help - fish

I got a few pet fish unexpectedly ... I've never had fish before. I think one of them is dying, it's a little goldfish, he used to be active but now he just stays in the same place and doesn't move. He's been doing that since last night. He used to gobble up the food but yesterday and today he didn't eat any. I don't want him to die, he's too cute. Any idea on what's wrong with him, how to help? I feed them once a day, a sprinkle of "tropical fish flakes", enough for them to finish in about 30 seconds. Am I feeding too much? Too little? Wrong kind of food? Maybe the water's too warm? The other goldfish is fine and the suckerfish is fine too, just the little guy looks like he's having trouble The suckerfish actually had its mouth on the little goldfish like it was sucking his blood, which made me sick so I shooed it away. Help!

 

I think it's a gonner unless you have another tank.

 

why, how would another tank help? what if I filled a plastic container with water and put him in there?

 

cut up some prozac and put it in the tank. he sounds depressed.











Do NOT listen to me.... no that you ever would.

 

I've had fish for many years and learned a valuable lesson early on: fish do NOT need a reason to die.

If you're really intent on saving the fish (which might be impossible anyway...see above), you need to set up a hospital tank. You'll need to get some medication from your local pet store, heat the water warmer than usual and keep the fish isolated in this tank until A. better B. dead. If you keep the sick fish with the healthy fish, you'll likely have three dead fish. Best of luck to you.

 

*nodding head*

Yep two approaches to fish keeping...

#1 (mine) Fill the tank with new fish....enjoy....replace fish as required....

#2 (Lady Valeria) Fill the tank with new fish

Monitor water quality, all four levels Ph, acidity, nitrites, nitrates, activate advanced chemistry set, as required, change water weekly if not daily..

Name all the fish, develope anthromorphic personality attributes to them all.

Worry as each one succumbs to societal interaction, harrassment, environmental stress, or maybe something it had when they loaded the plane in South America.


Your call.....good luck!

Gold fish are actually ill suited to community tanks as they are 'oily' compared to tropicals........more harmful to the tropicals though, strange he's having trouble......

There is a fishchat you know.......she goes there to talk about oscars!

 

I haven't been changing the water at all since I got them... about a month ago. I'm going to put him in a bucket and hope he gets better

 

Your guess about temp may be spot on, they'll get less active when cold.....you need a heater and an independent thermometer..


You have a 10 gal tank with filtration or a fishbowl with static water?

You DID use declorinator in the tap water, or distilled right?

 

Since you feed the fish daily, I'm guessing its the water.

Couple years ago, we also got a fish, we knew nothing about taking care of them. What we did was get water from the faucet and it dies within a few hours. My sister cried so they bought a new fish, put it in the same water, it died again. We forgot that there is salt in it so we just put a mineral water and it survived.

Your water might be acidic if it came from a faucet.

 

I'm not sure how big it is, maybe 5 gallons, with a filter. no thermometer

...

 

Oh man, a month is way too long!

He's suffering from elevated nitrates in the water due to chemical breakdown of his own waste material, also un eaten food...


Temporarily move him in the water he is in, make up some fresh and let it satbilize a few hours then introduce him to it by putting him in a bag with old water...float the bag 15 minutes to equalize temp, avoiding thermal shack ......

Then pour the old bag thru a net and just put the fish into the new water!

 

I don't want to rain on your parade, but sticking a sick fish in a bucket of tap water is akin to flushing it down the toilet...just takes longer. You'll have to get fish meds, a hospital tank, heater, etc. if you want to even try.

 

Fish can die for many reasons, but one of the biggest is contamination of the water

Fish waste creates ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, and other chemicals. Bacteria build up over time in the filter and in the rocks that eat this bacteria. This takes 4-6 weeks. Put too many fish in too quick, and the ammonia builds up and kills the fish

Too high Ph can kill fish

Too many contaminants can kill fish

But one root cause keeps coming up - stuff in the water.

So, one way to help an ailing fish is to do partial water changes each day. Get the stuff you put in the water that makes it tank-safe (it neutralizes chlorine, etc). Change maybe 30-50% of the water every day for a week. Try to get the temp as close as to what's in there when you change it out or the fish may be shocked a bit.

A little salt-water salt is good thing. A teaspoon or two per 10 gallon acts as an antiseptic - yes I mean with freshwater fish - it won't hurt, it will help.

A hospital tank is not a bad idea but you MUST change 1/3 to 1/2 the water every 1-2 days - there will not be the good bacteria built up and if you put him in there without changing water, he will just get worse and die.

I'd suggest putting 1tsp of salt per 10 gallons in the tank with all the fish. Change 1/2 the water immediately and use some water-prep before putting it in. I would stay away from medication unless you notice some specific symptoms, or if you feel the need to do something, get a cure-all like Maracyn or just ask at the pet store what they think. DON'T treat the whole tank if he has other fish in there with him, unless you cant get another tank set up.

Goldfish are one of the most hardy kinds of fish. If any fish can make a comeback, a goldfish will!

 

And DON'T use straight tap water. Go buy some distilled or filtered water. Doesn't have to be fancy, just buy some gallon jugs of water from Wal-Mart.

 

Tap water has CLORINE in it to make it safe for us humans, killing all microbacterial activity...that's your trouble with fresh water ..

They have books on aquariums you know, just a little reading will have you growing monsters in no time!

Also important to pick species that get along temperament wise.....

There's charts and graphs all that stuff...

I'll hang around, Lady Valeria's all into this stuff now......

ON a positive note you can take that old water, loaded with nitrates and water your roses.........MAN! stand back! They grow like CRAZY!!!!!

 

FerrariChat to the fish rescue! LOL!

*English siren running in the background*



While you go for water I'll tell about Valeria's 14" oscar....she came home the other day he had jumped OUT of the 100 gallon tank and laid on the floor until dry, and turned BLACK.......

She called me screaming hysterically, I thought she was being mugged, totally unable to comprehend her screaming.....

 

Also its hard to UNDERfeed a fish, very easy to OVERfeed them.

A pinch every 2-3 days is enough. Its very hard to get used to this, but trust me. The fish should be HUNGRY and come swimming up when its' feedin' time. Anything they don't eat real quick is just gonna decompose (releasing toxins in the process).

 

Well oscars come from South America where the Oronaco river goes from flood stage to drought conditions anually......

So,



She threw the seemingly dead dry oscar back into the tank....he floats around a few seconds.........then starts BREATHING water again!

Slowly over the next few hours...millions of air bubbles left his skin as it rehydrated and reslimed itself ...he gradually regaind color and vibrancy...

And today is back to his cranky ol' self!

We duct taped the tank lids though....I'm not going thru THAT again!

The moral: Do NOT name the fish! LOL!

 

..exactly right.......2 - 3 days for a fish is no big deal......and just a pinch unless there's a bunch of them in there....

Or it's a 14" oscar!

 

I've kept fish for almost 20 years. Sounds like he's a gonner. The problem with medication for fish is that for most illnesses the fish needs to injest the meds. Putting meds in the water won't work. You must soak the food in the medication and then if the fish is not eating you must "force feed" it. However, your situation sounds like bad water, as everyone else has mentioned. I do a partial (30%) water change every month, then again my tank is 130 gallons with a biological filter.

If you don't have any of the chlorine removal junk you can airate the water (make lots of bubbles) which will help remove the chlorine from the tank. What kind of filter do you have? Biological or mechanical? A Bio filter will break down the amonia and actually works better the dirtier it is (to a point). I would suggest the water changes and a slime coat (which also removes chlorine). What other fish do you have? Gold fish are cold water fish while most others are tropical, not a good idea to mix the two. Hope he makes it!

 

Webby,

Why don't you take a couple of pictures and post 'em

 

As mentioned really the best way is to stabilize the filtration THEN add the fish......

 

Hey Bubba, what do you keep besides the Oscar? I've got Africans, mostly from Tanganikya, some from Lake Malawi.

 

There's a whole thread in the So Cal section of furry F-chat residents waiting on the outcome here. Details, man! We need details.

Sorry to hear; the advice in the thread is spot on. My Father had two 1ft long goldfish that started out pinky size and hung around for many years kept at his office. Both splashed out during the quake in '94 and lived on until I got out of the service in '00. They would both cram their heads into the corner of the tank you were near both fish trying to occupy the same space and wiggle back hello every AM before going back to lazy swimming. I swore they thought they were dogs.

 

Yeah it's had the previous owner's distilled water for the past month but a few days ago when I was moving it some of it splashed out and I filled it back up out of the tap... was probably about 5-10% tap water, wish I hadn't done that

Well he just died I bought a gallon of distilled water and a plastic container and put him in. He was already completely on his side when I put him in and he didn't last much longer. I guess the important thing now is to keep the other two alive ... I hate the suckerfish now though after it tried to eat the tiny one. I never did get around to naming any of them... poor little baby, why did it have to be the cute one? RIP

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