Any idea what's up with my goldie?

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

Thank you! After reading that, it looks like I might have better results by moving her to the smaller tank so I don't have to fast my other three as well. Do you recommend starting with the fasting first or the peas first?

Didn't you already say that the fish was eating okay?
If so, then I'd go for the fast first and I thought you said you were going to move the fish to your other tank? That would sound like a plan...just remember the stuff in that article about temperatures.

 

[foxgirl158]

Didn't you already say that the fish was eating okay?
If so, then I'd go for the fast first and I thought you said you were going to move the fish to your other tank? That would sound like a plan...just remember the stuff in that article about temperatures.

She was eating fine yesterday, but she didn’t come up to eat today. Yes, I am going to move her to the other tank as soon as possible. I want to test the parameters to make sure they are still ok, and match the temp as close as I can.

 

[foxgirl158]

UPDATE:
Video was taken just before I moved her into the small tank around 1:45 pm CST yesterday. She seemed to be swimming better then, and seems to be swimming better now as well. I will post a video of her in the small tank once it's uploaded. While we're on the subject of treating "swim bladder", should I also treat my regular golden fancy? He's always had some issues with his buoyancy, and I was wondering if it looked like anything I could help or it's just the way it is. Thanks!

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

UPDATE:
Video was taken just before I moved her into the small tank around 1:45 pm CST yesterday. She seemed to be swimming better then, and seems to be swimming better now as well. I will post a video of her in the small tank once it's uploaded. While we're on the subject of treating "swim bladder", should I also treat my regular golden fancy? He's always had some issues with his buoyancy, and I was wondering if it looked like anything I could help or it's just the way it is. Thanks!

We always need to be careful when throwing chemical meds at fish, even if we think we know the problem.
Using chemical medications 'just in case' is rarely a good idea.

Before we go down that route, it would help to make your tank's environment absolutely perfect for your fish...or as close to perfect as you can get it.

• Excellent water chemistry.
• The right temperature.
• The right filtration.
• The right degree of water flow.
• Algae controls in place.
• Suitable security for the fish.
• Ability to keep the substrate clean.
• Live plants.

That might look like a daunting list, but I suspect you'll have most of it already there.

 

[foxgirl158]

We always need to be careful when throwing chemical meds at fish, even if we think we know the problem.
Using chemical medications 'just in case' is rarely a good idea.

Before we go down that route, it would help to make your tank's environment absolutely perfect for your fish...or as close to perfect as you can get it.

• Excellent water chemistry.
• The right temperature.
• The right filtration.
• The right degree of water flow.
• Algae controls in place.
• Suitable security for the fish.
• Ability to keep the substrate clean.
• Live plants.

That might look like a daunting list, but I suspect you'll have most of it already there.

Right! I wasn't talking about meds, I was talking about the fasting regime that I'm doing with the other fish

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

Right! I wasn't talking about meds, I was talking about the fasting regime that I'm doing with the other fish

So if your fish wasn't eating, then it's already 'fasting'. If it was, then perhaps a fast would be in order.

 

[Colin_T]

This isn't a swim bladder problem and there is no cure for true swim bladder problems.

If a fish floats up to the surface when it stops swimming, it usually has air trapped in its intestine. This is common when fish are fed dry floating foods because the fish ingest air when they eat the food. the air travels along the intestine and causes the fish to float. Eventually the air is farted out and the fish can swim normally again.

To see if the problem is caused by air in the intestine, stop feeding dry food for a week and feed live or frozen (but defrosted) food. If the fish swim normally without the dry food, then the problem is air.
If the fish continue to float after a week without dry food, then it has a swim bladder problem.

If a fish sinks to the bottom when it stops swimming, it has a swim bladder problem.

--------------------
Salt does not get removed by carbon. Chemicals like medications and plant fertilisers do get removed with carbon.

--------------------
Temperature is unlikely to be the cause of this because it's a goldfish and they are coldwater fish. If the water is warm enough for a platy and other goldfish, it should be fine for the one in question. Warming the water up a few degrees can sometimes encourage fish to swim around more and eat more, but it should not be the cause.

--------------------
If the fish is eating well then try feeding it more types of food including things like prawn, daphnia, mysis shrimp, brineshrimp, etc. Make sure it gets plenty of plant matter in its diet. Goldfish need plant based foods.

--------------------
What does the fish's poop look like?
If it's white and stringy the fish has an internal problem.
If it's coloured and normal, then the fish's digestive tract is fine.

--------------------
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for one week. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

--------------------
How much salt are you adding to the tank?
You can add 1 to 2 heaped tablespoons of rock salt (aquarium salt) for every 20 litres (5 gallons) of tank water.

 

[mellen]

What floating plants do you recommend? I bought some duckweed & don’t care for how it looks.

planting some pothos outside the tank, with the roots in the tank have done wonders for my nitrate levels.

 

[foxgirl158]

She’s dead. I don’t know why all my fish keep dying like this. Exactly like this. I don’t know what to do. I’m so incredibly sad, she was my favorite fish . I don’t know what to do. How do I stop this.

 

[foxgirl158]

She’s dead. I don’t know why all my fish keep dying like this. Exactly like this. I don’t know what to do. I’m so incredibly sad, she was my favorite fish . I don’t know what to do. How do I stop this.

This is the third goldfish I’ve lost to this. Please, someone help me figure this out so I don’t lose my last one.

 

[FishHobby99]

This is the third goldfish I’ve lost to this. Please, someone help me figure this out so I don’t lose my last one.

I’m so very sorry. I know how you must feel.
How long did you say this group was together? My friend loss two Goldfish. One behaved the way yours did. Sometimes it even swam around & ate, but was on the tank bottom a lot.

She moved it from the tank to a large one gallon jar. It behaved the same & died. Not long after one was gone from the tank. She thinks it suddenly died & the other 2 ate it. Must have been. My first tank had 5 minnows & two seemingly vanished. Unlikely any of the missing fish jumped out. Mine were in covered tank & she searched for hers.

Her other two are doing ok. She does frequent water changes & monitors the water parameters using API. that’s all I know to suggest, is vacuuming the substrate, changing water & doing the API Tests. I haven’t been following your posts closely enough to know if your tank was fully cycled.

 

[foxgirl158]

I’m so very sorry. I know how you must feel.
How long did you say this group was together? My friend loss two Goldfish. One behaved the way yours did. Sometimes it even swam around & ate, but was on the tank bottom a lot.

She moved it from the tank to a large one gallon jar. It behaved the same & died. Not long after one was gone from the tank. She thinks it suddenly died & the other 2 ate it. Must have been. My first tank had 5 minnows & two seemingly vanished. Unlikely any of the missing fish jumped out. Mine were in covered tank & she searched for hers.

Her other two are doing ok. She does frequent water changes & monitors the water parameters using API. that’s all I know to suggest, is vacuuming the substrate, changing water & doing the API Tests. I haven’t been following your posts closely enough to know if your tank was fully cycled.

The original three were together for over a year. The first one to die like this had been added around 6 months later. Yes my tank is fully cycled, it’s been running for just around a year. I do water changes once every week-two weeks, I test every week and vacuum the substrate. I just don’t know what to do anymore.

 

[foxgirl158]

@Byron @Colin_T @Fishmanic @emeraldking @Bruce Leyland-Jones
@AbbeysDad

 

[FishHobby99]

The original three were together for over a year. The first one to die like this had been added around 6 months later. Yes my tank is fully cycled, it’s been running for just around a year. I do water changes once every week-two weeks, I test every week and vacuum the substrate. I just don’t know what to do anymore.

Again, I’m so sorry. idk. Hoping others can offer better advice. Sounds like you’ve done everything right.

 

[foxgirl158]

Ok so,
Please don’t blame me for this. I’m under a ton of stress right now and coming home to her laying on her side behind a plant kinda broke me down.

She’s still alive, a fact which I discovered while going to get her out. But she’s pretty bad. I don’t think she’ll make it until morning. She’s swimming on her side and gasping. Please help me stop this from happening to my last goldfish. I feel terrible. It must be something I’m doing wrong, because all my parameters and stuff are fine. I just don’t want to kill anymore fish. Please help.