6 goldfish all at bottom of tank laying on their sides

fungambler

Help! Last week we noticed our 7 Goldfish and 5 swordtails sort of swimming around the filter. We didn't think much of it but I started losing fish. Yesterday all the fish were doing were laying on their sides in the fake plants. I can get the net and they will move and then sink down to the bottom. It's a 55 gal tank, we did a 2/3 water change and I stopped by pet store and got a poly filter which they said to use for 12 hours and then take it out and put in this type of fungus remover than cures costiasis, dropsy, hemoragic septicemia, etc. and take out the carbon filters. The fish do appear to have little holes in their sides which sounded like Spring Virosis from your info. Don't know but it is just pitiful. I have had the poly filter in for about 5 hours and no change. We did wait 3 months to gravel vac this time and we added 5 swordtails last month from a friend. The amonia and nitrate and nitrate levels are reading fine, water tem 72 degrees. Haven't put the antibiotic in yet, hopefully someone will help me here before they all die. Many thanks!

kelly528

Did you cycle the tank before adding the fish? Goldfish produce an astronomical amount of ammonia compared to the average tropical fish and for that reason the MAXIMUM your tank can healthily support is 5 fancy Goldfish or 1 common Goldfish. Its highly possible that these fish are in effect being poisoned by the quantity of waste dissolved in the water.

Also it sounds like the tank is not getting enough oxygen. Goldfish in particular require a lot of oxygen and paired with the amount of waste they produce, its the reason that Goldfish need twice the filtration that an average tropical fish needs.

Do you have a master test kit and if so what are your water stats?

fungambler

I just have the test strips which are all reading normal. I wondered about the oxygen but don't know how to improve it. I have had this tank about 5 years and this is the first time I ever had a problem. I had two plecosthamus in there as well, and they are GONE! So I don't know if the Goldfish or swordtails ate them and it poisioned the water or what. The girl at the pet store, privately owned by the way, said it sounded like the tank was poisioned.

kelly528

Test strips are not known for being incredibly accurate. Which is not good when what shows as .5ppm of nitrite is actually 1.0ppm or when ammonia showing up at 0 ppm is actually.25 ppm.

When you say fine do you mean that all the levels on the test strips were 0? Or simply that they were low?

In light of your dead plecos, it sounds like they finally died due to the heavy bioload of your tank, polluting the water as they decomposed.

You can increased the DO (dissolved oxygen) by doing the following:

-removing fish
-adding an air pump
-increasing filtration
-lowering the temperature

Do you have a picture of the fish?

fungambler

They won't come up off the bottom and they are back against the wall. All they do is float back down. Some have the little holes in their sides that I can see. What do you think about the antibiotic? The one little Swordtail I have left seems fine. It's a male. I hate seeing my fish I have had for 5 years like this. It's killing me.

kelly528

I would put the antibiotic in for what its worth. Its a shot in the dark albeit more like a spray of bullets in the dark. The antibiotic sounds like a broad-spectrum gram negative antibiotic which will treat internal infections if thats what your fish have.

What do the holes look like? Any red or fuzziness around the edges? Blackened edges? Its really hard to tell anything without a picture.

fungambler

Yes, I just got off the phone with her and said basically just said the same thing verbatim. She told me to areate the water using a pitcher and pour it back in and out of the tank several times for more movement of the water. She wants me to bring a water sample tomorrow, so she can properly test it. Told me to take the filter out now and and the carbon filter and incorporate the antibiotic and see what happens. Guess I will do it, I just hope it doesn't hurt them any further. She is also a big fan of non iodized salt. Any thoughts on it?i

kelly528

Aquarium salt (aka non-iodized salt minus any other anti-caking agents or harmful-to-fish additives) is a very effective supplement to pretty much any treatment. You can add it at 1 TBSP per 5g to aid your antibiotic. Anything labeled as aquarium salt or kosher salt will do.

Also, don't remove the filter, just remove the carbon insert. The filter will still provide vital oxygen to the water, WAY more so than simply stirring water in a pitcher (you'd need to do that every hour to provide the oxygenation a filter can). The way a filter oxygenates water is that it provides constant surface movement; churning the water up to the surface where its exposed to oxygen. This is also the idea behind an air pump... its not so much the bubbles coming out of it that oxygenate the water, its the current that those bubbles create as they travel to the surface.

fungambler

She gave me filter fiber to fill up the filter area with after I pull the charcoal and the poly filter out. I am about to do it. Keep your fingers crossed and thanks Kelly for all of your input and prompt replys. Pat

kelly528

I'll keep my fingers crossed for the little guys as well!!!