Fish sitting on bottom of tank

[debaser008]

EDIT: I've just read the thread which states what descriptions of the fish and conditions I should put in my thread. I've described the conditions as best I can - otherwise, its been in the same tank eating the same dry pellets for as long as i've had it. Nothing seems to have changed to bring this on.

I have had my goldfish for about 13 or 14 years. I'm not sure if its a particular species, but i've included a picture below incase that might help with a diagnosis.



Its a pretty tough fish. Over the past few years, every so often its sat on the bottom of the tank for a day or two but has recovered and gone back to its usual behaviour.

A few months ago, I looked at the tank one morning and it was floating almost vertically, with its belly slightly facing towards the water's surface. Again, it recovered from this, but afterwards its tail seems slightly crooked. I had also noticed that it had a swollen abdomen, but this wasn't causing it to not swim properly.

Anyway, a few days ago, it began sitting on the the bottom of the tank and has been 'panting'. It is still managing to swim up for food, but quickly returns to the bottom. The swelling seems to have become a little more pronounced, and my Mum seems to think that there are two lumps just before the 'fan' part of its tail starts. I'm not sure if these are lumps as such though.

So i'm just looking for a bit of advice on what I might do. Its recovered from this before, but I don't like to see it sitting there.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

 

[Devilishturtles]

From the looks of your tank it looks...small. Your goldfish is a common goldie, sometimes called comets. They can normally get around 12+ inches long. If I had to take a guess as to what was wrong, I would say a combonation of lack of space, probably poor water quality, and lack of a varied diet.

Not to sound harsh or anything, that's just my guess. So to start off with, how often do you change the water? Do you ever feed it anything other than dry pellets? Do you ever test your water?

As a first measure, I'd do a water change and see if he perks up a little.

Welcome to AA.

 

[debaser008]

As no goldfish experts, we just change the water when it looks like its unclean and needs changing. When you suggest changing it, do you mean all of the water? When he sat on the bottom once before, we asked at our local aquatic shop and they said that changing the water entirely might not be beneficial. Usually when cleaning the tank we take him out and out him in a different bowl. I could just take out water using a pint glass and replace it with fresh whilst he's still in the tank.

In terms of varied diet and a small tank - I guess we've just kept it the same because he's always seemed ok. Would now be the best time to say, change the food, with him not looking too well?

I very much appreciate your help.

 

[Devilishturtles]

You can get a very small gravel vaccum from walmart that will both clean the yuck out of the gravel and change the water at the same time. It's around $4 I think. I'd change around 30-40% to start and see what happens. You don't want to change the water entirely, your store is right. If you use the vaccum, no need to remove him and the whole process takes just a few minutes.

Does your tank have a filter on it? How many gallons is the current tank?

I'm not saying change the food, just offer him some variety. Goldfish will eat LOTS of different food. Cooked peas, lettuce, spinach, apples, oranges, grapes, cucumbers, etc. Feeding a variety helps keep their system nourished and healthy.