Goldfish Emergency Please Read

[Johng89]

Before anyone says anything about tanks etc this is an emergency for our kids nursery not Me
they have 3 goldfish in a Hex tank not sure of size but would guess about 25l

had a look at the piccies on teh pinned thread and they have
1 shebunkin
2 fantails

hovever it looks like the Shebunkin has been bullied as its tail is in shreds and looks quite thin

I have asked them to keep it isolate it atm as they had done this (thank god)

any suggestions for keeping this poor little fish alive

they have tried feeding it flake but its not eating!

all fish are apprx 2 inch body length

 

[Johng89]

Bump

can anybody help on this one

 

[silverrabbit]

Hello

From hearing that they have 3 goldies in a 25l tank, I think that the most likely cause of the shubunkin's illness is water quality, not bullying so much (though it's not outruled, as they could well be fighting over swimming in such a small tank - that's like a whole family living in a box room )

I wonder how often they perform water changes? Do they use dechlorinator? If he had a little tear in his fin, either from another fish or from burshing against something sharp, poor water would lead him to have finrot, or some sort of fungus. Might be an idea for them to start doing maybe 50% wc's each day on his quaranteen tank (how big is that tank, do you know?) as I doubt they'd have a cycled filter to add to it. they should also treat with something like melafix if they can get hold of it.

He's not eating because he's ill and depressed because of his surroundings. His situation may well kill him from stress or illness You could suggest for them to offer him some bloodworms - they wolf them down. Mine love prawns too (ones for humans - much cheaper than the specialist fish ones)

On top of that, Maybe you could say to them that goldies really can't live in such confined spaced without getting sick and eventually dying prematurely - and surely they don't want their nursery kids upset by seeing their fish floating around dead as a dodo. They could take the goldfish back and swap them for some white cloud mountain minnows? they sell some reallly pretty ones now, and they's be ok in that tank. Or they could have a couple of guppies (MALE though, otherwise they'd be overrun).

Hope my babbling was helpful

 

[Johng89]

cheers silverrabbit

I had advised melafix and a visit to LFS for further advice but I suspect this will be a local pet shop rather than LFS

i have told them tank is too small already
quarintine tank is only a couple of litres
they have a small filter in the main tank and I have advised daily 25% water changes with treated water in both

I hope that hey have taken notice as im off on hols for a couple of weeks
I have passed on the information via email

Thanks for the reply

J

 

[silverrabbit]

No problem just hope they listen to you, as you're only trying to help!!