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Goldfish to tropical, advice?

2K views 14 replies 6 participants last post by  jason454 
#1 · (Edited)
Goldfish to tropical, cycle advice?

I have a 55g fancy goldfish tank, in the past month i've lost 2 out of 4 fish to dropsy and pop-eye (probably bacterial related) I'm giving the goldies away and changing to tropical. Should I sanitize the tank to rid the bad bacteria and lose my cycle or should i just remove the goldies wait and a couple of weeks fishless for bad bacteria to go away (if thats how it works) and keep my cycle. I'd rather not re-cycle but I want a clean disease free environment for the new tropical fish. Thanks.
 
#3 · (Edited)
hopefully Byron or someone else who knows will answer, but I'm a worry wart anyway and if it were me, I'd want to clean it all out and start again, rather than risk anything.. considering also that goldfish are such heavy waste producers and all...

But take what I say with a grain of salt.. Like I said, I really have nothing to base it on.. just my own paranoia =)

Gina
 
#5 ·
Most of the dropsy cases by goldfish are water quality related. What are the water parameters currently? What is the history of your fish? Were they all treated with praziquantel before? That would determine if your fish's cases point to bacterial infections (secondary to parasites-common among goldfish) or water quality.
 
#6 ·
I'm at work so I don't have numbers right now but I've never used praziquantel(never heard of it) before or anything other than melaflex. Do 50% water changes every 2 weeks. Use 2 ac70's for filtration. The two that died(orandas) were over a year old, and healthy up to that point. One had pop-eye then died of dropsy a few days later the other just puffed up one day and died. I've also had finrot in the past(the white tearing kind) but that cleared up months ago.
 
#8 ·
How about the ammonia and pH? Your nitrite being that high can contribute to the issue. Fancy goldfish are very prone to poor water quality. All these issues stem from water quality issues to me.
 
#9 · (Edited)
How about the ammonia and pH? Your nitrite being that high can contribute to the issue. Fancy goldfish are very prone to poor water quality. All these issues stem from water quality issues to me.
I don't currently have an ammonia testing kit, I guess I thought the nitrate/nitrite was enough or could be used in place of a NH3 test since the ammonia is converted over. Bad assumption on my part. My nitrite is always that high so I didn't think anything about it. I've never tested pH since I've had my tank.
 
#12 ·
True, I wonder if I just go ahead and remove my fish if it will improve on its own since I have 3 weeks till I go tropical. I will get an ammonia test to keep tabs on it too. I looks like after seeing that my levels are so high that my problems are more water quaility related than bacteria. I think its just the huge bio-load of the large goldies thats hurting my quaility.
 
#11 ·
Agree. NitrItes need to be zero in any tank. PH and water hardness/softness will also be determining factors on what type of fish you will be able to keep.

If it were me, I'd start over completely rather than take a chance on disease being present. You can clean everything with a diluted bleach/water solution. Rinse a gazillion times and rinse another few times with conditioned water to remove any possible traces of chlorine.

Good luck.
 
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