Extremely lethargic goldfish, getting worried

[MaggstAa]

One of our goldfish has always been "quiet" (not as active as the others, but still relatively alert and healthy), but the past week or so she has been extremely lethargic and it is really concerning us. She now spends most of her time hovering near the surface (breathing normally, no gulping at surface) and not moving fins; the past few days she has migrated to the just above the gravel and resting herself in the plants and staying still, almost as if she needs support. She really only moves around and seems active when it is feeding time, and she eats a healthy amount, but after finishing the meal she goes back to resting. She has had a tendency to be a little "bullied" by the others (one other goldfish and a tiny algae eater) who sometimes chase her around the tank so we thought maybe she was just exhausted from that, but it seems they haven't been doing it so often and she is just getting worse. We just did a 15% or so water change a couple days ago but hasn't seemed to make a difference. Is it possible it's the water quality or is she exhausted from being chased around? I'm really getting worried since today she has been pretty much lifeless aside from dinner time. Attached are a couple pictures for reference of her behavior...thanks!!

 

[MaggstAa]

Another pic of her chilling in the plants

 

[jlk]

Hi! Can you please provide some more information so that we may be better able to help? Tank size? Parameters? Water change schedule? Thanks!

 

[pip walters]

Meanwhile, assuming you know what you are doing regarding keeping your water healthy (and judging by you healthy looking plants, I suspect you do), try feeding live or frozen daphnia and some veg matter such as peas. Fantail goldfish are somewhat prone to internal problems due to the compressed body shape. Problems such as constipation and swim bladder disorders are relatively common. Daphnia and veggies can help with constipation, a condition that can cause the symptoms you are seeing.

 

[em1981ma]

I have fancies and the veg they like which might help are, peas (mine perfer fresh but tinned or frozen will work) Brocoli (par boiled first so its soft) asparagus. This will help keep them regular. I basically try them with any veg im having for dinner. Avoid anything too acidic. But you cant go wrong with any plain mild veg.

 

[MaggstAa]

Sorry for delayed response, we need to buy more parameter testing kits and was (and am still) waiting for payday .-. But yesterday I pretty much completely dismantled the tank and did another 30ish% water change and took out all the plants that had overgrown (as you can see in the pix it was a bit of a jungle in there, I didn't realize the plants had thrived so much but had thought that was a good thing for water oxygen levels--am I incorrect here?). There are about a third of the plants left in the tank so it is A LOT more spacious and along with the second water change she seems a bit more active. She still hovers a bit in one spot but that is more like her normal activity instead of just lying or floating all the time. It has only been a day since the change so I have to see if it really has helped, I'm wondering if it was because it was too crowded with all the plants growing out of control? I also notice she isn't getting chased so much since the cleanout. Also will take the veggie advice and see if maybe she gets a bit more energy. Thanks!

 

[Coursair]

Do you have the Fancy in with a Comet or Common ? They usually should only be with other Fancies.

What kind of Algae Eater ??

Most GF tanks need Big filters, BIG tanks ( Ponds for commons or comets ) and lots of water changes.

Do not feed flakes to Fancies unless you pre-soak them. Sinking GF pellets are better.
Greens and Veggies are good also.

A single Fancy should have minimum 20g to start.

They get BIG fast !!


Comparison pics of Baby and Adult Fancy


Smoke signals from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jlk]

Plants are beneficial to an aquatic environment so do not be concerned with having them! If her behavior has improved since cleaning up the tank and doing wcs, I suspect the main issue here is one of water quality. I would continue to 30-50% wcs every other day to daily (if possible) until you are able to invest in a new test kit. If her behavior continues to steadily improve with the wcs, then its safe to assume the main issue here is a water quality issue. When you are able to test your water, please post your results and we can provide further advice!

 

[MaggstAa]

So she was improving quite a bit over the past week since the big clean out, however I notice tonight randomly she is back to hiding in the corner staying still, and now it looks like her fins are clamped and I see even a small rip in one of them! All other fish in the tank are fine, active, fins normal, etc. So random this just came about tonight. I was searching online and I found one site where it said torn fins are sometimes a sign of stress? I don't think it's fin rot because it's a small tear in just her front right "arm" fin, but the rest look clamped. Could she just be "stressed" for some reason? Should I separate and/or medicate her? I think the water quality is much improved especially because everyone else seems fine...

 

[dangreen7]

A similar thing happened to one if mine, all I did was isolate her in a hospital tank with a little aquarium salt in the water and fed her chopped up peas, she was better after a few days, I hope this helps!

 

[MaggstAa]

Ok thanks I'll do that right away. Should I also use some antibiotics or is it probably not an infection and just stress do you think?

 

[dangreen7]

I would avoid medicine until you know the cause, if this didn't work then it's worth a try.

 

[MaggstAa]

I put her in the quarantine tank with aquarium salts and tried feeding her peas. She seems to just be getting worse. Her fins are even more clamped and she won't eat and just stays still in one spot. Does she just need a couple days to recover or should I take other action?? My bf says he wants to put the healthy ones in the quarantine tank and her in the normal one since she's used to it, but I think that's a bad idea cuz I don't want to unnecessarily stress the healthy ones out. Getting really concerned now (

 

[dangreen7]

I put her in the quarantine tank with aquarium salts and tried feeding her peas. She seems to just be getting worse. Her fins are even more clamped and she won't eat and just stays still in one spot. Does she just need a couple days to recover or should I take other action?? My bf says he wants to put the healthy ones in the quarantine tank and her in the normal one since she's used to it, but I think that's a bad idea cuz I don't want to unnecessarily stress the healthy ones out. Getting really concerned now (

Ok if it were me I would leave her in the quarantine firstly to prevent stressing all your fish over changing tanks, and secondly because it is easier to treat her in the quarantine tank as it probably has little to no plants and less decorations. Now check her well for lumps, dots damage to her fins, a velvet like appearance to her scales, ulcers or excess mucus. These are all signs of different diseases and will need to be treated with medicine. I sadly just found one of my newly purchased fish has introduced velvet disease to my tank, you may need to turn of all the lights in the room and shine a flash light on her to look for the velvety appearance to her scales. Also have you recently introduced any fish it plants that could carry disease? I hope this helps.

 

[MaggstAa]

Thanks a ton for the responses. No new plants or fish in months. I just looked her over well, it was kind of hard to tell but maybe her scales are a little bit "dull" or not so shiny as her healthy counterparts? No lumps, mucous, etc., and still that one torn front right fin; the rest are clamped so I can't get a good look at them, but from what I can see it seems like it's just the one that is damaged. In the quarantine tank we just have a couple stray plant branches and one decoration to allow her a little bit of hiding space if she wants it. I just looked up velvet disease and it looks like that appears as more of a slimy look on the scales? Attached is another picture I just took. She just stays still in one spot, normal breathing and moving eyes occasionally, but otherwise no movement unless she gets startled. You can kind of see the little frayed bit on her front fin.

 

[dangreen7]

Yes, she doesn't look too good I'm afraid. I understand it's hard as she is not swimming much but has she recently had any swimming problems, or issues with floating and sinking, as when one of mine had swim bladder this is exactly how she looked when I was treating her. If it is swim bladder then the aquarium salts will help but it is crucial that she eats peas and gets medicated. Did you notice any strange swimming behaviour recently?

 

[MaggstAa]

Not that I can tell. She has had swim bladder issues months ago when we first got her but it was very obvious because she was floating and sinking and completely not in control. What little she does move now, it's normal as far as I can tell. But do you think I should put some antibiotics in now or will that be harmful? I don't know what else to do at this point.

 

[dangreen7]

When one of mine had swim bladder I treated her once and she seemed to have recovered, then 3 weeks later she got really bad again really quickly, I hardly noticed any abnormal swimming she was just sitting there, as if she was asleep the whole time with her fins clamped. So this could be happening to yours. It's up to you, on my swim bladder medicine it says that it is not harmful to aquatic life, so I would add some to her water, to be honest I think that she is in a pretty bad way so it's worth a try!

 

[jlk]

Did you continue to change the water daily in your main tank after you initially cleaned it? Does her qt have aeration and a cycled filter? Were you able to purchase a new test kit so that you would know exactly what is happening in both your main tank and your qt?

If she is worse after adding her to qt, I strongly recommend wcs to start to remove the salt as at this point it is stressing her even more. Wcs as in 2-3 daily because I suspect the qt is not large and I think the root issue here is toxin exposure even though your other fish may not have displayed obvious symptoms. She is just more sensitive to them.

There are two things worth trying here aside from frequent wcs. The first is methylene blue baths. MB can treat toxin exposure to nitrite and nitrate (and I suspect she has been exposed to both). It also can be helpful in dealing with buoyancy issues that do not respond to more conventional treatments. The second thing to consider is metronidazole as either a tank treatment or in the form of a medicated food (along with daily wcs). However, I am not sure what type of access you have to meds in your country.

 

[MaggstAa]

The qt yes is very small unfortunately. But yes I was able to finally get the test kits. The main tank seems fine and the qt was slightly above desirable levels but not drastically so. We have an oxygen pump in it but no filter. I was going to do a wc in the qt tonight when I got home from work but my bf just called and said she was laying lifeless on the bottom but breathing so he put her back in the main tank and fashioned a divider to separate her from the other fish. Won't be home from work for another couple hours so hoping she improves some...>.< will test the water again when I get back. :/;;