Fish is sick floating at the top of the quarintine bowl please help!!!!!!!!

Ashtreelogger

ok so i'm freakin out my Goldfish is sick but i don't know what's wrong.i don't know if it's amonia poisioning,ick or what but he was healthy this morning and when i went to change the water and i always keep up on my water changes i saw him floating at the top of the tank so i tokk him out from the other two Goldfish who are both healthy and he is in a quarintine bowl when i can take cate of the sick fish and i really don't kno what to do i'm scared .he swims ok but he does swim lopsided and when he stops he floats to the top and i'm getting very scared i need advice now


Fish behavior:

http://s692.photobucket.com/albums/v...t=DSCN0368.mp4

Olympia

He looks like he has swim bladder, or maybe dropsy. Goldies get dropsy when they gulp air from the surface when they don't have enough oxygen. SBD can be caused by many things.
What size is the tank? What filter are you running? What kind of aeration? Tank heated? Did you test your water?
Also, what type of goldies are they? They look like single tails to me.

Ashtreelogger

it's a five gallon eclipse hexygon Goldfish tank. it's big enough for right now. the sick one is a feeder Goldfish they other two healthy ones are a common and a comet Goldfish and i have a betta seprated from them he's pretty healthy as well like the other two fish. well. the filter is a bio wheel and like i said i keep up on my water changes i ust saw him acting funny yesterday and quickly removed him in the hospital bowl to treat him. yes i tested the water it it was normal. the tank and i constantly momadar the tank temprature to make sure i doesn't go past a certain temp.i'm not sure on what kind of aeration it may have everthing came with the tank.

Marineland Eclipse Hexagon 5 Gallon Aquarium - Fish - Sale - PetSmart

thekoimaiden

It would really help us if you could answer the sticky here: Diagnosis Form - Read this before you post. At the bare minimum we need to know what type of test kit you are using and what the numbers are. Just saying "it is fine" tells us nothing. I'm willing to bet that your fish does have ammonia poisoning just because they are Goldfish being kept in a tiny tank.

Next. The tank you have is entirely too small for Goldfish. Yes they can physically fit in the tank at this time, but you could physically fit inside a basket when you were a baby, too. The tank is too small because it doesn't give them enough swimming room and there is not sufficient surface area for the beneficial bacteria to grow. The bare minimum for Goldfish is 10 gallons per fish. This requirement is not just for swimming room but for volume of water to dilute their wastes. In order to keep these fish healthy in this tank you should be doing 100% water changes daily. If these fish live, they will need at least a 90 gallon tank to live a healthy, long life.

Putting your sick fish in the bowl isn't really going to do much when the problem is the tank and water quality. The best thing you can do for them right now is buy a larger tank. It doesn't have to be an aquarium. A 10 gallon (or larger would be better) plastic bin from Walmart would work, too. Leave the betta in the 5 gal tank, tho. He is fine there.

Ashtreelogger

ok not alllll fish get sick based off tank size so saying you need to buy a bigger tank will do nothing they can still get sick in a bigger tank and thee bowl is a qaurintine bowl which is temporaryfor a home i'm may not be a fish exspert and i apprecuiate the help but i don't pamper the crap out of my fish i do treat them like my babies and i do care about them so i don't try to kill them or make hem get sick on purpose no. the comet Goldfish got better after i gave her medicine back when i first posted help and i did appreciate it izzy you and the other person were lots of help and her and the other one are both perfectly healthy and as for the tester i use those API test strips the gh is 60 the kh falls between 80 or 120 the ph is 6.5 the no2 is 0.5 and the no3 is 0 of course i don't know how to remove that stuff if the numbers are wrong i just keep taking out the water till it's at the numbers it's suppose to be but all i'm doing was asking if the fish had swim bladder,ich or something else and the person above answered my question of which two it fell under and went to an aqauium and showed them the video and asked them if it was swim bladder or dropsy and they told me so i asked for medicine but now i know there is no med for it but i did do research and people say frozen peas seem to be a good remedy but in all do respect i was seeking advice and help not get lectured about my size of tank cause it will not make a difference how big the tank is a fish will normally get sick based on other things and it's only this one fish not the other two cause the other two are eating healthy being active and even the betta who is in the 2.5 is perfectly healthy and showing no signs of illness i watch my fish all the time cause they're in my work space area so i can glance at them and watch them to make sure they aren't acting funny. and also i simply have no room for a 10 gallon tank til i moveout of here.i'm not gonna keep them in cramp spaces forever it's not like the fish are the size of a pond Goldfish right now they are allstill young and the one with swim bladder was born not long ago and is still a baby and the smallest one in the tank

Olympia

What you are not taking into consideration... dropsy and SBD are caused by lack of oxygen in the water, causing the goldie to gulp air from the surface, which fills the swim bladder with air and makes them float.
There is only a certain amount of dissolved oxygen that can be present in 5 gallons of water. Goldfish are coolwater and need HIGH levels of dissolved oxygen in their water, which is done by having a large tank, with cool water, since cooler water has higher solubility and therefore higher potential for proper levels of dissolved oxygen. Water too cold for a betta to live in. So you have the choice of either harming the betta with cool water or harming the goldies with warm water. There's no nice way to put that, I'm sorry. Your fish are probably suffocating right now. The presence of NO2 is extremely bad, even as much as 0.25ppm can hurt a fish. NO2 attacks a fish's gills, making it hard for them to breathe, which only worsens the situation much more than need be. :/
You can feed the peas, but it is only a temporary cure at best... The problem will either persist until the fish dies, or return.

"none of the other fish are sick" is a horrible way to look at things. Fish are all different, we all react differently to things. Some people can fight through the flu, some people die from the flu. It's the same concept. The one has a much weaker immune system.

thekoimaiden

I don't think you understand. Fish illness is directly related to tank size because fish health is directly related to water quality. A fish that produces a lot of waste in a small volume of water will foul the water very quickly. In smaller tanks it is very difficult to keep the water quality acceptable due to the small volume of water. Take care of the water, and the fish will follow. I know you didn't come for a lecture on tank size, but you have to understand, the tank size is directly related to fish health. This has been proven time and time again by both hobbyist and scientists.

From your test results it looks like your tank is going through a cycle. The NO2 (nitrite) is toxic to the fish. It looks like your comet has nitrite poisoning. The listlessness and gasping as well as well as your test results confirm it. Adding aquarium salt at the concentration of 1 teaspoon per gallon will help alleviate the problem but it won't fix it. Your tank is going through a cycle. I suggest you read about that here: A Beginner's Guide to the Freshwater Aquarium Cycle While the cycle is happening, you need to do daily water changes not just when the test strips say the water is bad.

Another problem that I see is the pH. Goldfish don't do well at a pH below 7. It can cause their slime coat to slough off. If your tap water has a pH of 7 or above, daily water changes should help with this as well as the cycle.

There is a big difference between pampering a fish and giving it the bare necessities for life. Pampering a comet Goldfish is giving him a pond. A 50 gallon tank is a bare necessity for a comet. We are not trying to attack you. I know you weren't looking for a lecture on how to keep a Goldfish, but when you don't keep fish in proper habitats they get sick because it stresses them out. Stress causes disease in fish. Scientific studies have confirmed this. You can read more here: Stress and Freshwater Aquarium Fish

Olympia

Keeping fish is a science. Lot's of these things are proven. Your comets should grow to around 10-12", bigger than that tank. Of course this won't happen since the amount of toxins will stunt their organs and shorten their lives.

Ashtreelogger

there is more than one way to take care of a fish and their are diffrent methods to raising a fish and the tank size if raised well and taken care of they'll live longer than 2 years i don't need science to prove that.people raise their pets diffrently and everyone has different ways to take care of them i'm no fish fanatic just someone who loves the grace and beauty of fish. also i like to point out that the little wasn't gasping for air just simply floating to the top also the other two aren't swimming to the top for air either though the little one is acting fine right now i'm still gonna give him frozen peas til i know for sure that he is ok to be with the other two and if gets bad i'll move them all to the cooler that is big enough for all three til then the five gallon Goldfish tank will have to do and so will the daily water changes

Tazman

I kindly ask you as well to not take the information provided on here to heart.

You came on here asking for advice and our members have been kind enough to offer that. There are some points here which needed to be mentioned as possible causes for what is causing your fish to be behaving the way it is.

One of the things we as aquarists must take into account when we purchase a fish, is the type of environment it needs to survive and be healthy in. These if provided from knowledge gained not only from scientific studies but also from personal experiences, allow your fish to thrive and not be sick.

One of the major factors here is the size of your fish and it needs, the fish is showing you it is sick, it cannot tell you what is wrong...now we have to investigate what is causing this...this includes the size of it's tank, its feeding regime, water parameters etc.

It has been brought up that this fish is in a small tank which may be the primary cause it is getting ill...Goldfish are known to produce a lot of waste and in a small environment and an inadequate filtration or cleaning system, this waste will quickly accumulate and turn the water toxic. It is exactly the same that would happen to use, if we didnt change the water in a bath tub and used it constantly...now this is an extreme example but put it into context for your fish.

It has already been removed from an environment stressful to it, in a crowded tank in the pet store, a tank made crowded so we can see the fish to purchase it. The size of the tank does matter, a large tank has more surface area for bacteria to establish the nitrogen cycle and break waste down before it turns water toxic. In a smaller tank this does not happen with a fish producing a lot of waste as there simply is not the room for it to occur.

This results in our fish getting sick from toxic substances in the water, these vary in there degree of toxicity with Ammonia and Nitrite proven to be harmful to fish long term and in the immediate moment. When we subject a fish to a small tank that is simply too small to sustain the fish to adulthood, it is a form of torture really. We can use a human example of keeping someone in a small closet from baby to adulthood. It simply does not work.

Our members having acted on information provided by you, have seen that the species you have is in too small of a tank which is likely producing toxins (Ammonia and Nitrite), Ammonia is almost as lethal to fish as it is to humans, ammonia poisoning can kill a human in a matter of minutes if exposed to enough of it. In fish it binds to the gills and over time, suffocates the fish until it succumbs to it. Nitrite is not as toxic but still dangerous to the health of the fish..Nitrate removal which is the least toxic form of the Nitrogen cycle by products we remove with water changes and or having live plants in the tank.

The fish being sick is an indication of something not right in your tank...The remedy to this is analyze the tank and see if anything shows up. In your case it could well be the tank is not cycled and there is not enough bacteria to break the waste from uneaten food / fish waste down to a safe level...doing water changes daily will help to an extent but the bacteria need to play catch up and multiply to a level that they can convert it. With a small environment and a high waste producing fish, this ay not occur as the bacteria simply cannot multiply fast enough, this results in use seeing this as high ammonia and Nitrites with low levels of NitRates.

The solution to pollution is Dilution is a great way to gauge when a tank is potentially too small for a fish, too small a tank and the pollution will not get diluted, a bigger tank by having more water allows this to occur.
Now onto the fact that is proven in many ways, the size of the fish. A 12" fish will cram into almost any size tank, can it live in that tank though no, it has no way to swim, no way to turn around and is very susceptible to disease. This is what is going to occur in your tank with the Goldfish, yes it will fit in your tank, BUT it will NOT survive in that tank for any length of time as it will be poisoned by toxic water or by succumbing to basically being squished to death as it has no room.

Am sorry for this long post but it needed to be mentioned...we are here to help you and offer suggestions which is why you came here in the first place. No one likes to have fish die, we do get attached to them, we do however take on a responsibility to provide a care which allows them to live a long life..