Goldiemomma
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Hi Everyone -
I've not yet had a chance to post an intro on the site, but I have a sick goldfish and I'm looking for some advice/guidance.
I guess about a year ago, one of my two (Comet) goldfish started having some swim bladder issues. They were always of the positive buoyancy type, and relatively minor - he'd look just a bit floaty at the tail end and the situation would resolve in a day or two. During some of these episodes, he'd have a bit of bulging on his right side between his ventral and anal fins - a situation I chalked up to constipation. He'd always appear hungry and energetic - no lethargy or unusual/concerning behavior.
About 3 months ago, I upgraded my tank from a 30 gal to 75 gal., cycled first to establish a good ecosystem and then transferred the fish. It was around this time that I noticed the little guy had a red streak in his dorsal fin, which I thought might be injury either from the transfer process or his larger tank mate (who is and has pretty much always been a big bully around feeding time - in fact even though they are approximately the same age, the little guy is 1/3-1/5 the size of the big one.)
Fast forward to the past few days, and the little one now is having a negative buoyancy issue - mostly lethargic, sitting on the bottom and tilting to his left side. I've noticed a few small red spots on his body - I'm assuming they are related to the red streak in his dorsal fin.
A few notes on my set up - it's a 75 gal, with a Fluval FX4 canister filter, UV filter, and bubbler. Water parameters are (and have consistently been) 0ppm Ammonia, 0ppm Nitrite, 5-40ppm Nitrate, pH 7.8. I primarily feed them Repashy, sometimes greens, peas, and bug bites. For a long period of time I fed them mostly Omega One pellets, but switched when the little guy started having the positive buoyancy issues.
I've added some API stress coat and started a round of API General Cure treatment in case it's related to some kind of infection, and I'm fasting the little guy. I'm not sure what else to try.
I have no doubt he's stressed - I thought moving them to a 75 gal would help alleviate some of the bullying behavior around feeding time, but if anything it's only gotten worse. So I'm sure that could be a contributing factor.
Is there something I might be missing? Anything else I might consider trying?
I'd be grateful for any thoughts/advice. Please let me know if I can provide any additional information that might be helpful in figuring this out.
Thanks so much!
I've not yet had a chance to post an intro on the site, but I have a sick goldfish and I'm looking for some advice/guidance.
I guess about a year ago, one of my two (Comet) goldfish started having some swim bladder issues. They were always of the positive buoyancy type, and relatively minor - he'd look just a bit floaty at the tail end and the situation would resolve in a day or two. During some of these episodes, he'd have a bit of bulging on his right side between his ventral and anal fins - a situation I chalked up to constipation. He'd always appear hungry and energetic - no lethargy or unusual/concerning behavior.
About 3 months ago, I upgraded my tank from a 30 gal to 75 gal., cycled first to establish a good ecosystem and then transferred the fish. It was around this time that I noticed the little guy had a red streak in his dorsal fin, which I thought might be injury either from the transfer process or his larger tank mate (who is and has pretty much always been a big bully around feeding time - in fact even though they are approximately the same age, the little guy is 1/3-1/5 the size of the big one.)
Fast forward to the past few days, and the little one now is having a negative buoyancy issue - mostly lethargic, sitting on the bottom and tilting to his left side. I've noticed a few small red spots on his body - I'm assuming they are related to the red streak in his dorsal fin.
A few notes on my set up - it's a 75 gal, with a Fluval FX4 canister filter, UV filter, and bubbler. Water parameters are (and have consistently been) 0ppm Ammonia, 0ppm Nitrite, 5-40ppm Nitrate, pH 7.8. I primarily feed them Repashy, sometimes greens, peas, and bug bites. For a long period of time I fed them mostly Omega One pellets, but switched when the little guy started having the positive buoyancy issues.
I've added some API stress coat and started a round of API General Cure treatment in case it's related to some kind of infection, and I'm fasting the little guy. I'm not sure what else to try.
I have no doubt he's stressed - I thought moving them to a 75 gal would help alleviate some of the bullying behavior around feeding time, but if anything it's only gotten worse. So I'm sure that could be a contributing factor.
Is there something I might be missing? Anything else I might consider trying?
I'd be grateful for any thoughts/advice. Please let me know if I can provide any additional information that might be helpful in figuring this out.
Thanks so much!