I had a calico ryunkin, but then he died of a very seriuos disease (I know this cuz he when he died he wasn't upside down and floating I now have a golden fantail (who is just fne) and a comet who is showing the same symptoms. I am a new fish owner (only had them for up to 5 months) and have taken good care of them so far (I clean out their tank every two weeks or/and when needed) I have a wide variety of foods I give them and I only give them 3-4 meals a day (small meals too). The water is like this-
ammonia- .25 ppm
nitrate- 40 ppm
nitrite- .5 ppm
ph- 7.0 range
alkalinity- very low (working on that)
water hardness- 300+ (working on that too)

They have air stones in there tank and have a live plant in there too. My comets symptoms are floating on the bottom of the tank, very slow or not eating at all, slow breathing, dorsal fin down, and pelvic fins ripped and deterating. This all started when I noticed that my calicos and comets fins were ripped, so I ended up putting MelaFix in the tank. After a week of the med. I did a 25% water change and thats when the symptoms appeared. It only took a couple of days for it to kill my calico but my comet has been hangin in there. I hav tried a lot of things but I dont know what too do. Can anyone help me plz???? I cant handle losing another fish.

It's not a disease ailing/killing your fish, it's the water quality. Your tank is still cycling. You're nearly out of the woods with ammonia, but you have a good amount of nitrites in your water, and those can be just as deadly. You could try doing frequent (daily or every few days) water changes to lower the levels of both ammonia and nitrite. Adding 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt for every 5 US gallons will protect your fish from the nitrites that are present. You can use aquarium salt, solar salt, water softening salt, canning salt, pickling salt, kosher salt, even table salt - just be sure what you're using is sodium chloride salt that does NOT contain anti-caking agents (iodized salt is fine). You can add this doseage of salt all at once, just be sure to dissolve the salt in some removed tank water first. When you do water changes, you need to replace the salt you've taken out. So for instance, if you replace 20% of the water, also add 20% of your original salt doseage back to the tank. When your nitrites are gone and your tank is finally cycled (0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and measurable nitrates) then you can stop adding the salt. You don't have to worry about getting the salt that's in there out ASAP, just let it reduce with water changes as you do them.

How big is your tank? When you say you "clean out" the tank, what does that consist of? You never need to clean the tank out entirely (wash everything down, replace all the water, etc.), only change out a portion of the tank water and vaccum the gravel (if you have it) weekly and tend to the filter as needed.

You say you're "working on" your low alkalinity and high mineral content. Are you adding anything to the tank or doing anything the water at present to alter these levels?

My tank is 10 gallons. I change 25% of the water, cleaen the gravel and the toys, change the filter and clean the it, and I scraped the algae off the sides of the tank. Right now I don't have anything that for the water hardness but if you have some suggestions about what to use I'll take it. I am using a ph up in order to boost the alkalinity. I also add some water conditioner (Kordons NovAqua).

I added the salt (3 tablespoons) and right now my comet is swimming (not perfectly) but I think that the salt might have helped with that. Least hes not on the bottom. I'm smackin myself for thinkin it was a disease. If you or anyone else has more info on what to do I'll be glad to take it.

What kind of filter do you have? How many media compartments does it have? Most people start out with a power filter with only one media compartment (usually some filter floss wrapped around a plastic piece, sometimes with carbon inside). If your filter only has one media slot like this, then your filter media is serving not only as mechanical filtration (filtering the crud out of the water) but as biological filtration as well. Are you familiar with biofiltration or the cycling process? Basically the just of all this is: if you only have one media section in your tank, replacing it means your tank has to re-cycle. When it needs cleaning, squeeze it out in some removed tank water, and if you absolutely have to replace it, tear off a bit of the old filter pad and put it in with your new one to "seed" it with "good bacteria.

Is the pH up helping? What is your alkalinity at now?

It is difficult to lower GH. What is your exact reading? I would probably suggest you just leave it where it is at.

I am using Aqua Tech carbonized filters. I don't know how many media slots there are, actually i have no idea what media slots are? told u im new at this. ANyhow, im not sure if the ph up is helping since i havn't tested it yet and i am not sure if i want to test it till tomorrow. Im not sure what gh is so can you explain that to me? sry, but im a bit of an idiot. Oh and thxs for helping me with my water conditioner.

Don't be so hard on yourself - you're not an idiot, you're just learning.

GH is "general hardness" - the "hardness", or mineral content, of your water.

"Media slots" are the places in the filter that hold the filter media. Some filters, depending on the type and size, have 2 or more of these. If your filter only holds one filter pad, it has one media slot. If this is the case, you should clean your filter media as I described in my last message and only replace the media when necessary. I am not familiar with AquaTech filters - what sort of filter media do you use? Is it made out of quilt batting-like material with carbon inside, or is it more like a sponge insert?

Overfeeding could be adding to your high ammonia and nitrites. 3 - 4 meals a day sounds a lot. Try cutting it back to just twice a day (you'll have to ignore the begging!!!). Say all they can eat in 2mins each time, then once your water quality is good again you can increase that to all they can eat in 3 minutes twice a day. This really is plenty and they will do just fine with it.

As for cleaning your tank - In a cycled tank it is generally only necessary to do one 30% partial water change per week (as long as the tank isn't overstocked) with a thorough gravel vacuum at the same time. You mention that you only change the water every two weeks so this isn't helping your water quality, especially as you are a little bit overstocked. In your tank you should probably be doing 2 30% water changes per week to maintain water quality. As yours is a bit off at the moment I'd increase that to every day if you can, or every other day just until it's all under control again. The reduction in feeding will help speed things up so it shouldn't be long until everythings fine again.

TO HAPPYGOLDFISH- I am not sure if gh is hard to lower or not, but when you live in arizona the water would probably fall under the hard catagory. I was thinking about trying to lower it, so if you have any suggestions, I'll take them. As for the media slots, I think I have 1 but I am not quite sure. My filter is an Aqua Tech 5-15 power filter. The filters itself have this rough material on one side, carbon in the middle, and black plastic w/ many holes on the other. Hope this will help. Oh, thxs for saying i'm not an idiot. I just feel like it a lot of the time.

FISHYFAN- Thxs for your opinion. Right now I am not feeding them commercial foods but veggies like cucumbers, cabbage, ect... I was thinking of taking your advice and cleaning out there tank every day till it is fully cycled. After that I'll clean it out once a week but do water changes twice a week.

Here is my levels of water-
ammonia- .25 still
nitrate- 40
ph- 7.6
nitrite- 0- .5 (can't really tell where it is at other than in between)
Alkalinity- 80-120
Hardness- 300

Hope this helps you guys. thxs for helping me. My fish is doing a little bit better but not much. oh, well. He'll pull through i hope.

I forgot to ask if you thought that the reason why my water is out of whack because of the MelaFix or because of me? You don't have to answer it if you don't want to but I am just a bit curious.

I don't think my comets eating. I haven't seen him eat in a while and he hasn't touched the cabbage. I just stuck some shrimp pellets in there just to see what he would do (I soaked them first) but he ran away from them. Do you think its just because hes not hungry or what? plx help.

Hi and hope I can help a little here! Your comet is probably just stressed from the cycling of the tank. Sometimes it stresses them so much they wont eat. I agree to cut back to only about one feeding a day. Less food equals less waste equals lower ammonia and nitrite! Im not sure where you live but do you have fish stores around you? You could look for a product called BioSpira by Marineland. It will get that ammonia and nitrite down pretty quickly and will be much less stress on your fish. Its not a medicine, its bacteria which you need to build up in your tank.

You said youre running the AquaTech 5-15 filter, so does that mean you have a 10 gallon? It sounds a little overstocked and that could be why its so hard to cycle. Keep monitoring the ammoina and nitrite and do a water change every day as long as it takes to keep them down. Dont worry, you may even have to do 50% wc daily until it comes down.Also be sure and remove any uneaten bits of food and dont leave the veggies in there for too long, they'll pollute the tank.

Now, your nitrates are at 40 which means that you do have some bacteria living in your tank, and thats good. Im confused about why there would still be ammonia and nitrite though.It could be from throwing out an old filter cartridge and replacing it, because thats where a lot of your good bacteria live. ANyway like I said just watch your feedings and keep monitoring your water.

About the fish who died first, fish dont float until after theyve been dead for some time.

My fish seems to be breathing rather slow. Sometimes he looks like hes not breathing at all. Is this realated to the water? What does it mean? i hate seeing him like this. it makes my so upset.

I just asked my mom if I caould by some stuff to help cycle the tank and she yelled at me. She's very mean sometimes. Sometimes to the point of wanting to smack her silly. hehhehehe. anyhoo, she said something about spending too much or something, i tend to daze off when someone yells at me but is there anyway to help speed up the cycle of the tank w/out any type of med.? You all probably think i'm absolutly nutz asking all these question and saying that my mom is evil.

Sorry for the god-knows-how-many post but I had an idea. What if I were to take the plant and toys out. The plant is just causing excess ammonia right now (they havn't touched it for awhile) and the toys are just in the way. If I do this I will be able to help maintain there aquarium better. It's just a thought.

I just syphoned out there tank again today, and omg was it disgusting (i ended up swallowing some of there water too, gross.22 it could kill a person) I think i'm gonna syphon it out more than once a day for now because that is disgusting. thats worse than rat posion.... lol.

yay. My water levels have gone down a little-
ammonia- .25 still
nitrate- 20
nitrite- 0 (i think the test is one of those strips)
ph- 7.5
alkilinity- 120 (should i get this higher)
hardness- 300 (i don't have anything to reduce this yet)

Is this good or bad? I don't know. Will some one help me?

I'm not sure about alkilinity or Hardness, but I know that the eventual goal is to get your ammonia and nitrites down to 0.

I have an aqua-tech filter too. Does yours take those little flat cartridges with the blue fuzz on one side and the black plastic backing? If so, what I do when they need to be changed, is take a pair of scissors, and cut some of the old grundgie blue fuzz off. I then put the fresh cartridge in the filter, along with a hunk of the old blue fuzz stuff.

The old blue fuzz has good bacteria in it, and you want to use that to help create more good bacteria in the new filter cartridge.

If you just throw out the old and add a new one, you are chucking all your bacteria and prolonging the cycle.

Good luck

Jessica

GoldyLover, your alkalinity is perfect. Your hardness is on the high end, but probably isn't worth changing right now.

It was nothing you added that made your fish sick. All new tanks have to cycle, and it was the process of cycling (being exposed to high levels of ammonia & nitrite) that harmed your fish. If one monitors the water condition and adds appropriate things to help protect the fish, it is possible to get through cycling without losses. Unfortunately you weren't aware of the danger your fish were in, so you learned the hard way, but you're learning now and doing MUCH better.

Your live plant isn't adding ammonia to the tank so long as you remove any dead/rotting pieces. Live plants also help reduce nitrates, so keep the live plant in. The ornaments are up to you. It is not necessary you keep them in, and if they're just taking up swimming room, you might consider getting rid of some of them. If the tank looks a bit bare, then, you might want to add more plants (live or fake). I like to keep plants in my tank to give my fish a feeling of security, but at the same time they can easily move around (or through!) them so it doesn't impair their swimming.

How much gravel do you have in the tank? Try to keep it down to less than 1/2". I keep such a thin scattering that you can see the tank bottom if you look at the gravel bed from the top down. The less gravel you have, the easier it is to keep clean.

Just one more note on something you said before, about not feeding your goldies commercial food: It is great to give your fish a varied diet, but they need a staple of a good quality goldfish food. You can get a few different kinds to give them some variety and better nutrition, but veggies alone don't give them the nutritional requirements they need.

Sounds like your cycle is coming along nicely. The frequent feedings may be to blame for the lingering presence of ammonia, but the cycle should catch up soon enough.

Hey. I probably have a little too much gravel in there. Should i take some of it out. Looks like i have an inch in there right now. Sometimes he will swim around with his dorsal fin up but other times he just lays there without his dorasl fin up. He seems to like hangin around by the ar stones or the filter. When i change the water now it isn't quite as dirty as it used to be. I have a lot of different commercial foods for them, like top fin (bloodworms, fish pellets...), wardleys, tetra, ect..... I haven't fed them veggies in awhile but i have been feeding them fish pellets. I think i'll try something diferent today. maybe algae wafers or something. anyhoo, i think i shall clean out there tank. they've just recemtly started pooping a lot more.

water levels for friday:
ammonia- .25 (grrhh)
nitrate- 20
nitrite- 0
ph- 7.5
hardness- 300
alkilinity- 120-180