Help, I have 3 comets and a ruykin. Everytime I get a fancy goldfish it gets sick!!! The comets are doing fine, but bubbles just seems to be aimlessly floating around with just the odd effort to swim. He looks like he's constantly chewing. The other three chomp the food as soon as I put it in, but bubbles always seems to miss it completly. It can float on his head, and he still doesn't seem to catch it. I've now put him in a hospital tank. He seems to be swimming a bit more, but doesn't seem to want to eat. I've tried hand feeding him, it worked when he was with the others. But today since I moved him, he chewed it then spat it out. Could he have something stuck in his throat?
PH 7.2
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Ammonia 0
I have a pump which is working well, I've been doing water changes every week, about 40%. The hospital tank doesn't have a light, is this going to affect him?

Hi there, Pinky, and !

There are a whole bunch of questions on top of this section - can you try to answer as many as you possibly can?
And how long have you had the ryukin? Did you quarantine him before you put him in with the other fish? And no, a light shouldn't affect the eating habbits of a fish at all. He might be resting a bit more due to lack of stimulation, but other than that, no.

Post back soon...

I 've had the tank for around 3 months now. It's 22ltr, all fish are small, comets 2-3 cm, Ryukin, 2 cm. I read somewhere that you need 1ltr per cm of fish. Comets have been in there about 2 months, Ryukin, about 1 month. Didn't quarantine him before he went in. I put salts and water conditioner in each time I change water.
I think he may be blind because of the way he's acting . I've been hand feeding him since he's been in the hospital tank. Takes a while, but he does manage to eat.
Is it ok to have a fancy fish in with the comets. They are much more active than him, they quickly gobble the food, while he seems to be a grazer. Could he have been starving while in with the others? I've got plant in there, but he never eats it, just seems to be an obsticle for him
Seems a bit livelier in the tank by himself. Do fish get lonely???

Hi,You have 3 Comets and a Ryukin in a tank that holds just a tad over 5 gallons. The information that you've read was definately not correct for Goldfish.Comets alone, need no less than 20 gallons per fish-A Ryukin needs at least 10 gals.I know that you said that your fish are small,but keeping them in that small tank,makes water toxic in no time at all because of all the ammonia and waste that goldfish produce.
What were your water params in the tank before you moved this Ryukin? What did you put him in? Did you match temps with the water that he came from and also use treated water to place him in?
Why do you think that he's blind? Does his eyes have injuries/cloudiness to them?
Comets are much larger -longer,faster fish and really should be kept with the same sorts of fish.As I said,they really need much larger tanks because of their speed and the size that they get.It's possible that your other fish wasn't getting enough to eat because of them.It's also possible that the Ryukin is ailing.Any more info you can give me on symptoms,or him acting oddly?
He's probably acting somewhat livelier in the new tank because the water params are in a healthier place.

I think he's blind in the right eye as it appears cloudy. He doesn't appear to see the food when I put it in. I have to litterally dangle it around his head before he realises it's there. He does the 'homer' thing. He wanders around moving his mouth up and down, but doesn't catch any food. He always seems to swim in completely the wrong direction to which the food is floating!
Water in main tank
PH 7.2
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Ammonia 0
I thought this was good, but have just read that Nitrates should be higher! How do I achieve this. The comets are all fine and don't appear to have any problems at all. I seem to only have problems with the fancy fish. Why don't they tell you at the pet shop that fancy fish and common fish shouldn't be placed together in the same tank
Water temp is maybe a bit lower in hospital tank. It doesn't have a light which seems to heat the other one up. I don't have heaters in either tank.
I treated the water with conditioner, salts and bacteria stuff before I moved him, as I always do with main tank when I change the water.
He's in a small tanks, probably about 5-6 ltr, with pump and plants.

You just put him in a new tank because he's sick.This new tank is not cycled,so you won't see any sort of Nitrates. There's a whole cycling process that the tank will go through before that happens,which can take weeks. This tank that you put him in,is barely 1 and a half gallons if it's 6 ltr's,which is entirely to small to keep him in-- or to cycle.
My guess about his eye,is a)his eye has been injured on something or one of the comets,or another obvious one would be poor water quality.In either case,the best thing that you can do is keep him in pristene water to help clear his eye up or keep it from going into secondary infections.
I'd really like to advise you on finding something bigger to keep him in as a one gal. isn't a good size.You'll have to do water changes daily to keep up on those params,and that could further stress your fish out.
What kind of salts did you add and how much?Did you disolve it in a bit of tank water before adding it?What is this bacteria stuff you're adding?

I put aquarium salt in, small pinch. The other stuff is bioclear - helps maintain/develop biological cycle. I always mix these in with the new water before I add it to the tank after removing some of the old water.
If his eye is cloudy because of poor water, how come they don't all have it, Bubbles has been in the tank less time than the comets, or is he maybe more delicate being a fancy fish??? The small tank was all I had at the time. Wanted to move him away from the others so he didn't get worse. I'll look at getting him a bigger permenant tank. Is he ok on his own, or should I get him a playmate when he gets better?

How is he now, any updates?

He was starting to come good. Still swimming in the oposite direction to the food!! But by being on his own, he still had time to forage for food without the others gobbling it up before him!
I took the advice and got him a bigger tank, but I think the pump is too strong for him. It just seems to blast him around. I put plenty of live plant in to help buffer the turbulance, but came home today to see him on his side stuck in a plant, looking pretty lifeless. He's now back in the small tank (still by himself). But now I think he may be in shock. He's lying on his side, but does swim around occasionally. Help, why can't I keep the fancy fish. Do they need different care to the common goldfish??? Confused

Hi there pinky

Keeping fancy goldfish really is easy if some simple guidelines are adopted. Some of the steps in goldie health are:

- having at least 10 gallons (40 litres) of water per fish
- introducing them to a fully cycled tank or if that's not possible, doing massive waterchanges daily until the tank has cycled
- having excellent filtration on your tank. A good benchmark to aim for is a filter (or even better, 2 filters) that turn over 10 times the amount of water in your tank - per hour. So if you have a 40 litre tank, then you want filtration that turns over 400 litres per hour.
- quarantining new fish that come to you. This avoids the spread of disease or parasites so you can contain any illness and treat just the one fish
- regular waterchanges which helps keep the water fresh for their environment

What size tank did you end up getting? This will help dictate whether more than 1 fish can be kept.

I know it's all a little overwhelming but enough room and excellent water are really the only 2 requirements for fish to grow big and healthy... how we achieve these takes a little work and diligence but it's very rewarding once you see your fish thrive

He died

I'm sorry Pinky