HELP- Bent Fish!!!!!!!

[kevlar5000]

My fish is looking poorly, was wondering if anyone had any ideas on what it is and how to treat it. He appears to be paralysed down one side, and drifting at the water level in a bent position. He stays like this for up to a minute then starts swimming round normally for a while before resuming the position at the top of the tank. This has been going on all day.

 

[black angel]

by bent do you mean curled over? if a fish does that then its from poisoning of some sort and the fish wont have long left.
can you provide details on the following.

size of tank and any tankmates.
filtration used
have you tested the water for ammonia, nitrites,nitrates and ph recently. if not then your pet shop can usually do this for you.
whats your water changing routine and how much do you change and when?
what are you feeding your fish
any other signs of illness such as red blotches or red streaked fins.
please post back soon, in the meantime do a 50% water change with gravel vac if its filtered. if its not filtered do 100%.
do you have any aquarium salt?
have you put anything into the water such as meds and dechlorinator?

 

[kevlar5000]

Tank size = approx 10L
1 Other fish (approx 4cm long)
Filtered water, changed each month + dechlorinator
Feed = fish food
No other signs of illness

 

[black angel]

youve got two fish in 2 gallons of water.
sorry but unless you upgrade them very fast then they will die. goldfish need 20 gallons each.
as you havent cleaned out the water for a month then they are dying through ammonia poisoning.
even 10 gallons would be an improvement,but i think its too late for the sick one.

a 2 gallon would need to be emptied totally twice a day. the filter pad should be squeezed and rinsed each week in tank water.

 

[kevlar5000]

20 gallons each sounds like a lot for just 2 (very) little fish ,
as for changing the water twice daily, thats just not possible due to work comitments,
I was told when purchasing the tank that it was more than large enough for my fish and that the tank would only need cleaning every few months due to good filtration.

 

[WILDER]

Good god which lfs gave you that lousy advice, comet need big tanks bigger really then 20gal, usually it 20gal for the first one then 10gal for every other one after that, you need great filters as they are big waste producers, and i clean mine out twice a week even though it a 40gal with two fancy goldlfish and 3 platys.

 

[black angel]

two little fish should grow into two large fish. have you ever seen a full grown goldfish?
20 gallons is the minimum even for litle ones as they do most of their growing in the first couple of years.

the question now is who is right, us or the lfs? go and look at your fish and decide.

i suggest too that you find a decent pet store and not one purely looking to profit from you buying more and more fish.

 

[bribones]

ive seen this on numerous occasions and its mostly down to stunting ,the fishes internal organs become so compressed the fish literally bends or kinks to try and acommodate them

i would suggest you go back to your LFS and tell him/her to find another line of trade or at least read up on fish care

and as for water changes not being done due to work commitments thats rubbish
its a 2 gallon tank ? how long can that take ?
take a jug full out and replace it with the same 2 minutes

if you cant do that then i suggest your not ready or responsible enough to have fish as pets your dealing with living creatures here not something thats just supposed to look nice


boy oh boy are your fish lucky they get filtered water once a month

we all started a new fish keepers at some time but please use at least a little common sense

 

[kevlar5000]

Thanks for your help everyone, but unfortunately he died last night,
on the plus side, i wont be buying any more fish, so at least the remaining fish will have the whole of the tank to himself, i know this is not ideal, but it is at the very least a slight improvement, so i hope he'll fare better than his former tank mate.

 

[black angel]

sorry he died but to be honest unless you improved his housing then nothing you would have done would have made any difference. i hope the other does ok but it doesnt look good as the fish will become stunted, so please try to change around 50% a few times a week and rinse out the filter pad each week in the old water..
they arent as easy to look after as everyone would have you believe are they?

good luck with the other one though.

 

[RandomWiktor]

You really oughten't have goldfish if you can't afford a bigger tank and don't have the time to clean the small tank twice a day. Do you have any idea how painful ammonia poisoning and organ compression must be? Imagine living in a tiny about the size of a large closet with another person, where you both have to eat, defecate, and urinate. Imagine you only have that room cleaned out by someone once a month, but there is a window opened a crack to alleviate some of the smell. Undoubtedly, you would end up with respritory problems, sores on your feet, etc. from being constantly immersed in filthy conditions. That is exactly what happened to your goldfish, and to make matters worse, his organs were being crushed because his environment was so tiny.
I'm glad you cared enough to come here looking for help, but I reccomend that, if you are working so many hours that you can't clean the tank more than monthly, you use some of the money you're making to invest in at least a 10 gallon until the current fish starts to outgrow it.