MyFishTank.Net Freshwater Saltwater Aquarium Fish Forum - Goldfish/Coldwater Discussion

Goldfish Tail Classification

Nemo'sMom — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:43:26 GMT

I posted this question in the general forum but probably should have posted here.
I have what I believe to be a calico ryukin with very long fins. My question is about his tail. He has all 4 lobes to his tail but the upper two are joined along the top edge. I have, just out of curiosity, tried to find the proper name for this kind of tail. I ran across the term "tripod tail" but what I can gather is that is a tail that is a single tail on the top and a double tail on the bottom - 3 lobes not 4. I found one book that listed the term "web tail" but I'm not sure if that is correct either. Newman said he refers to them as "fan tails" but fantails is a type of goldfish and their tails should technically be fully divided.
I know this is a "fault" in the fish, but I have no intentions of showing or breeding this fish, I am simply curious. Anyone ever come across this?

Can goldfish eat snails??

beckyd — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:02:22 GMT

I don't mean can they physically accomplish it, I mean will it hurt them? My goldfish tank is next to a window and thus gets some algae growth. A friend gave me some medium sized snails with a pile of little babies. By the next day, the little ones were gone. And the fish were fat and happy. Today, one is dead. He was not ill appearing. Did eating the baby snails give him an obstruction and kill him? If so, is there anything I can do to save the other two from the same fate? This was about a 4 inch(body length) 2 yr old ryukin. The others are similar in size and age.

Ryukin is mopey, constipated!

vo1umeone — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:27:27 GMT

Help! I'm so worried! I'm panicking. Please please help!
As some of you may know, I have a medium ryukin (Beautiful Tank), medium black moor (Charlie), a small pleco (Mr. Pleco) and a very small telescope and very small oranda. They are in a 29 gal without a lid. I know it could get a little crowded, but it looks like there is plenty of room and I do water changes. The tank has proper filtration and a bubbler.

Beautiful tank has been moping around the tank lately for the last week or even two. He has long, stringy poo. Sometimes it is a clear color. I checked his gills a few days ago and I thought they were fine, but they may have been a little light colored. He sits on the bottom of the tank and gulps for air. His dorsal fin is flopped and his tail is down. He often falls and stumbles around when he is swimming... Also his tails seem to get caught on things in the tank so i just took out all of the plants. now that is tail is ragged from mr pleco, i dont want this to get worse

Today I just got home from school and he was lying upside down in the corner and Mr pleco was munching away at his tail! Now his tail has some little holes and thin spots from Mr pleco on his fins on the ends. Mr Pleco does this to my other fish too he follows them around and tries to suck on them. I'm so sad for my ryukin. I put the pleco in the 10 gal tank underneath which has 2 fruit tetras, a tiny ghost fish, and a black molly.

He is so sad and mopey. I feed them Hikari Gold and some TetraColor granules. Pleco gets algae discs now and then. I thought at first Beautiful Tank was just constipated, so I was giving him peas and some corn and carrots.

Well now Charlie the black moor hasbeen mopey and sits around sometimes.

It could be the water quality. The woman at Petsmart told me that there was an itty bitty trace of ammonia so I should just do a few water changes (I use a syphoner) every other day to clean up the water. Well I was doing this but my fish aren't getting better.

I'm going to try to go to the store soon before work and get the water tested. Could they have parasites? Bacteria? There are no other signs-- no spots or worms sticking out or anything.

Charlie did just get over fin rot and the treatment was for 7 days and now he is healing up. I used Pimafix. Now that hes being mopey too, I am wondering if I should treat them with RidIch because I keep thinking there are parasites. What worries me is that RidIch is strong stuff and I don't want it to bother Charlie's healing tail.

Does there happen to be any miracle water-perfecting solution i could use? Any good brands you'd recommend?

Ahhhh. I'll come back with the water test results later tonight but if anyone could give me some advice it would help i am afraid Beautiful Tank is going to die and I love my fish very much. I don't want to be a bad fish owner :'< Please help!