What's wrong goldfish? Plz help!!!

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Cath

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Oct 17, 2018
Messages
7
Hi, I own 4 freshwater goldfish, three of them are fine however 1 seems to be unwell as it has been hanging at the bottom of the tank in the live plants for the past few days and its tail is starting to fray. It only comes up when I feed them but goes back down after being fed, it has also been breathing rapidly. I have added fin rot medication and have done a 50% water change yesterday but have seen no results.
 
Water Tests

uh I haven't tested the water after the change but before the change it was
PH - 6.8
Ammonia - 0.25ppm
Nitrites- 0
Nitrates 0 - 5.0ppm
and when I went to feed the fish not long ago it refused to come up
 
How big of a tank is this? What water tests are you using? How exactly are you performing the nitrate test?

I find a nitrate level of 0 - 5 with goldfish to be suspicious.
 
Hello Cath...

Putting medications into the tank water isn't a good solution to your fish problem. Unless you have a degree in some area of fish biology, you can't be sure if you have a problem. The best thing you can do is to keep the tank water clean. You should be changing most of the tank water weekly. I add a teaspoon of standard aquarium salt to every five gallons of replacement water in my Goldfish tanks. The salt will retard the growth of a parasite or virus if one exists and boosts the fish's immune system. I'd suggest feeding a little organic minced garlic. It's very nutritious. The combination of nutrients and pure water conditions should help.

B
 
I'd test the water again to get an idea of what you maybe dealing with. As it's been mentioned, start doing several water changes. Personally, I'd do a couple of 50% water changes immediately. As Brad suggested, add aquarium salt at the amount he described. This will also help with your goldfish damaged fins.

Tank size, filtration, how long has your tank been running, what type of goldfish you have, and recent water test with a liquid test kit such as API master test kit is some info that would be helpful to know.
 
The tank size is about 99 litres or 26 gallons and I'm not sure about the filter size it just came with the tan, which I've had for about a month. There are two comets and two fantails living in the tank. I'll do an update once I've tested the water again also I use the API freshwater master test kit.
 
You're definitely gonna need a bigger tank in the future. Does the filter have a brand and model printed on it? With goldfish you need some heavy filtration.
 
Any issues happened in the tank in the past few weeks? Over feeding, missed water changes, throw away/replace filter pad?

How long has the tank been running?

How long have these fish been in there and did you get them at the same time?
 
The fish have been in the tank for about a month, a few weeks ago one of our comets had started showing the same symptoms that the fantail is currently experiencing although we did frequent water changes and tests nothing seemed to work and it passed away so we got another comet in short one of the comets and the 2 fantails were added at the same time and the other comet, a couple weeks after. The tank has been running for about a month, live plants were added first for a few days then the fish
 
Thanks, everyone for your replies but unfortunately the little guy didn't make it :(
 
Try taking a couple ph readings throughout the day. It might be having large swings which would stress the fish out
 
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