Prayers needed please.

[Donna]

Just as poor Ponyo looked to be on the verge of recovery - all his swelling had gone down, just a few lumps and wounds left to heal - he's taken a huge turn for the worse. this morning, he's sat on the bottom, not at all interested in food. it's almost as if he can't see it. he swims in circles when he does actually move and he's a had a few bouts of thrashing. i think sadly that only prayers will save him now.

it's really sad, i was going to go buy the new film out today, "Ponyo" would you believe?! not sure i can face it now.

i have to go to work in a minute. please pray for my poor little baby. i hope he's still with us later today. people say he's only a fish, but he's MY fish, and i love all the animals i care for, it makes no difference to me if it's a £2.50 fish or a £500 dog or whatever, i've spent huge amounts of money on medication for this fish, (much to the shock of the shop guy who suggested it was cheaper to replace the fish!) and i'm not giving up on him any time soon!!!

 

[cmor1701d]

Daily partial water changes of 20% usually help a fish recover faster than most meds.
Hope it makes it.

 

[Big Dog]

Good luck. Keep us updated.

 

[Donna]

Sadly, my poor baby boy died at 3:15. i'm absolutely gutted. Ellie's bawling her little heart out but staying quite brave about it. i forgot to mention this morning that he'd thrashed about a few times this morning, almost as if blind the way he hit a few things, and his body curved to the side a bit...i've seen it all too often at the fish shop. i went to work this morning, having watched him settle down again, but i could only pray that he'd be ok. i got in from work and he was upside down, gasping..... soon after that, he'd gone. poor baby. *can't type for crying now!* Ellie still wants to go buy the Film, in rememerance of Ponyo, so gotta go make myself look as if i haven't been crying like a lunatic over a goldfish!!! (i wonder how many of you professionals still get tearful over fishie deaths.) Ponyo is the first fish we've lost since we got the tank a year ago. in fact, quite creepy, it was a year ago today we bought the first two fishies, in three weeks, we would have had Ponyo for a year...so sad!

 

[mommytron]

i'm so sorry for your loss i totally understand mourning a fish, it's still your pet. when we set up our very first tank and got two rosy barbs, Rosie and Barber, they passed within two weeks. i had a total meltdown when i had to pull Rosie out of the tank. i couldn't even look at the tank anymore after that. i had to have my husband tear the whole thing down. i think that's cool that Ellie (your daughter?) wants to get the movie in remembrance. hang in there. remember, you're no lunatic! you just lost a member of your family

 

[Big Dog]

Very sorry for your loss. it is always hard to have a fish die on you no matter what kind of fish it is.

 

[mellawson]

Sorry to hear about the loss of you beloved Ponyo.

 

[Donna]

thanks everyone, i wanted to ask also, having never lost a fish, what's the best course of action now? i've done a 25% water change, a bit more than normal. is this ok or is more action required for my other fishies? (they had a big cuddle with me this evening, 3 second memory my ***!)

 

[Ged]

thanks everyone, i wanted to ask also, having never lost a fish, what's the best course of action now? i've done a 25% water change, a bit more than normal. is this ok or is more action required for my other fishies? (they had a big cuddle with me this evening, 3 second memory my ***!)

Sorry for your loss, it is never easy losing something living. Maybe I am poking my big head where it doesn't belong but in my experience the more clean water you add to the aquarium the better, more frequent smaller changes being ideal. Most of the problems can be avoided with more water changes, I personally do 50-100% a week(always treat water).

 

[Donna]

thanks, i used to do quite a few water changes back when i started, but i soon found out that taking out too much upsets the water once it's cycled. i discovered that i was doing more bad than good according to the water tests i did. 50% weekly was too much at a time so, i do a twice weekly 20%. i keep a check on my levels, and every time, they've been perfect. was just worried in this case what with it being a little different than a standard water change.

 

[jsoong]

So sorry about your loss. Since you never had a chance to QT Ponyo, whatever he has is in the tank, so no real sense in tearing the tank down. That would just cause more harm & stress to the remaining fish.

I agree with the others, do some extra pwc's and watch for anything unusual in the other fish.

You have a fairly small setup for goldfish, so large water changes are in order. I have never have problems with doing large pwc's (up to daily 100%). I make sure the water is treated & parameter matched. Once you have a bit of time to get over Pogyo, you might want to perfect the pwc's. Give us some details on how the water changes are making the water worse & we'll help you figure out the problems. Keeping perfect water is most important in keeping your fish healthy. All else are secondary. in a small setup, mastering pwc is a must.

 

[Donna]

thanks jsoong, the water changes have been fine. every time i do a water check, the parameters are spot on. it was back when i used to do large water changes that the parameters were everywhere.

since i've been doing smaller changes often, i think its closer to 20% (i've also set up a secondary filter so that i can syphon out more water than the water change would take and then put the filtered water back in the tank, that way i can continue vacuuming the gravel until i'm content it's clean!) my water tests have been fine. whenever the fish start acting odd, the first thing i do is test the water, but this hasn't been a problem for at least 10 months! when ponyo had dropsy, the water was fine and we suspected an internal bacteria might be the cause and got some medicine accordingly. like i said, it seemed to be working, the swelling had gone down, and he only had an absys-like lump on his side. (glimmer had several of these recently and recovered ok) i even said on sunday to my mother in law, "i think he's going to be fine now." i wish i hadn't said that now....

oh crumbs, got to go to work! i'll pop back later to update so sorry if there's a tonne of typos and stuff that doesn't make sense!