Ping pong fish

[Dane.w]

I got a ping pong fish about 2-3 days ago and she’s doing ok but she seems reluctant to go to the top when I give them food, I have to feed it to her or let it sink, and she is looks like she’s breathing fast or is that normal for ping pong fish

 

[Barry Tetra]

Can we have a picture? or video of the fish? What is your water parameters?

 

[Salty&Onion]

What are your water parameters? Do you have still the ammonia spike and high nitrite? This breathing fast could be caused by it.

 

[Dane.w]

Ammonia-0.5-1
Nitrate-0.5-1
Nitrite-20-40

 

[Dane.w]

Ammonia-0.5-1
Nitrite-0.5-1
Nitrate-20-40

 

[Salty&Onion]

Yes, high NH3 NO2 and NO3 caused this. Do 75% water changes until these levels will go low.

 

[Wills]

How long has the tank been set up? What other fish do you have in the tank and how big is it? What sort of filter do you have too? How long ago did you do a water change?

Because of the way these Goldfish have been bred it can cause them swimming problems and they will often take the easiest route - eg if your tank is decorated at the lower levels it will break up the current where as if the top is open the current will be stronger from the filter.

It may be that the swimming behaviour is not reason for concern, but any levels of ammonia or nitrite in your tank is definitely reason for concern.

Wills

 

[Salty&Onion]

How long has the tank been set up? What other fish do you have in the tank and how big is it? What sort of filter do you have too? How long ago did you do a water change?

Because of the way these Goldfish have been bred it can cause them swimming problems and they will often take the easiest route - eg if your tank is decorated at the lower levels it will break up the current where as if the top is open the current will be stronger from the filter.

It may be that the swimming behaviour is not reason for concern, but any levels of ammonia or nitrite in your tank is definitely reason for concern.

Wills

There are also two orandas in the tank and its a 40 gallon one. Info taken from other threads.

 

[Dane.w]

I put 150ml if tetra safe start in and it said not to do water changes for a week so should I do one or not

 

[Dane.w]

about 2/3 weeks now 2 orandas and the ping pong fish, 40 gallons, I made the filter myself (water in, through sponge media, through biological media, rings, water pump to pp the water out) water change was 2 days ago and I put some tetra safe start in 150ml

ammonia0.5-1
Nitrite 0.5-1
nitratres 20-40

 

[Wills]

Personally Im not a fan of bottled bacteria products, I think its more important to keep your ammonia and nitrite down for the health of your fish as it is essentially a poison to them. So best to keep the water as clean as possible until your filter can cope with the waste produced by your fish, the best way to do this is water changes and keep the tank clean.

With goldfish its important to keep your substrate clean and as free from waste organics as possible. It would be worth looking at maybe some plants too? Goldfish do dig so make sure you get some plant weights but something like Hygrophila 'Siamensis 53B' grows incredibly fast and will really help in a tank like this - once you are through the ammonia and nitrite issues with goldfish your nitrates could stay high and fast growing plants like this will really help. You may be able to get this in a local shop but if not there are loads of good online plant stores like Riverwood Aquatics, Aquarium Gardens, Scaped Nature, Aqua Essentials and Pro Shrimp.

Wills

 

[Dane.w]

I’ll do a water change immediately and my water is at 180ppm for general hardness so is there any plants that can still do well in that

 

[Wills]

Yeah loads of them will do ok at that - mine is 320ppm and I've had success with a range of easy to grow plants. The Siamensis 53B took over a 4 foot tank once - had to take out a carrier bag full a week just to see the fish!