Lethargic Comet

[kingtom03]

Hi there,

We have a comet (Randy) which has recently become very lethargic, he tends to sit down by the side of the filter where the current of the tank is weakest and when he does move he seems to mainly be letting the current of the tank carry him.

He had a swim-bladder issue a couple of weeks back which we treated and thought we had resolved, but he is exhibiting very similar symptoms to another fish (an oranda named Trey) who also had swim bladder issues, which again we thought we'd treated but shortly afterwards came down with dropsy and despite our best efforts unfortunately passed a week ago.

Upon trey contracting dropsy I knew something was seriously wrong, so I went and bought a disease clearant and water neutralizers and also a test kit to make sure nothing was ab normal, which according to the kit it is not.

I am now extremely concerned for Randy's health as I really do no want to loose another of our fish.

All help and advice is appreciated to try and improve this little comets life, and hopefully stop him following his friend Trey out of our tank

 

[jlk]

Hi and welcome to AA!! We need some more info in order to be able to try & help. What size is the tank? What type of filtration? What type of water change schedule to you have? What are your exact numbers for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate & ph? What do you feed?

I am not sure what you mean by 'water neutralizers'- do you mean a water conditioner/dechlorinator or a ph neutralizer? What exactly have you used to treat so far (exact type of meds)? We need some more info in order to be able to help you better!

 

[kingtom03]

We have a 54l tank, and we change around 15-20% of the water once a week, and a large water change (around 80%) once every month or so.

We have a 15W Bioflow mini filter. We also recently added an air pump and stone: Air Pump (airvolution model)

This is our tank set The JUWEL KORALL 60 GOLDFISH & TROPICAL Aquarium from Juwel Aquarium UK Makes starting an Aquarium Child's play
(we have the goldfish edition, not tropical)

By water neutralizers I meant a product we have called "AquaSafe" to treat the tap water and we also use "EasyBalance" to try and maintain good water quality between changes.

As a disease cure when our fish were originally ill we used a SBD treatment and also a Disease Clear when we realised it was much more than just SBD.

Our current readings from a test kit are as follows:

NO3 - 0
NO2 - 0.5
GH -around 12d
KH - 1.5d
PH - 6.5
Cl2 - 0.4

Our feeding regime is a few flakes for them in a morning (enough to be gone inside 5 min or so) and then every 2-3 days I will feed them the inside of a pea thawed and diced (I prepare 1 pea per fish usually)


I hope this information (along with links to as many of the product I can) will help us work out what I am doing wrong

Just to add, This morning I found randy floating round on his side just letting the current throw him around, so I have moved him to a small "hospital bowl" and medicated him with the SBD mentioned above and am preparing him a pea also!

 

[jlk]

Thanks! Is there only one fish in this tank? Do you have a test for ammonia? How long has this tank been setup? Your nitrite level is not ideal & this may be part of the reason your fish is not well. I suspect there may be ammonia as well. 54l is @14gallons and is a bit small for a comet. Comets (and other goldfish) carry high bioloads (produce alot of ammonia) which is why ample water is important for them. I would suggest changing atleast 50% of his tank water with temperature-matched, properly conditioned water to reduce ammonia & nitrite & then moving him back because the toxin levels in a bowl are going to become sky-high.

Because there are no detectable nitrates & there is detectable nitrites, your tank appears to be still in the cycling process. You should start testing the water daily & doing water changes to keep toxins under control. Healthy water is one of the best things you can offer your fish. I would also consider upgrading his tank to alarger one or consider rehoming him to pond & stocking your tank with fish suitable for a tank this size. Continue to offer him some deshelled peas daily & make sure he has lots of healthy, conditioned water. You can continue the sbd treatment in his tank along with lots of healthy water & hopefully, he will be able to recover. Heres a link to fish-in cycling- please ask any questions you may have!

I just learned about cycling but I already have fish. What now?!

 

[Ruth]

I am having same the trouble with my shubunkin, don't hold much time for him