Goldfish Floating

[lisaloppit]

We have a comet goldfish who is quite unwell, we have done water changes, which seem to revive him for a short while.

The issues we have are as follows:

He has become very pale in colouring
He tends to float at the top of the tank, with minimal gill movement.
When he is more active, he tends to stay at the bottom of the tank and hide under the bridge we have for him.

The other fish we have, also a comet, is fine, when the other fish is not floating at the top, he is seen to be trying to nudge him around the tank.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Lisa

 

[Scrappaman]

We have a comet goldfish who is quite unwell, we have done water changes, which seem to revive him for a short while.

The issues we have are as follows:

He has become very pale in colouring
He tends to float at the top of the tank, with minimal gill movement.
When he is more active, he tends to stay at the bottom of the tank and hide under the bridge we have for him.

The other fish we have, also a comet, is fine, when the other fish is not floating at the top, he is seen to be trying to nudge him around the tank.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Lisa

Do you have any water stats? (Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia, etc)
How big is the tank, and how big are the fish?
When you say floating with minimal gill movements, is he upright or on his side, and does he appear to have control of his buoyancy (i.e. if he tries to swim down, is he pushed back up again?)
How long has the problem been happening for, and how often do you water change and how much?

Matt

 

[lisaloppit]

Do you have any water stats? (Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia, etc) - No stats available

How big is the tank, and how big are the fish? - Tank is good size, takes two large buckets of water to fill - sorry don't know exact measurements

When you say floating with minimal gill movements, is he upright or on his side, and does he appear to have control of his buoyancy (i.e. if he tries to swim down, is he pushed back up again?) - he tries to swim to the bottom, and then floats back up again, when he is floating he is on his side.

How long has the problem been happening for, and how often do you water change and how much? - did 50% change - water changes are done as normal, 25% every fortnight, or when necessary.

Even after all of this the other fish is absolutely fine.

 

[Scrappaman]

Do you have any water stats? (Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia, etc) - No stats available

How big is the tank, and how big are the fish? - Tank is good size, takes two large buckets of water to fill - sorry don't know exact measurements

When you say floating with minimal gill movements, is he upright or on his side, and does he appear to have control of his buoyancy (i.e. if he tries to swim down, is he pushed back up again?) - he tries to swim to the bottom, and then floats back up again, when he is floating he is on his side.

How long has the problem been happening for, and how often do you water change and how much? - did 50% change - water changes are done as normal, 25% every fortnight, or when necessary.

Even after all of this the other fish is absolutely fine.

Whats the diet of the fish? Do you tend to stick to flakes and high protein dried foods or is there fresh foods and some veg in there?

Do you have a filter on the tank, if so, what one? Can you give a rough measurement of how big the tank is?

 

[dwarfgourami]

If those buckets are standard 10 ltr buckets, that would make the tank a titchy 20 litres- far too small to keep goldfish in. Can you give us the dimensions of the tank, length and width and height?

Also, how long has it been set up? How many fish have you got in there?

 

[black angel]

To get any help you have to give us the info we need.

Most pet stores test tank water but to me your tank is way too small for those fish.
Goldies especially need vast amounts of water to thrive in.

Sounds like the swimbladder is affected.Do you feed flake? If so, stop feeding the fish for 3 days, keep doing daily 100% water changes. Get your tank water tested before a change by your local fish store and post the results here.

Change your fishes diet to sinking granular food and add some squashed cooked frozen peas after 3 days for them to eat. Goldies need a varied diet.

If you can, try and upgrade your tank to around 30 gallons to start with, but ultimately for two comets you are looking at 50 gallons+ or a pond.

Filtration as well must be really powerful.

 

[Scrappaman]

To get any help you have to give us the info we need.

Most pet stores test tank water but to me your tank is way too small for those fish.
Goldies especially need vast amounts of water to thrive in.

Sounds like the swimbladder is affected.Do you feed flake? If so, stop feeding the fish for 3 days, keep doing daily 100% water changes. Get your tank water tested before a change by your local fish store and post the results here.

Change your fishes diet to sinking granular food and add some squashed cooked frozen peas after 3 days for them to eat. Goldies need a varied diet.

If you can, try and upgrade your tank to around 30 gallons to start with, but ultimately for two comets you are looking at 50 gallons+ or a pond.

Filtration as well must be really powerful.

Black Angel, sorry, did you mean 10% water changes or 100% water changes?

 

[black angel]

Not a typo, 100%.

If those fish are to get better then thats what needs to be done. Goldfish need constant clean water to survive in and thats so hard in small tanks where they pollute the water in no time at all. Even 80% would do if you dont want to disturb the fish too much.

 

[Scrappaman]

Not a typo, 100%.

If those fish are to get better then thats what needs to be done. Goldfish need constant clean water to survive in and thats so hard in small tanks where they pollute the water in no time at all. Even 80% would do if you dont want to disturb the fish too much.

I'm always learning. I always thought 100% would wipe out all the good stuff, but fair play, now I know Just wanted to check in case it was a typo.

 

[black angel]

Most of the beneficial bacteria is kept in your filter with a small percentage on gravel, ornaments etc. Doing 100% water changes doesnt affect this and is beneficial to fish kept in smaller aquariums/tubs. Its usually seen in quarantine tanks.

Aged water is always the best but it cant be balanced in small goldfish aquariums

90% of fish disease and problems is down to poor water quality. Get that fixed (plus larger aquarium and filter too if you dont want to be doing huge water changes all the time) and the rest usually follows if the fish is strong enough to get through it.