we've had this goldfish for quite some time now and we bought him a bigger tank a couple of months ago. it came with a bubble-making filter thing that worked for the first few weeks then stopped working, so we just took it out since he never had one before anyway. a few days ago he was lying on the bottom of his tank and we figured he was gonna die, but we weren't ready to give up that easily so we went to the pet store and asked the guy there, he said that the fish probably needed his water changed because we hadn't changed it yet (usually we would change it when it started looking grimy but it still looked ok), he said sometimes even clean looking water can be full of waste and it could have made him sick. we didn't do a full water change, we got this siphon that lets you change part of it at a time and it also sucks the gravel up and cleans it out so that you don't have to fully change it. we also got a new bubble thing for his tank because it's supposed to keep the water flowing and get bad gasses upto the surface or something. so it's been 3 days and we've done this once a day now and he's moving around a little more now, but when he gets off the ground he swims for a second upside down or sideways then goes to the top of the tank and flips himself right side up before swimming down to the bottom again, or sometimes he looks like he's standing on his head for a few seconds then he swims around to find a place to rest again, like he's lost his sense of direction. when i pour the new water in when i was changing it he would actually start to swim around normally to try and get away from the water as it was pouring in. he just started doing this today, before he was more or less just laying on the ground and moving only slightly. is the fact that he's moving more a good thing or is it bad that he's moving in such a weird way? being that he's a goldfish i don't expect too much but i would be real happy if he could pull through so i['m hoping these are good signs rather than bad, i just don't want to get my hopes up.
You've really got to change the water fully. It involves taking the fish out of the tank and putting them in a baggy filled with water (or some little tank). You can clean the rocks, wash the sides of the tank to get rid of the grime completely, and make sure everything is clean. A warning if you're on city water though. They do add chemicals to the water and you'd probably need some kind of water cleaner.
Speaking from a guy who maintains 3 aquariums (2 tropical 1 coldwater) Do you have any sort of internal or external filter hooked onto the tank? Also do you condition every drop of water you put into his tank via stresscoat or aquaplus? Goldfish need alot of oxygen, more so than tropicals and hooking on more filteration will make your fishy real happy . Even I've got 2 fluval filters for each tank . Also I would check on this page . The erratic swmming may be due to infection http://www.geocities.com/swimbladderhelp/
Is it ich? That's the only fish disease I can think of. http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/ich.htm
i use aquaplus every time i change the water, i'm on town water, i pour it into a jug, put in the aquaplus, and let it sit for a few hours before changing it. are there usually any indicators like spots or color changes in the skin if they have flukes? he's acting most like that since he spends most of his time on the bottom, but he doesn't look any different. i thought they got black spots if there was an infection or something.
What sort of goldfish is he ? Is he a: Comet, Shubunkin, black moor, veiltail , lion head or pearlscale. Some breeds of goldies are more prone to infection or external water conditions . Check your nitrite and nitrate levels (you can get your local petstore to do that for you if you don't have a test kit) and perhaps try a 70% water change . You said you just bought a tank for him right? Did you know you have to keep the tank uninhabited for a couple of weeks before you put the fish in otherwise the good and bad bacteria balance will unstabalize with lethal consequences ? http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-cycling.html this website will tell you more about it . Also you haven't answered my first question. Do you have any sort of internal or external filter mounted?
there's a little filter in the tank with a sponge in it that sucks water in through a tube and it comes out through this nozzle and keeps the water flowing. it's a pretty small tank. we didn't put the fish right in the new tank when we got it, it came with directions for filling the tank and letting it sit and i'm sure it sat there for at least a week before we put him in it, i can't remember how long exactly because my wife was on vacation at that point and i was still working so she did most of it. it was running the filter and everything i know that. before this he spent probably 3 years in a bowl with no filter or anything and he was doing just fine. i just changed his water by sucking out more than half of it and putting fresh water in again. *edit* i'm not sure what type of goldfish he is, my wife got him before we were together. he just looks like a regular orange goldfish. i did a google image search of each of those types and he looks most like a comet.
Those aren't proper filters, just glorified airstones with a sponge medium and are only really meant for people keeping bettas who don't usually require much space or with aquarists who want a failsafe backup if their internal filters clog up overnight but they are definately NOT adequate for use with anything larger like goldfish who produce more waste than most tropicals (Oscars and giant gouramis being an exception) . I'd say first thing to do is to buy a REAL filter like this http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=HG10160 Designed for small tanks http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=HG10165 or if your tank is over 10 gallons Install it and keep it running with your existing filtration and then after 2 weeks do another water test . Also I would not have installed fish into the tank after just a week . I once had a five gallon tank and that took me 3 weeks to declare it safe for fish inhabitation . Another thing. Did you use the gravel from your old tank to line the new one ? That also helps the nitrogen cycle speed up
I have a goldfish in a five gallon tank. He acted the same way once. His water was kinda dirty. I took him out, cleaned his tank and rocks inside and out, filled it with drinking water bought in gallon jugs at Wal-Mart, put him back in, and now he is fine.
Remember not to just place it back in the water. Keep it in a plastic bag or other container with water from the aquarium. Wait till the water is at room temperture before placing it back in the new water.
In my case, the water was already room temp cause the jugs had been sitting around on the counter next to the tank. Same temp that way. I also put the old water from the bowl he was in ( that came from the tank ) in with the new water. Someone told me that by using a small amount of the old water, it would help him to adjust.
Drinking water is not a good idea to put into tanks . Even they may contain coppers and sulfides which may harm your fish in the long term . Best bet is to use dechlorinated water via aquaplus or stresscoat . I usually use a capfull per bucket and most of my fish haven't "complained" ever since
