Is my goldfish normal?

[Foxy]

Hi all,

Complete aquarium newbie here. I just purchased a tank with someone and it already had lots of goldfish in it. However, there is one which behaves rather strangely. It is always sitting on the bottom of the tank, occasionally just sprinting to the top catching a breath of air so to speak and then letting itself fall back on the gravel by gravity only. After a few seconds, it then burps out a bubble.

Does not feed, does not swim around etc. It has this big bump on its head as well, please see pictures. I do not know if this is normal of this species, but the other goldfish don't have it (although they're orange, not white) and the only other white goldfish in the tank has a red "crown" but not as big as this one.

Is this a tumour? Should I be concerned? I am not sure if the fish is sick or not. I hope one of you out there can recognise this

Thanks!!

Foxy.

 

[Aquarium1]

The bump is normal that's just part of the fish. What size tank is this? Also, you said you had a lot of goldfish in there. How many? Also what are your water parameters?

 

[dkpate]

+1 for A1.
It might have a swim bladder disorder also, which goldfish are prone to.

Here is a good article on the type of goldfish you have (Red Oranda):
Oranda Fancy Goldfish, Carassius auratus

 

[Foxy]

Hi!

Thanks for the reply

This is a 300L tank (70 US gallons I think). The water parameters are fine at 0 for both ammonia and nitrites, this was an established tank I just moved and didn't change filters etc.

The fish was already exhibiting this behaviour for about 2 weeks before the tank was moved anyway. According to the previous owner, he was only depressed because its "partner" died some weeks ago? Is this for real?

The tank is overstocked at the moment, I am trying to find new homes for some of the fish but it's not easy as some of the goldfish in there are quite big.. around 4-5 inches. There are 12 fancy goldfish, 2 small common ones and a 4 inch white Koi.

 

[dkpate]

You can try boiled de-shelled peas, which are a laxative for fish, and that might make it stop sinking.
Get some frozen peas, boil in a coffee cup in the microwave for about 3 minutes, run under cold water, pop the middles out onto a spoon, mush that inside part a little, scoop on finger and then just feed to the fish. All of them can eat it, no worries there.

 

[Aquarium1]

Ok. You'll want to get the 4in koi out first if you can because it will grow the largest. And a 70g can hold about 6 goldfish, so I hope you can find some homes soon maybe put a post on craigslist. +1 for dk, it's probably a swim bladder issue.

 

[dkpate]

Each normal sized goldfish needs about 15 gallons apiece, so that would be around 4.6 goldfish LOL, or 5.

 

[Aquarium1]

Actually, I heard 20 for the first goldie and 10 more for each additional one lol.

 

[dkpate]

Well, wouldn't that be about the same? LOL

Foxy~ BTW, congrats on your fish, and the one in the pic is super cute!

 

[Foxy]

Thanks for the suggestions and the comments This is a super helpful community here. I'm very glad I joined!

I will try out the peas, hopefully he feels better soon! Will let you guys know!

 

[jsoong]

That goldfish is sick! <And I don't mean the slang "good".>

You have a red oranda (that had faded to orange). The growth is the "wen", which is normal. However, the body is severely out of proportion, and "bottom sitting" is indicative of serious problem.

This fish appears severely stunted. The eyes are much too big in proportion to the head, an indication of stunted development. More striking is the size of the body vs the head. It might be a camera angle thing, but the fish looks way too skinny for that head.

A goldfish normally does not just sit at the bottom. That kind of lethargy usually indicates a serious internal condition. That isn't "depression". Chances are, the fish is wasting away from something. <Prob. the same thing that killed the other fish.>

This is a write up on goldfish buoyancy problems:
Buoyancy Issues in Fancy Goldfish | Illness and Treatment

I think the root cause of all the problems is over-crowding. The stress & poor water conditions weaken the immunity of the fish & stunts their growth. Although feeding peas (and shrimp & other fresh food) is a good treatment for various gut disorders in goldfish with swimbladder problems. I am not too optomistic in this case. There is no harm in trying, tho.

The first thing you need to do is to move the koi & the commons to a pond. And re-homing 4-6 of the fancies will be a good start. Meanwhile, do frequent pwc's to maintain water quality. <With an over-crowded tank, you need to do water changes even if the parameters are OK. I would suggest a 25% water change every other day for a week to 10 days to see if clean water will improve the fish's condition. You will need to do 25-50% weekly water changes at a minimum in a tank like this.>

What is the tank temp? Some fancy golds do not do well when the temp is too cold.

A bottom sitting, stunted fish likely is immune compromised & may well have a chronic parasitic or bacterial (tb most likely) infection. If the peas & diet changes don't bring the fish around, some would suggest treating with anti-biotics & anti-parasitic meds on spec. However, I don't think that this will be too useful until the over-crowding in the tank is corrected.

 

[dkpate]

+1 for JSoong, he is the resident goldie expert.

 

[Aquarium1]

+2

 

[Foxy]

Thanks for the very detailed explanation JSoong. After reading this, I got rather panicked and called around a few fish stores and one said they would take the excess of the fish, so I took eight of them to the store and am now left with 5 fancy goldfish and two small common ones (I will relocate these to a pond once they grow a bit bigger).

The store gave me a few white clouds and danios in return. The water temp is around 16-18 C, so far they all look ok although the goldfish tried to eat the small ones initially, but they appear to have abandoned this effort now!

I brought the sick fish to the store and they said they'll put him in a small separate tank and will provide some medication to see if he recovers which was nice of them.

 

[dkpate]

WOW! What a good LFS! Where do you live? Because I think I want to move there LOL! I am glad you did the right thing in re-homing some of them. And I am really glad they are going to try to treat him for you.

 

[Foxy]

Indeed! I was pretty surprised myself. I'm on the other side of the pond in London.

I'm liking the white clouds and danios quite a bit too, very fast swimmers, starting to get the itch for tropical now Haha... I hope I don't go out and buy a second tank soon!!

 

[jsoong]

You found a good lfs! Most of the store here won't take goldfish unless they are of show quality, and they treat sick goldfish as disposable....

I think you will have a much easier time looking after the smaller number of fish in that tank.

Don't even bother resisting the urge to get more tanks ... This hobby is addicting! You are going to end up with a dozen tanks and a pond in no time!!!