Hello.

I am at a loss of what to do for my fish. He is a 3 year old comet goldfish, and he is about 3 years old. He lives in a 30 gallon aquarium that only has an undergravel filter with two air pumps. He is the olny fish in the tank, but there are two snails (his tank mate died a year ago). According to the test stips i bought, the nitrate level is about 20, nitrite = 0, hardness is 300, alkalinity is about 300, and the ph is about 8.0.

My fish has several symptoms. He sits at the bottom of the tank and rarely swims. He eates only if food is put right in front of his mouth, and even then he does not always eat. When he does swim he often has violent seizures, and he whips his head from side to side. His mouth became bloody about 2 weeks into this condtion (maybe from slamming into the glass). He has been like this for about 6 weeks.

Before this started he ate only pellets and flakes. I changed about 50% of the water once every 4 weeks or so.

Now I am taking a bit better about caring for him (after I now know what to do a little better). I now change about 10-20% of the water once a week. I feed him pees, and the occasional cucumber or cocktail shrimp piece (when he actually eates). I also started using melafix, which is an anti bacterial remedy - it helped for a while, but now he is as bad as ever.

In desperation, i did a complete water change and cleaned out the undergravel about a week ago. Before i did that, the ph and alkalinity were much more normal.

(no new animals have introduced to the tank)

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions please let me know. He seems miserable and I dont know what to do!

I am bumping this up so others will see it.

You probably know that a complete water change will mess up the beneficial bacteria--can you get some Bio-spira? Not at shops carry it. That would help to at least cycle the tank right away.

Water quality is often the issue when a goldie has problems. A undergravel filter (IMO) is not the best way to go. If you religiously vacuum the gravel, it is ok but harmful bacteria can grow in them and that may be the problem with your fish. A bare bottom tank with a couple of hang on the back filters seems to be a good way to keep the tank water top quality.

Unless it is parasites. I am hoping that others with more experience will help here.

I would not use the melafix. It helps with repairing torn fins but since it adds organic matter to the tank, after a while it can pollute the tank.

I would seriously look for biospira and keep up with weekly partial water changes.

http://fishstoretn.com/bio_spira.html

Make sure he eats, like you have been doing.

Are there any unusual findings on the fish? Such as "grains of salt", bloody streaks, frayed fins, fungus.

Good luck,

Hi, this is the person who posted the message. I forgot a few things. First of all, it looks like skin is peeling off of his top lip. Also, he rarely ever poops, and when he does it is usually kind of clear and thin.

Hi - the bottom sitting and the clear poop could indicate two things; he's a she and egg bound or else he/she has a bacterial infection. At this time of year (if you're in the Northern Hemisphere?), being eggbound isn't as likely. Internal bacterial infections are best treated with medicated food, I think; I've found my little guy loves Rick Hess's foods and they've definitely helped him. But, while you're waiting (because it may take a couple of days to get the foods), I would also try a water borne med that treats internal bacterial infections, like maracyn 2 or furan-2. And be really careful of your water quality, because the meds are likely to cause an ammonia spike.

I forget - speaking of water quality, did you have test results? There are two other things that have caused my fish to bottom-sit: high nitrites and parasites. Salt will help with both of these, but be sure it's aquarium salt without additives. You want to put in a total of 3 tablespoons per five gallons over the course of about 36 hours - 1 tablespoon per five gallons every 12 hours. Happygoldfish told me this when my fish was bottom sitting, and it was always helpful. HTH, and let us know how he does.

If you ahven't already done so, you need to test for ammonia. It should be at 0.
First of all, even though your water parameters seem ok I'd up the water changes. If there are parasites, bacteria in the water they will be reduced everytime you do a water change and so improve things for the fish. I'd suggest 30% per day. You also need to be aware that because you completely stripped the tank, cleaning the gravel tc, the tnak will cycle again so test your water parameters daily (including ammonia) as you could get some potentially harmful spikes. The daily water changes will help this too.
You mention that the fish's lip looks like it is peeling? Is it sort of stringy looking? If so then there is a chance that your fish has columnaris (cotton wool disease or flexibacter). This is often caused by poor water quality and needs to be treated a.s.a.p if you think this is what he has. MOst fungal remmedies treat it but you will need to read the bottles of the meds carefully to be sure you get the right one.