Are goldfish just as sensitive to ammonia and nitrites as are tropical fish?

 

[the_lock_man]

Yes, they are.
 
Nitrite enters the bloodstream and attaches itself to the haemoglobin in the blood, and prevents the haemoglobin from transporting oxygen. As an emergency measure, add 600mg (0.6g) of table salt to the tank - the sodium in the salt enters the bloodstream in the same way as the nitrite, and at a concentration of 10 times the nitrite, will stop the nitrite from doing so. 
 
When you are doing another water change, and still seeing a nitrite reading, you need to replace the salt that is removed - so if you do a 50% water change, you need to add 300mg of salt at the same time.
 
I'm a little confused, though. 3-4 weeks you set up a tank, but the fish was doing this same thing 8 months ago? Was the fish in another tank back then?
 
How did you cycle the filter of the new tank?
 
Also, what type of goldfish is it? If it's a standard goldfish, a 40l tank is too small. If it's a fancy type (shubunkin, comet, fantail) then that's where my limited knowledge of coldwater runs out, so others will have to comment upon that.

 

[fluttermoth]

If it's a fancy type (shubunkin, comet, fantail) then that's where my limited knowledge of coldwater runs out, so others will have to comment upon that.

Dear lock_man; shubunkins and comets are not classed as 'fancies', good buddy

OP; I'm afraid TLM is right about tank size (even if his knowledge of goldfish types is a little lacking!) Your tank is much too small, even for a fancy (which are fantails, orandas, celestials; anything with a shortened body shape). The minimum tank requirement for one fancy is 100l.

Also, the Stingray is a totally unsuitable filter. There's just not enough room for media in there to cope with the wastes from messy fish like goldies, so you're always going to struggle with your water parameters

 

[the_lock_man]

 

If it's a fancy type (shubunkin, comet, fantail) then that's where my limited knowledge of coldwater runs out, so others will have to comment upon that.

Dear lock_man; shubunkins and comets are not classed as 'fancies', good buddy

 

 
I did say my knowledge was limited!

 

[fluttermoth]

Yeah, but you make up for it other areas; we can't know everything

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Just a quick correction on what T_L_M posted. It is not the sodium that help but the chloride. In most tanks we do not want sodium. However, the amount of salt used to counteract nitrite is quite small and it will not need to be in a tank for very long. it is also important to realize that sodium will not evaporate, so the only way it comes out of the tank is via water changes. Also, the amount of salt one must add is a function of what level of nitrite there is. In a cycling tank nitrite may be rising, If so one must increase the salt along with it. You can find good information on adding salt for nitrite in this article here on the site http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/433778-rescuing-a-fish-in-cycle-gone-wild-part-il/ I would observe that the way nitrite harms a fish means they are normally gasping for air at the surface or near the filter output, not hiding on the bottom in a corner.
 
Also, while a bigger filter is a good suggestion, in terms of bacteria it does not matter in the long run. The bacteria will live on any hard surface out of direct light they can. This means on subtrate, on decor and even on equipment. They will always do best where the best supply of nutrients are which is usually in one's filter. But if a filter does not provide enough places for them, then they will colonize elsewhere. As long as a tank has circulation, this is true. However, a filter does more than host microorganisms. It should help trap solid wastes so you can remove them. And with messy fish like goldies, this is important. On balance it is better to have too large a filter on which you turn down the flow rate than a smaller filter with a higher flow rate.

 

[BiggTexx]

Just looked up the stingray 10.  Wow, that is a strange internal filter, but I agree with fluttermoth, that is nowhere near the level of filtration that is needed.

 

[the_lock_man]

Just a quick correction on what T_L_M posted. It is not the sodium that help but the chloride. 

 
Oh, for heaven's sake. What an eejit I am. Yes, indeed, it is the chloride, apologies for the error.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

An easy mistake to make. But it matters in terms of wanting people to understand what is going on and how something works. There are other ways to get chloride into a tank where it is needed, but most of them a re more work and cost to get. Since the amount of salt one needs to u8se to get the desired chloride level and because it will be in a tank for such a short amount of time, it will almost never bother even salt intolerant fish. And even those it might, that bother is better than having them "choke" to death from the nitrite. ANd this is also alot easier than doing big water changes since they act to slow the cycle and thus make even more water changes necessary.