Goldfish won't swim??

[smedley]

Hi,
I'm new to the boards. We have a 180 gallon tank, with 3 fantail orandas.
1 of the fish is fine, swimming around and feeding as normal, but the other 2 have started laying on their sides on the bottom of the tank. They can still swim, as they will get up and swim over to eat, but do absolutely nothing but lay the rest of the time. Can anyone shed any light on what could be wrong with them please? I'm kind of at my wits end as to what to do, there is a filter and aeration system in the tank, and they don't appear to be diseased.

Thanks in advance.

Smedley.

 

[smedley]

No suggestions? Anyone?

 

[Fish Friend]

do they have a fat belly ? can you put a pic on here and give us your water parameters, that will help us alot to finding out whats up with the fish...

 

[Dragonett]

Telling us your water parameters would help.

 

[smedley]

Ok, will try to take some picture tonight and post them, water parameters? I'm not sure what you mean by this? Yes they are the fat bellied variety of fish though.

 

[ComHam]

Water paramteres, y'know, nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, ph etc. Use test kits.

 

[Fish Friend]

yeah.... water parameters are your water readings.. like comham said, pH, GH, KH, nitrates...blah blah blah ...

 

[smedley]

Ok, will need to go to the local store and pick up a test kit, will let u guys know as soon as I have results. Thanks.

 

[Fish Friend]

ok you do i suppoose you dont have to get all of those kits like GH KH... i only have No2 and pH

 

[fwishee]

knowing the water parameters will definately help.

is the tank cycled?

 

[smedley]

Work turned insane the past couple of weeks, so I haven't been able to check the parameters (bad fish owner), I'm hoping to get a chance to get to the fish place over the weekend, in which case I should have the parameters at the beginning of the week. If by cycled you mean a filtering pump, then yes it does have one. We also change out water, once a week usually, but occasionally it's once a fortnight.

 

[pillowchii]

How much of the water do you change, and do you remove the fish during the process? Cause I'm thinking it could be either stress, or even possibly ammonia poisoning. Where i work at we've had that problem with our koi pond display, and several of the goldfish began behaving in the same way your's are. But with ammonia poisoning, usually you can see redness of the gills, signs of injury, etc. So...hmmmmm. It's a mystery

Oh, and by "cycled" we mean aged water. It usually takes at LEAST a month to really get a tank balanced. Cycled means that the natural bacteria that break down bad chemicals from fish waste have grown and reached a balance among themselves, so your water levels don't go crazy like a lot of new fish tanks do.

 

[JNevaril]

eeeeek.....

i am constantly checking my water levels!!! you almost have to!!

get those levels up for us to see!!!

 

[PerfectAngel]

I"m wondering myself what happened.. did you got teh test kit? u may want to just get Ammonia and Nitrate-Nitrite-Ph strips.. seems like you have a lot of business time, so they take like a minute to read and test.. very simple....

Since i have goldfish i was told to Vacuum with the water change... it's amazing how much stuff is in that gravel... those plastic vacuums are like 5-10 dollars depending on where you buy it and how big.. if you aren't doing that i'm passing on the info to do it.. will keep it cleaner .

Hope the fish are okay Orandas are so beautiful

 

[JNevaril]

pssst...perfectangel.....that's how pretty much everybody changes their water...

vaccuums are a WONDERFUL invention!!! I love mine, I go thru about 3 a year....maybe i should switch to a python system....(those are cool too!)

 

[smedley]

OK sorry I've not been around but I have done the tests, results as follows.

NO3- - 250mg a litre
NO2- - 0mg a litre
GH - >16 d
KH - 3 d
PH - 6.8

Changes out 2 buckets (gallon buckets) of water every couple of weeks, using the vacuum for the gravel, leaving the fish in the tank. No change in the two fish by the way. No obvious illness signs, other than the lack of swimming, still eating ok. The third fish is absolutely fine and shows no sign of illness or stopping swimming lol!

 

[Lotus]

Your NO3 (nitrates) are really high, and this could be affecting the health of your fish. The nitrates should be kept at under 40 mg/l. Ideally, you should change out around 25% of the water (that's 45 gallons) every week or two to keep your fish in top condition.

I would recommend you get a Python Water Changer to make water changes easier (no buckets needed).

 

[smedley]

OK, will try changing out some more of the water see if this helps. Not sure if I'll be able to get a Python water changer over here, we're in the UK.
Is there anything I can do for an immediate improvement? Would it be worth using one of the nitrate adjusters? Or is this not recommended? Also is there anything else other than changing out more of the water that would help keep the nitrates under control? I will report back if this has had any effect, seems odd that it's only 2 of the fish that are affected.

 

[Lotus]

Changing water is really the only way to reduce nitrates. I wouldn't use chemicals to try to solve the problem, they often create more problems than they solve.

 

[smedley]

Ok, changing additional water it is then. Does anyone from the UK know if we can get the python water changers over here anywhere? If it's available and does a good job I'd be willing to make the investment.