What to do in this situation?

[thewiggles]

Hi,

We have a fancy goldfish around 6 years old. He is in a 120L tank on his own, and we change 20% of his water weekly.

Previously, he had red streaks in his fins, and they never really went away. However, in the last 2 days he has been really ill.

He showed red around his gills, lying on the bottom a lot (which he used to do all the time since he was young), and then ended up at the top on his side. He also appears to be gasping.

His water parameters are NO2 = 0, NO3 = 20ppm, his pH is 6, and hardness is 0. He appeared to rally a bit just a few hours ago, but is now in a bottom corner partly on his side and almost shivering.

So, what do you suggest? We have performed several water changes over the last few days, and those are the readings from just 10 minutes ago.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Do you know if ammonia is present? The symptoms you are seeing is consistent with ammonia issues.

Is that pH and 0 hardness a sudden thing or has it always been that low?

 

[thewiggles]

I think ammonia was present, but it is now at 0. It was never sky-high.

For the pH and hardness, the pH is always between 6 and 6.5 and the hardness is always at 0.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Ammonia poisoning is a long term thing. If your fish was living in ammonia over an extended period of time some time in the recent past it could only be showing now, even though your water is no longer showing any ammonia.

If its ammonia issues, the only cure for this that i know of is clean water and time.

The low (zero) ammonia could be due to all the water changes you have been doing, so it could return.

The water hardness you are seeing, is this general hardness (GH) or carbonate hardness (KH )/alkalinity (KH and alkalinity are similar and the KH test actually measures alkalinity)? If you have no carbonate hardness this could cause your pH to crash and alkalinity is important to your tanks cycle. 0 KH could explain why you are seeing ammonia.

Are you seeing similar pH and hardness from your tap water (or whatever water you are using)?

 

[thewiggles]

I just tested my tap water and I get the same readings...so both KH and GH is at 0 and the pH is closer to 6 than 6.5