PH 7.5
NH3- 10ppm
rest Zero

My moor, Palmer, is acting listless...his fins are all out, not rubbing on anything, dorsol fin high, but he will sink to the bottom and sit there (his usual sleeping spot is elseware) and wthen will lay on the bottom like he asleep, he has no visble sores, he fins in high, and he is well aware of his surroundings, but I have been keeping a watchful high on this tank and I don't like how he is acting...


Anyone know if this is a illness, what it could be?

how long have you had him and is he still quite young?

I have had him for 1-2 months now, and yep, he young...he now only about a inch long not including the tail...

Going by these water parameters, it looks like your tank isn't cycled yet. You need to get your Nitrite (NH3) levels down to 0, and get your Nitrate (NH2) levels up. Start doing water changes - what size is your tank and how many fish have you got in there?

Ok, been a while since I had chemestry, but isn't

NH3 - AMmonna
NH2- Nitrite
NH3- - Nitrate

the NITRATE is 10ppm...

nitrite is nh 2 and nitrate nh3

i would say the tank is cycled and that the fish is just resting. I saw this a lot in my own fish and they would just stand and drift up and down in the tank with all the fins out. Being young still it will need litle cat naps through the day. If you see the fins up then i would assume nothing is wrong.

Whenever I see my fish resting more than usual or not acting quite the way I think they should, I do a large water change. Just to see if it perks them up

I would change about 40 - 50% of the water. It can't hurt and see what happens

BTW, how big is your tank and are there any other fish in with Palmer?

the tank in question is my 55 gallon with 3 francys, and a london Shub (with 640 GPH of filters) with five white clouds as well.

I did another 5 gallons of water change to make sure ...

Hopefully its just that he taking a cat nap to let himself grow but I will be keeping a eye out for him. perhaps he didn't get a good nights sleep and needs to take a sesta....I can hope

How much water do you normally change and how often?

I do a 10 percent change (5 gallons plus evap refill) each sunday, then test it 1 hour later, if the NH3- is not under 10, I do another one....

In this case, I did the five gallons, but even though the NH3- is below 10, I did a extra one just in case...


In my two tropicals, I do a 20 percent weekly

and in my 29 gallon I do a almost 20 percent cahnge (5 gallons) per week...

I have found that my goldfish do much better with larger water changes weekly. I do around 30% water changes on my larger tanks weekly and on the smaller ones (the 10 - 20 gallon ones), I do 50% water changes.

Just my experience, but goldfish seem to need a fair amount of water changed per week.

I would recommend that you up your weekly water change on your 55 gallon tank to around 25 - 30%.

Well, I not going to do water changes unless I have sick fish when my NH3- is under 5ppm. To do more is overkill. I cannot use a python and on each water change I also vac the gravel.


Today

Ph 7.5
NH3 0
NH2- 0
NH3- under 5ppm

Palmer is still acting strange, he has bursts of energy then he floats to the bottom and lies their, however his fins are out and he has no other signs of being stressed or anything, perhaps he is having Swimbladder problems and his swimbladder is not fuctioning right and sinking him. I have set up my medical tank with .2% salt (already at .1% in case there is any other signs of illness.

Been looking over, I am almost sure its swimbladder, and he just done some curling in the backbone.


Gonna put him in the higher salt medical tank and buy some peas, but it doesn't look good for palmer

I can only tell you what I have learned from experience, and in my experience, to do only a 10% water change weekly in a tank of goldfish is not enough. Water changes are the key to keeping goldfish healthy, in my opinion. Filters can only do so much and water changes are what will keep your goldfish healthy and happy.

I know that changing 25 - 30% of the water in a 55 gallon tank is a big job, but unfortunately when keeping goldfish, pristine water is paramount.

Goldfish excrete far more bodily wastes than tropical or marine fish. In those tanks, you can have healthy collections with smaller and less frequent water changes. Also, water changes do more than reduce nitrates. They also remove harmful bacteria which can rise and cause health problems such as swimbladder.

Anyway, I hope Palmer can recover, and all I can do here to to try and give you my opinion and what I have learned over the years.

Good luck and please keep me posted

I will, but I am not sure how much more pristine one can get in a tank then

NH3 0
NH2- 0
NH3- under 5 ppm

Just wanted to add that my fish (all four of them) are about 7 inches all together, they are all small, I relize as they get bigger, I will have to do bigger waterchanges, but Thats what test kits are for

thing is though, test kits dont show you bacteria in the tank. theres good bacteria as well as the bad and its vital you do large enough water changes to keep the bad bacteria as low as possible.

Yes, Sandy, exactly. Harmful bacterial levels in tanks can't be measured with test kits.

wouldnt it be great though if you could get a test for different types of bacteria? instead of having to culture them, have a dip test and if any change colour then hey presto you know you really need to do a water change!

I agree with the larger water changes. I do a change of about 30% weekly but then oftentimes I do an additional water change mid week. My fish seem to really love the fresh water coming in. I can tell the enjoy it.

Hope Palmer gets better soon.