Goldfish Can't Find Food!

[sallyann]

I have a goldfish that I have owned for 10 years, his tank mate died about 2 months ago, I have upgraded him to a 50 litre tank, he had been in a 16 litre before, way too small, since joining the forum I have learnt so much, and now test the water and change 25% every week, everything in the tank is ok , I feed him one flake of food on a morning and one at night, with one pea once a week, and occasional bloodworm in gel. The trouble is he struggles to get the flake food from the water surface, it goes round and round in the water current which is not very much, he gets very frustrated. Should i soak the food first? I suppose it will sink eventually, he has popeye on one eye, probably due to bad water over the years, I used to switch the filter off every night and rinse it out in tap water, the tank must have been cycling for years, the popeye does not seem to bother him, will this effect his vision? He is much happier in his new tank and much more active. He is about 6 inches long including tail

 

[Miss Wiggle]

the pop eye should be treatable sallyanne, pop to your lfs and pick up a med for it, now that the water is good you'll be able to cure it with some meds fairly easily.

regarding the food, there's lots of sinking foods you can get, look for some tetra prima sinking granules as a start. or with the flake food, when you get a pinch of it to feed him, instead of dropping it on the water surface keep it between your fingers and put them under the water then release the flakes just under the water's surface. then they should fill with water and sink so he can get them.

 

[sallyann]

the pop eye should be treatable sallyanne, pop to your lfs and pick up a med for it, now that the water is good you'll be able to cure it with some meds fairly easily.

regarding the food, there's lots of sinking foods you can get, look for some tetra prima sinking granules as a start. or with the flake food, when you get a pinch of it to feed him, instead of dropping it on the water surface keep it between your fingers and put them under the water then release the flakes just under the water's surface. then they should fill with water and sink so he can get them.

Thanks miss wiggle, I will try sinking pellets, as regard the popeye, I have had a look on the forum and it can be caused by many things, I think it is due to the bad water over the years, his other eye has a scarring on it, looks like a white patch, like cacification,poor thing, wish i had found this forum sooner!

Anyway it said to use interpet number 9 for bacterial infections, I do have some of that, as I was treating my other fish with it, I am reluctant to use it as I don't want to kill off the bacteria in the tank. What do you suggest, this goldfish has been tret with that medication before as I was using it for my other goldfish in the main tank before I moved the sick one to a small bowl for treatment.

I have also noticed today that one of his tail fins is slightly shredded, not badly, just the edge, could this be bacterial?
I still have my old tank, maybe I could add some water and treat him in their, just using some of my big tanks water, what do you think?
He is fine otherwise, healthy and swimming around much more than he used to, I don't want to loose him now, after all this effert, i bought him a new filter this week, same as the old one, and used my exsisting sponge with it, the old was getting pretty noisy and i felt it was not performing.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

my experience with bacterial meds is that while they can wipe out the filter bacteria colony, they rarely ever do so. perhaps in a newly cycled tank but in an established tank you're unlikley to experience problems.

yes you could move him to another tank for treatment, but then you have nothing feeding the bacteria in the main tank so i'd die off anyway.

i would personally just go ahead with the treatment without being too concerned (just make sure you monitor ammonia and nitrite so if there is a blip you catch it early enough to sort it) but if you are worried then i would move some of the media into a filter on the small tank and 'feed' the media with ammonia while treating the main tank. Then if you do find there's a problem with your bacteria colony you have some mature media on hand which will fix it.

 

[sallyann]

ok, thanks, I am a bit worried over this shredding tail fin, I have now noticed that one of his fins underneath has some shredding, I did a test yesterday and thought i could detect slight ammonia, but it is difficult trying to say for definate what the colour matches up to, i think it was yellow, my son thought it had a slight green tinge! Anyway I vacuming the gravel and changed the water, about 30%, tested the water again, and it was exactly the same, so i tend to think it was no ammonia, certainly no nitrite. I had a reply from Colin T last night and he told me to put aquarium salt in the water, which i did, but I am not keen on this solution, I know you mentioned not to use it. I thought the fish was a bit listless today, so I did another 30% water change and vacuming the gravel again, it did perk up a bit then, tested the water, no ammonia again.
It is a bit of a mystery, the only thing I have changed is a new filter, exactly the same as my old one, and I used the sponge from the old filter, I felt the old filter was underperforming and getting a bit noisy. I rinsed the new filter out in tap water before using it too.
The fish is active for some of the time, then lies very still at the bottom, top fin down, if I move the lid, it gets up, searching for food, and swims around, maybe it just needs plenty of rest, it is 10 years old.
What should I do now? and how should i treat it? I can continue with water changes daily, I don't have room to set up another tank,

 

[Miss Wiggle]

well there's one possibility which I hope is not the case..... but may be. Living in poor water conditions for the last 10 years could have caused some damage to him, things like ammonia poisoning sometimes don't kill a fish, but cause permanent damage to their respiratory systems. I had a fish like this, we had some tank problems when he was young, he survived them but was always a bit behind from that point on, he never grew to full size and died a few years earlier than he should have done. So while I hope this isn't the case, it would be unfair of me not to warn you that it may be he is damaged by the previous problems and will have a shorter life span than usually expected.

Now that being said, this could be wrong and he may make a full recovery, so lets hope and aim for that! The laying on the bottom is also a common symptom of bacterial infections so I would start with an anti-bac medication immediatley. The test kits can be a touch tricky to read, when you take a test, hold the test tube against the white card of the colour chart and hold it up to a light, that will get the best result, even then thought they aren't always clear. If you suspect ammonia though you should be doing daily water changes, just remember to top up the anti-bac meds afterwards. Don't be too concerned over the media dying off, it's fairly unlikley that this will happen, and if it did I'm not too far away from you so I could sort you out with some mature media within a couple of days.

If there is ammonia it'll probably just be a mini cycle, sometimes it happens when you move filters around despite your best endevours.

Torn fins should heal fairly easily providing there is no underlying problem, if they don't start to heal up with the anti bac treatment and water changes then you can try melafix, it's a natural treatment (based on tea tree oil) which aids recovery when fish get torn fins or injuries.

 

[sallyann]

well there's one possibility which I hope is not the case..... but may be. Living in poor water conditions for the last 10 years could have caused some damage to him, things like ammonia poisoning sometimes don't kill a fish, but cause permanent damage to their respiratory systems. I had a fish like this, we had some tank problems when he was young, he survived them but was always a bit behind from that point on, he never grew to full size and died a few years earlier than he should have done. So while I hope this isn't the case, it would be unfair of me not to warn you that it may be he is damaged by the previous problems and will have a shorter life span than usually expected.

Now that being said, this could be wrong and he may make a full recovery, so lets hope and aim for that! The laying on the bottom is also a common symptom of bacterial infections so I would start with an anti-bac medication immediatley. The test kits can be a touch tricky to read, when you take a test, hold the test tube against the white card of the colour chart and hold it up to a light, that will get the best result, even then thought they aren't always clear. If you suspect ammonia though you should be doing daily water changes, just remember to top up the anti-bac meds afterwards. Don't be too concerned over the media dying off, it's fairly unlikley that this will happen, and if it did I'm not too far away from you so I could sort you out with some mature media within a couple of days.

If there is ammonia it'll probably just be a mini cycle, sometimes it happens when you move filters around despite your best endevours.

Torn fins should heal fairly easily providing there is no underlying problem, if they don't start to heal up with the anti bac treatment and water changes then you can try melafix, it's a natural treatment (based on tea tree oil) which aids recovery when fish get torn fins or injuries.
Ok, I will try the anti bac meds, I have some interpet anit bac No 9, is that ok? I was using it for the other fish if you remember, thanks for the offer of the filter media, that would be great, if it dies off, I would like to get this sorted as i go away on 8th July.
It is difficult reading the tests, but due to no nitrite, I am pretty sure it has no ammonia, my son got me thinking, as I was sure it was yellow, his eyesight is not brilliant though!!!

 

[sallyann]

Hi miss wiggle,

Can I use interpet anti bac no 9 as treatment , I have some of that, as I was treating other fish with this, as you said he amy just be too damaged but worth a try, he is still eating, and is keen on food.
I want to get this sorted before I go away on 8th July, which is 2 weeks tomorrow.
Thanks for media offer.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yup, use the number 9, that's the right stuff.

hopefully it will be! Oooh you'll get me all giddy, that's 2 days before my birthday...... it's coming round fast this year!! ha ha

 

[sallyann]

yup, use the number 9, that's the right stuff.

hopefully it will be! Oooh you'll get me all giddy, that's 2 days before my birthday...... it's coming round fast this year!! ha ha

Birthdays do come around far too fast!!
Hope you have a good one, going go add the meds now, will keep you posted, no doubt I will need to ask you another question before long!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

make sure you let us know how you get on

 

[sallyann]

make sure you let us know how you get on

will do, many thanks

 

[sallyann]

Ok, just added meds, got to do it again another 4 days, then wait another 4 days before doing it again, but it is a 2 dose treatment so should be some improvement after 2nd dose. Fish looks a bit livelier today, could be water changes, will the treatment have an effect on the popeye? I don't know whether it is popeye, certainly looks like it, but because he has had it for years with no change makes me wonder, after the 2nd does then the 4 days wait, do I need to do a water change to remove remainder of meds. Should I be testing the water daily now I have added meds too?, it does say on the packet that it will not harm bacterai in the filter.
See, knew it would not be long before I needed to ask more questions!!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

well i'd much rather you asked than just guessed at it, this way you can give your goldie the best possible chance.

monitor water quality daily, if you see any ammonia or nitrite (or suspect there might be some) then do a water change, just remember to top up the tank with meds. So if you do a 50% water change, (if i rememeber correctly your tanks 45l isn't it?) then work out the dosage required to treat 23l of water and add that to the tank after the water change.

if ammonia and nitrite are fine then no need to do a water change between treatments (unless the pack explicitly states it..... i can't remember all the instructions although i have used that med before).

thats good if the med say's it won't harm the filter bacteria, still monitor it though to be on the safe side.

i agree i'm not sure if it is pop eye as it's been going on so long, without getting a good look at him myself it's hard to say! If it is pop eye then i think the anti bac should cure it.

 

[sallyann]

Thanks for that, I still don't have the confidence with meds, and they always worry me when I add them to the tank!
It did say to do a 30% water change at the end of treatment or before adding any different meds, will check the water tonight, if I get chance, or in the morning, probably better.
it will be interesting to see if the popeye improves.
My son thinks I am obsessive about this goldfish, and thinks it has replaced him now that he is at Uni, he thinks it has given me a purpose in life!! Cheeky monkey!
I am like this with all my animals though, 3 horses and a cat, my welsh mountain pony is 36 year young!!