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Why are my goldfish acting strange?

My goldfish is acting strange... help?

  • I've never seen my pearlscale do this before. He is lying on his back against the side of the tank, still breathing, and if I tap the tank, he'll move, but then he'll go back to the side of the tank. Do you think something's wrong with him, or is this normal goldfish behavior?

  • Answer:

    I think something is wrong with him, this is not normal behaviour. You don't describe any other physical symptoms so I think that the problem is most likely environmental; there is something wrong with his tank or the water. You need to test your tank water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Ammonia needs to be 0, nitrite likewise and nitrates less than 20. If you are showing levels above this then do water changes to bring them down. If you havn't done water changes in a while (over a month or so) don't change more than 30% of the water, but do this every day until levels are normal. If you are showing levels above this possible causes include new tank syndrome (uncycled tank) in which case consult www.aquariacentral.com or similar website, or do a search on the nitrogen cycle. Other possible causes include over-feeding (the food will break down to ammonia if uneated and the bacteria colony needs time to increase to deal with this). Check your temperature; it should be not less than 55F. Check your Ph - between 6.5 to 7.5 is about right but don't worry if it is slightly outside this range as long as it hasn't fluctuated since you have had the tank Check all your equipment (heaters, filters, powerheads, airstones, bubble wands) are working properly. Consider whether you have recently added anything to the tank (decor, fish). If decor, remove now. If fish have you observed any conflict ? If so you may need to re-home somebody. Have you cleaned your filter ? If so did you run it under tap water - this will kill your beneficial bacteria and lead to cycling problems as described above. If not, again you may have cycling problems due to poor circulation. I would not tap the tank; your fish sounds stressed and this will add to it. Consider turning any lights off and covering the tank with a towel while you try and diagnose the problem. If you have in fact seen other physical symptoms you shoud describe them and you will get better advice. When describing give details of your maintenance regime, history of the tank including size and other inhabitants, and equipment running.

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The problem is the one gallon bowl. Goldfish cannot live in that situation. Each of those fish you have need 10 gallons a peice! You are bound to have unfixable problems in that bowl. They do need a heater! Mid to high 70's are ideal for goldfish and stable temperatures make them less prone to disease. When they die go get one beta to live in there, and change the water at least once a week. Purified water needs buffer, the ph is unstable without it, in a bowl I would suggest changing the water every hour day and night. The water went foul on the first day you put them in there. Just because its clear doesn't mean its clean! They are dieing from ammonia poisoning and I'm afraid there is not much you can do.

Sunday P

My Fish Had This For A long Time And then He Just Died..SOO.SORRY....IT MIGHT NOT HAPPEN TO YOU...

Jackie B

I would say there might be something wrong, u can get treatments for common problems with fish to put in their tanks. I have no luck with fish no matter how hard i try and follow all the instructions they always seem to end up with white spot or fin rot!! i even had loads of infirmary tanks where they were seperated to stop infection spreading! i gave up keeping them in the end. Anyway mine always acted the same way shortly before other symptoms arrived!

BABY BELL

He is definitely not well. Go to the link below and post in the Tropical Fish Emergencies section. People are very knowledgeable and ehlpful.

rdd1952

A friend of mine's goldfish does this on an everyday basis, and its been happening for a really long time... so he should be okay.

projectmayhem182

This does not sound good. I think there is something real bad with him. Is he old? Has he had a suddenly change of water temperature? Actually I think he is dieing, sorry...

mimmi_swe

the problem is the size of the tank as the person above me said. there's not enough room for even one goldfish in there. there are two main reasons goldfish need lots of room: 1. they are VERY dirty 2. they get very big. fancies get 6-8inches, and commons get up to 16-18 inches sometimes. this means that even if you keep the water in the bowl crystal clear you can't use a bowl. it will stunt the goldfish, which means they stop growing the the outside, BUT their insides still grow. very painful. and a slow death. you should get them at least a 20gallon tank, but preferably a 30+gallon. normally I'd say to cycle the tank before even thinking about adding the goldfish, but they seem to be in pretty bad shape, so I would instead suggest adding them right away and just keep a close eye on the levels of everything like ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, ect... you'll need to do frequent partial water changes until the tank has cycled. here's a great site about cylcing: http://www.kokosgoldfish.com/cycle.html and the main page, it has a lot of great stuff about goldfish: .http://www.kokosgoldfish.com/index.html

Kylie Anne

Mines just done that! I went down to get my hair cut and i came back up and it wa dead!

lovemaster1995p

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