Goldfish in Distress

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EliK

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I have a 20 gallon tank which until now has been home to a comet goldfish (3" long + tail, I've had it close to 1 year) which my 3 year old son brought home from school, and a 4" pleco.
Two weeks ago, I added two 2" fantail goldfish, which I rescued from a 2L chlorinated goldfish bowl! I knew my relatively small tank wouldn't be great for that number of fish, and that regular and fancy goldfish don't always do well together, but I felt they would be better off than in the fishbowl.

After about 8 days, the old comet goldfish started swimming erratically, occasionally showing something like spinning disease, and occasionally drifting with fins clamped. This did not strike me at first, because I have seen similar behaviors from it occasionally in the past as well.

Yesterday, my power went out, and the fish did not have a filter or air pump for about 24 hours. During that time, the 2 new fish began drifting as well, and even when they swam, it was with the top fin clamped. It has been more than 24 hours since the power was restored, but they have not improved. Today, both of the fantails spent most of the morning drifting vertically near the top of the tank, frequently with their mouths out of the water. They barely swim, and one one of them ended up behind the heater in a corner of the tank, I had to help it get out. When I did a water change, the other one got caught by the very weak siphon I was using - something I have never had happen in all my years of fishkeeping.

None of the fish have any visible injuries.

The pleco has also been behaving differently than in the past - but not necessarily negatively.
It used to spend almost all its time under an artificial log at the bottom of the tank, coming out only at night, and even then, rarely. In the last two weeks, it has frequently come out during the day, and usually latches on to the front or side of the tank, moving around often. I even see it actually swimming on occasion - actually swimming in the open water across the middle of the tank, not hugging the sides - something I have never seen any of my 4 plecos do.

20 gallon tank
160g/hr waterfall-type filter (hanging on the side of the tank)
50w heater
minimal artificial decor

72-74'F (fluctuates over the day)
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
<20ppm nitrate
unknown gh
 
I have a 20 gallon tank which until now has been home to a comet goldfish (3" long + tail, I've had it close to 1 year) which my 3 year old son brought home from school, and a 4" pleco.
Two weeks ago, I added two 2" fantail goldfish, which I rescued from a 2L chlorinated goldfish bowl! I knew my relatively small tank wouldn't be great for that number of fish, and that regular and fancy goldfish don't always do well together, but I felt they would be better off than in the fishbowl.

After about 8 days, the old comet goldfish started swimming erratically, occasionally showing something like spinning disease, and occasionally drifting with fins clamped. This did not strike me at first, because I have seen similar behaviors from it occasionally in the past as well.

Yesterday, my power went out, and the fish did not have a filter or air pump for about 24 hours. During that time, the 2 new fish began drifting as well, and even when they swam, it was with the top fin clamped. It has been more than 24 hours since the power was restored, but they have not improved. Today, both of the fantails spent most of the morning drifting vertically near the top of the tank, frequently with their mouths out of the water. They barely swim, and one one of them ended up behind the heater in a corner of the tank, I had to help it get out. When I did a water change, the other one got caught by the very weak siphon I was using - something I have never had happen in all my years of fishkeeping.

None of the fish have any visible injuries.

The pleco has also been behaving differently than in the past - but not necessarily negatively.
It used to spend almost all its time under an artificial log at the bottom of the tank, coming out only at night, and even then, rarely. In the last two weeks, it has frequently come out during the day, and usually latches on to the front or side of the tank, moving around often. I even see it actually swimming on occasion - actually swimming in the open water across the middle of the tank, not hugging the sides - something I have never seen any of my 4 plecos do.

20 gallon tank
160g/hr waterfall-type filter (hanging on the side of the tank)
50w heater
minimal artificial decor

72-74'F (fluctuates over the day)
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
<20ppm nitrate
unknown gh
Hnm...this is rather strange, normally fish drift when water conditions are bad and/or temperature is not right. Maybe check your water conditions again. Maybe your fish were stressed because of the cold temperature and that's why their mouths were outside the water, which reminds me that when fish lack oxygen or ideal temperatures they get inactive and put their mouths outside the water to help them to breath.
 
maybe something is bothering them, all of your fish when the y grow up need to be upgraded, the bigger fish may be hurting them. it will be best to move the comets in a pond with maybe the plecos and the fancies in a huge tank.
 
I have a 20 gallon tank which until now has been home to a comet goldfish (3" long + tail, I've had it close to 1 year) which my 3 year old son brought home from school, and a 4" pleco.
Two weeks ago, I added two 2" fantail goldfish, which I rescued from a 2L chlorinated goldfish bowl! I knew my relatively small tank wouldn't be great for that number of fish, and that regular and fancy goldfish don't always do well together, but I felt they would be better off than in the fishbowl.

After about 8 days, the old comet goldfish started swimming erratically, occasionally showing something like spinning disease, and occasionally drifting with fins clamped. This did not strike me at first, because I have seen similar behaviors from it occasionally in the past as well.

Yesterday, my power went out, and the fish did not have a filter or air pump for about 24 hours. During that time, the 2 new fish began drifting as well, and even when they swam, it was with the top fin clamped. It has been more than 24 hours since the power was restored, but they have not improved. Today, both of the fantails spent most of the morning drifting vertically near the top of the tank, frequently with their mouths out of the water. They barely swim, and one one of them ended up behind the heater in a corner of the tank, I had to help it get out. When I did a water change, the other one got caught by the very weak siphon I was using - something I have never had happen in all my years of fishkeeping.

None of the fish have any visible injuries.

The pleco has also been behaving differently than in the past - but not necessarily negatively.
It used to spend almost all its time under an artificial log at the bottom of the tank, coming out only at night, and even then, rarely. In the last two weeks, it has frequently come out during the day, and usually latches on to the front or side of the tank, moving around often. I even see it actually swimming on occasion - actually swimming in the open water across the middle of the tank, not hugging the sides - something I have never seen any of my 4 plecos do.

20 gallon tank
160g/hr waterfall-type filter (hanging on the side of the tank)
50w heater
minimal artificial decor

72-74'F (fluctuates over the day)
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
<20ppm nitrate
unknown gh
I remember a few years ago I had to do a 90% water change and for that I had to turn off my heater. When I added the rested water back in the tank and I turned on the heater, the water was cold as it was winter so some of the fish were drifting and they stayed near the surface. But then once it was all back to normal, they also went back to normal except for a vibrating molly but after a few weeks she got better.
 
Probably a protozoan infection brought in by the new fish.
Losing power for 24 hours won't help.

--------------------
Post pictures of the fish.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a 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.
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.

Add some salt, (see directions below).

--------------------
SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 2 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate (4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will affect some plants and some snails. The lower dose rate (1-2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will not affect fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.
 
I had some issues uploading my photos yesterday, so now I have two updates.
In the meantime, I've continued doing water changes and begun adding salt - Thank you, Colin_T

Yesterday morning, I found the two fantails sheltering behind the filter, but both swam out almost immediately when I turned on the tank light to get a better picture.

P3020696.JPG

This morning, the orange one was drifting near the top of the tank, and the white one was drifting vertically near the bottom, head down.
It seemed to be going in circles around the filter intake pipe, and struggling to keep away from the suction. This leaves me with a cache-22 - I can't lower the filter, because it won't efficiently clean the water - more important now than ever - but the suction also seems to be damaging to the now much weaker fish.
The white fantail also seems to have sustained significant damage to its tailfins over night, and both fantails appear skinnier than when I got them.
Here are come photos, and a video from this morning:
P3020701.JPG

My video wasn't uploading properly to the forum, so I stuck it here:

And here's the comet, which has been acting relatively normally:
P3020713.JPG

The pleco seems completely unaffected by all of this.
 
Reduce the aeration in the tank. It is creating too much water movement for them. Even if you raise the airstone up so it's only a couple of inches under the surface, it should reduce the water movement a bit.

--------------------
You can put a sponge over the intake of the power filter and that will stop the fish being drawn into it. You can buy round/ cylindrical sponges for some brands of internal power filter and these fit nicely over the intake strainer of most external power filters. If you can't find a cylindrical sponge, just wrap some normal sponge around the intake strainer and use a couple of rubber bands to hold it on.

--------------------
What are you feeding them and how often do you feed them?
If you only feed them dry food, add some frozen (but defrosted) food to their diet. You can use raw or cooked prawn, fish, squid, daphnia, brineshrimp, bloodworms, mysis shrimp and marine mix (a combination of prawn, fish & squid). These can be bought from a pet shop and the prawn, squid and fish can be bought from a supermarket or fishing store in the bait freezer.

Feed them a couple of times a day. Give them dry food first and then feed them as much frozen (but defrosted) food as they can eat. Remove any uneaten food or the pleco can eat it.

Also monitor their poop, is it coloured or white?
Coloured is good, white stringy poop is bad.
 
I usually feed dry food (flakes, pellets, freeze-dried worms or daphnia), frozen bloodworms, and occasionally live brine shrimp
I'll see what else I can get

Thanks for the tips about water movement

Their poop is usually long, firm strings, colored green or brown
 

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