Sick Goldfish?

Lyruxx · Feb 23, 2015

Hello everyone, I am new to this site and am not sure if I am posting to the correct thread. :\
But I have a question about my goldfish.

I have had my 20 gallon tank set up for a month now and have had the fish for 5 weeks. I currently have 1 medium sized black (big eyes) goldfish, a smaller black goldfish, a medium sized orange goldfish (she is shown in my profile picture), a smaller orange goldfish 3 small tiger barbs, 2 flower fish, and a dragon fish which spends most of its life in the rock cave.
The other day, I noticed that one of the smaller goldfish was acting weird and had black stuff covering her body and face so I moved her to a separate tank. Thinking the problem would clear itself, she died last night. Now I am worried that she had a disease and gave it to my other fish because my bigger goldfish is acting weird now. She's staying in one place of the tank, swimming in circles on a tilt, staying up near the top of the water, or swimming almost upside down. I'm not sure what is going on.
And if a goldfish gets sick, can the non-goldfish fish get sick, too?

libertybelle · Feb 23, 2015

I don't know what a flower fish or a dragon fish is (you don't mean the brackish dragon goby do you?) but I can already tell with that many goldfish your tank is massively overstocked. How big are the goldfish now? They can get like a foot long so medium is not a super helpful descriptor.

If it's as overstocked as I think it is, it could be any number of problems all stemming from the basic problem of poor water quality.

If you're going to get any help people are going to need more information about your tank - water parameters - water change schedule etc. (check out the 'read before posting' sticky and provide as much of that information as you can)

SushiRoll · Feb 23, 2015

Are all of those fish in the same tank? If so I'm pretty sure gold fish require at least a 55 gallon tank but I'm not 100% sure on this.

Sent from my iPod touch using Aquarium Advice

Mattyfelts · Feb 23, 2015

im guessing your parameters are gone horribe. just looking at the stock yo u have tropical (78*) and cold water fish (needing lower temps)... your dramatically overstocked. goldfish really need huge tanks. do you mean a dragon goby?

i would rehome it all and start over from scratch. how was the tank cycled? what are your parameters and water change schedule

libertybelle · Feb 23, 2015

The stocking is definitely problematic. We can't give you any advice that will allow you to keep cold water goldfish tropical barbs and brackish fish all in the same way too small tank. So unless you do something your fish will continue to get sick and die until they are in appropriate conditions. That's not a fun way to keep fish! So hopefully you will take steps to prevent this from happening.

So what to do about it.

The dragon fish if that's what it is, can get over 2 feet long. It would be way overstocked by itself in your current tank. Frankly unless you can afford to do a major tank upgrade and give it its own home with appropriate conditions it should be re-homed.

If your flower fish is a flower horn cichlid than that thing can reach nearly a foot too. It is recommended in tanks no smaller than 55-70 gallons. Again unless you can afford to put in that size aquarium you should find new digs.

Both of those fish will have no problem eating your barbs when they get big enough.

If you rehome those 2 fish and move the tropical fish (barbs) to their own tank (heated appropriately) you might be able to get by *temporarily* with the goldfish in the 20 (with LOTS of water changes)

Unless the goldfish are juvi's and you know you'll be able to get a much larger tank soon, the goldfish should go back to the fish store too. Set up a nice tropical aquarium with schools of small fish. Could be great!

Mattyfelts · Feb 23, 2015

theres no conceivable way to have 5 goldfish in 20... period

QuakingAspen · Feb 23, 2015

I will bypass the stocking issues of the tank, but it is very overstocked. If your goldfish has no sign of injury, fungus, sick feces, or bacterial infection, it is probably something wrong with the swim bladder which is actually pretty common. Goldfish are omnivores but mainly herbivores and any cases of a dysfunctional swim bladder should be treated with an increase in vegetable ration or an addition of veggies for tanks that don't feed vegetables. What I feed my black moor (this is what your black goldfish with the big eyes is called) and other fish are mostly peas and cucumbers but occasionally romaine and celery. If your fish is unbalanced, it has an issue with its swim bladder and can be pretty easily cured.

Coursair · Feb 23, 2015

You need to do some massive water changes, probably daily till you can rehome or buy 2-3 big tanks, if you want to keep some of these fish. Use Prime.

Test water daily.

They are not compatible.

Barbs and Dragon Goby(?) need heated water. And meat based diet.

Common/Comet Goldfish need ponds. 40g per fish approx as babies.

Fancy Goldfish need a separate pond or big tank with 4x filtration. Plant based sinking diet.

Fancies 29g first fish and about 20g per fish after that as babies. Bigger as adults.

Fancies can't compete with regular GF, not a good long term mix.

Decide if you want to buy big tanks. If not, NONE of these fish can thrive long term in a 20g. IME. Even the Barbs will do better in groups of 6+ and I recommend min 30g tank or bigger.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...uire-big-tanks-visual-perspective-265871.html

Sorry to be so negative, we just want your fish to live.

For now as a quick and dirty solution ?

You can buy used tanks or buy Rubbermaid tubs or bins. Separate your GF. Into two tubs if you have comets and Fancies. Try to get them into as big as you can afford. 40g or bigger.

You can buy used or DIY filters using buckets and plastic scrubbers. There are a ton of vids on YouTube.