ammonia

[sarah1987]

last week i noticed my goldfish acting very strange.. 1 lay stil at the bottom, another hid its head in a rock, 1 even flipped itself out of the tank! i thought why is it my fish seem to b trying to commit suicide!! looking closely, i noticed their fins were frayed, 1 in particular.. after research on the net, i found out my aquarium had high ammonia levels and the fish were trying to escape from the polluted water as it was burning their poor fins!! .. i panicked and immediately did a full water change, even invested in a new larger filter adequate for the tank size, and bought a plant to allow more oxygen into the tank! thank goodness it seems to have done the trick! the sickest fishs fins have now turned black on the ends.. a positive sign of healing they now look alot happier and healthier.. ammonia is caused by a build up of fish waste/rotton food, i am now going to get an ammonia tester so i can keep a close eye on the water quality and am going to get an aquarium vacuum to keep the gravel clean.. i know the money adds up but its a small price to pay to keep my fish healthy!

 

[mommytron]

first off, welcome to AA!

i would reccomend getting yourself a liquid test kit (API Freshwater master test kit is $18 at walmart) so you can keep an eye on ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate from now on. what was/is your maintenance schedule? weekly PWCs are recommended to keep water parameters optimal. goldfish are particularly messy and tend to pee a lot, which means even more ammonia. what size tank do you have and what is the stock??

when you got the new filter, did you put the cartridge or media from the old one in the new one? if not, you are probably going to experience a mini cycle. you may need to do daily PWCs for a while until the cartridge is fully cycled (if the case is that you did not use the old media)

 

[logansmomma1228]

+1 with the above post from mommytron. \


Welcome to AA I am glad to see you found us ! I am also glad you care about your fish's health

 

[dkpate]

Welcome to AA!
Black fin edges means fin rot, clear is healing.
What type of goldies do you have?

 

[sarah1987]

Reply

Thankyou for your wise advice
You see.. the goldfish we own were abandoned by their previous owners so we took them in therefore i have little knowledge of their upkeep.
After asking in various pet shops who seem to know little, i turned to the net n got some useful advice from you guys.
I have done another PWT since i had the new filter last week and will continue weekly as u suggest as you told me about the mini cycle going on..
I will get a liquid ammonia/nitrate/nitrite tester like you say to check the levels are at 0..
I am open to any advice you guys are willing to offer.
Thanx again for taking the time..
Sarah
x

 

[sarah1987]

Reply

Thankyou for your wise advice
You see.. the goldfish we own were abandoned by their previous owners so we took them in therefore i have little knowledge of their upkeep.
After asking in various pet shops who seem to know little, i turned to the net n got some useful advice from you guys.
I have done another PWT since i had the new filter last week and will continue weekly as u suggest as you told me about the mini cycle going on..
I will get a liquid ammonia/nitrate/nitrite tester like you say to check the levels are at 0..
I am open to any advice you guys are willing to offer.
Thanx again for taking the time..
Sarah
x

 

[sarah1987]

Welcome to AA!
Black fin edges means fin rot, clear is healing.
What type of goldies do you have?

Thankyou for your knowledge..
The blackness seems to be clearing up now too and the fish seem alot healthier after doing weekly part water changes after changing the filter..

 

[sarah1987]

Thankyou for your wise advice its been a great help
Sarah

 

[mommytron]

glad to hear the fish are doing better. if you are experiencing a mini cycle, you may considering doing PWCs more often than weekly, daily even. especially since you don't have a test kit, better safe than sorry! keep us posted

 

[BeavisMom62]

What size tank do you have? How many and what kind of goldfish? Commons and comets get huge and actually end up doing better in a pond. Fancies optimally need 20 gal for the first fish and 10 gal for each additional fish as they can get up to 8 inches long or more and live for 10 years or more with good care. Are you using Prime or some kind of dechlor when you do water changes? That is important to remove chlorine/chloramines in tap water and will also help with the ammonia.

I have two fancies (a fantail and an oranda) in a 30 gal tank. I do 50% water changes weekly with a good gravel vac each time. Also, as much as they beg, don't overfeed them. Uneaten decaying food can cause ammonia spikes and even if they eat everything, it leads to more waste production. I feed mine one a day and they fast one day a week. Veggies are important also, like frozen peas, fresh romaine, zucchini and cucumber. they love those.

Good job saving those babies. Goldies are my favorite.

 

[sarah1987]

Hey there again..
Not certain but think tank is about 40 gallon, maybe larger and i have 5 small common goldfish with sufficient filter and there seems more than enough room in there..
thanx for the advice on the veggies that r safe for them to eat cos up until last month i only fed them standard goldfish food.. ive now started to introduce cucumber and peas in tiny amounts and they seem to love it!
i'm defo gona cut down on the amount of times i feed them, sometimes id feed them couple times a day n you're right, alot of waste built up.
The pet shops in the UK tell me none of this, they tried to fob me off with some 'medicine' that prob does more harm than good!
i use a de chlorinater to remove the chlorine and chlorimine on water changes, ive checked this as i read that some traditional brands only remove chlorine and not chlorimine which in turn would change to leave behind ammonia.
i'm happy to b learning new things each day!!
thanx evry1
x

 

[BeavisMom62]

Just to let you know, it might look like enough room now, but commons get huge and will need a pond eventually. But at least they have been saved and are in a healthier environment for the mean time. Goldies generally need a filter that turns 10 x the amount of water in the tank per hour. If you have a 40 gal tank, then you need at least a filter that turns 400 gal of water per hour. But bigger never hurts! I'm glad that you are taking care of them.. Sounds like they had a rough start.