Sick goldfish not eating

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Solive

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Mar 14, 2017
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I have had one small common goldfish since august 2016. Got it from petsmart. He or she idk is the only fish in the tank and is about 2in long not including his tail. I recently moved about 800 miles with the fish.

However about a week and a half prior to the move I was away for five days during which it appeared that my father horribly over fed it, leaving fuzzy flakes all over the gravel. So I panicked and did a 100% water change vacuuming all the gravel and ever since it hasn't been eating, he goes for the flakes but doesn't open his mouth. He's still active searching for food but visibly skinny and has faded colors. He also seems to be pushing his gills out.

I read that I should check for gravel in his mouth so I did carefully open his mouth with my finger and saw nothing stuck. I have seen him open his mouth once since then but not for food so I don't think his jaw is broken.

While moving about a week ago I saved as much old water as I could to set up the new tank. The old place had well water without chlorine so I used only small amounts of conditioner but the new place is different so I'm using the amount on the bottle for clorinated water. there has been a lot of stress for this poor fishy.

The tank is 10 gal and has a tetra whisper carbon filter that I change monthly. I used strips to test the water usually ammonia is very low nitrites at 0 and nitrates a little higher around 10. I also added 2tbs of kosher salt with no additives yesterday and this morning the ammonia was higher than usual and nitrates and nitrites were 0. So I did a 30% water change vacuuming the uneaten flakes and slowly introducing new salted water.

I'm worried he or she is starving to death so I purchased some gel food I'm hoping that it can eat it more easily than flakes when it arrives.
 

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Moving and a 100% water change is very stressful for any fish, she doesn't seem to have any visible ailments but I'd just continue with partial water changes since goldfish produce a lot a waste and from what it looks like that's a comet goldfish which can grow over a foot long! You could possibly try some other types of food such as shelled peas and frozen blood worms to get her to eat. Goldfish also are cold water fish so has there been any major temp changes that could cause stress? Aquarium salt is always my go to as well :) try keeping the lighting to a minimum while she acclimates so it won't cause too much stress.
 
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