Sick Goldfish

[stephanieross]

My goldfish is 7 years old and has been healthy up until a few days ago. It is now floating on its side and has got fin rot in its tail. I have put in 4 teaspoons of salt to see if that will help. The fish is now floating higher up in the tank but is still on its side. The tail is sort of shredded.

Please give me any advice you have on how to help my poor little fishie!!

 

[black angel]

Hi, sorry your fish isnt feeling too good and its not through old age that he is doing this, as goldies can live 20+ years.
We need to learn a bit more about his environment so if you could answer as many of these questions as you can then that would be great.

Tank size and how long has it been running.
filtration used and is there enough surface agitation.
How often, how much and how do you do water changes.
are you using a gravel vac.
What dechlorinator/additives are you using
What are you feeding him on
what medications have you added recently
how big is he
any other tankmates, and if so what

 

[stephanieross]

He is in a small tank but my mum won't let me get a bigger tank. The tank is 12 inches long by 6inches deep and the fish is about 5 inches from nose to end of his tail.

We use TapSafe to dechlorinate the tap water and we have added internal bacteria medicine today to try and help.

There is no filter or powerhead in the tank. The water is still.

We feed him fish flakes every night and clean the tank out when necessary.


Please help!

PS I'm only 10 years old and can't afford many new things.

 

[black angel]

I'm sorry but being in that small a tank isnt doing him any favours and he needs to be moved to something much bigger. Until you can sort him out all i can suggest is 100% water changes each day to see if he comes round.
It does sound like he has a bacterial infection brought about by the water not being good and until you get him something bigger then really there isnt anything more i can suggest. Sorry, i hope you can save him.
If you get your mum to read this then i would suggest getting a 20 gallon with a fluval 3 for filtration.
good luck and maybe someone else can suggest something to help.

I do think he has a bacterial infection but it could also be because the ammonia is too high causing poisoning. I wouldnt suggest using the medication with the salt. The salt will only help if there was a parasite present or the fish had trouble with the nitrite level.