Hi! Please Help My Sick Goldfish!

[greenrebekah]

Hi! I have a sick fancy tail goldfish, here is some history on him, about 3 years ago he started swimming in circles, then lied at the bottom of the tank for about a week, didn't move, didn't eat. nothing....then one of his eyes fell off and he got better..
well now he has started doing the same thing, swimming in circles, won't really eat...kinda just hangs in the water...looks like he's dead but he's not....he also has red streaks on his fins....he's been doing this off and on for a month, The nitrites, nitrates, and ammonia levels are all normal. I treated the tank with pima fix I believe, and did a 50% water change afterward, then he got better for about a week...now he is back to this....I just did a complete water change and put them in to a different tank....the tank is 29 gallons....his tankmates are 3 tinfoil barbs, an upside down catfish, chocolate Pleco, and a larger fancy tail gold fish...all of the other fish act fine except the other goldfish also has red streaks...any ideas? thanks! -Rebekah

 

[LauraFrog]

This is odd. How big is the goldfish and is he one of those strains with the compressed body shape? In some fancy goldfish strains (especially the ones where the body is shortened or compressed) they are prone to swim bladder problems which can cause a loss of balance, so you see things like fish swimming upside down, sideways, or in circles (or occasionally lying on the bottom or floating on the top.) But that shouldn't cause red streaking in the fins, or refusal to eat.

Red streaks in the fins could be septicaemia. Any sign of scales falling off, bleeding around the edges of the scales or the mouth? Are the gills red and inflamed and is his breathing laboured?
Also which country are you in? Availability of antibiotics depends on where you are, and if it's septicaemia you'll probably need them.

The tank is a bit overstocked, but not ridiculously so... if you're maintaining it properly and the filtration is good, that shouldn't be a problem. When you say ammonia and nitrites are normal, do you mean zero?

 

[greenrebekah]

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They don't really have a compressed body, just normal I guess....with fancy tails, and the really sick one has bubble eyes (well, eye now) he is about 3 inches without his tail. He does have some missing scales (not too many) but I'm not sure if they're falling off or if the other one is picking them off....none of the other fish are having any problems, except for the other goldfish with the streaks...I am in the U.S.A. I don't see any problems with their gills...and you have to look pretty close to even see the red streaks....doesn't seem to have any breathing problems either...