My Goldfish Are Being Lazy.

[Gurglar]

Well i've got 1 oranda and 2 fantails in my 35 gallon, they are still small my oranda and one of the fantails are almost 2 inches and my other fantail is about 1 and a 1/4 inch.

They have been in the tank for about 3-4 months and when I first got them they were really active and always swimming around but in the last 2 months or so they just sit around behind some of the decorations and stuff most of the time but they have bursts of energy where they swim around all active scavanging for food.

They don't look sick or anything just lazy when its feeding time they swim around the tank crazy and act all normal.

So is this normal behaviour for golfish?

 

[black angel]

maybe the filters are giving a strong current so they need to rest more? Young fish do tend to sleep a bit more as well but check your ammonia and nitrites just to be sure. How often and how much are you doing water changes and do they perk up after ? Sounds like tired fish to me so make sure theres not too much flow round the tank, fish dont like to live in a washing machine environment

 

[GoldLenny]

Check your KH levels and ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and temperature and give us those numbers.

Gill flukes will also cause this problem as the fish are not getting enough O2.

Check with where you purchased them at to see if they do a routine treatment for gill flukes. If they don't, there is a good chance your goldies have them. Many retail goldfish have gill flukes but more and more distributors are pre-treating them with Praziquantel which is very mild on the fish and ecology of the tank. In the reply mode, I can't see if you had your location listed in the stats column so I'm not sure if you are in the USA or where. I know the UK is strict on selling drugs to fish keepers but in the USA and probably Canada, you can get PraziPro or PraziQ or other drugs with Praziquantel in it that will treat for gill flukes.

As a temporary measure, you could add 1 teaspoon of salt per gallon (0.1%) to your tank. Remove some tank water and mix the salt in with it first and then slowly add the solution back to the tank. Do not let the salt solution go directly into your filter intake(s). Salt will not kill the good bacteria at the 0.1% level but if the stronger solution gets into the filter media it would kill the good bacteria. The "chloride" part of salt (NaCl - Sodium Chloride) helps with the gill function in goldfish so it makes their gills more efficient but it's only a temporary fix if the fish have other problems so do not consider this a permanent solution. If you have live plants, many of them do not do well in salty water.