Hey guyz

* Test Results for the Following: (Done about 1/2 hour after 50% water change)
Ammonia Level - 0
Nitrite Level - 0
Nitrate level - 10
Ph Level, (If possible,KH and GH and chloramines) - 6.4. A week ago it was 6.8. Seems to be on a downward trend...
Ph Level out of the Tap - 7.0. A week ago it was 7.2. Seems to change quite a bit.

* Tank size (How many Gals) and How long has it been running? - Not sure what it is in gallons, but about 38 litres. Tank's been running about 3 1/2 months, started up with some gravel from other cycled tank.
* What is the name and size of the filter/s? - Aqua One hang-on filter, not sure of size, small I think. Also under gravel air pump.
* How often do you change the water and how much? - One 40-50% change every weekend and also usually a 15% change during week.

# How many fish in the tank and their size? - 4 fish - 2 fantails about 2 inches (not including tails), 1 veiltail nymph about 1.75 inches and one lionhead about 1.5 inches.
# What kind of water additives or conditioners? - Stress Coat.
# Any medications added to the tank? - Not at the moment. Has had a blue Wunder Tonic for general fungal diseases recently used.
# Add any new fish to the tank? - No.
# What do you feed your fish? - Sinking spirulina discs broken in pieces, tubifex worms, boiled mashy peas.

# Any unusual findings on the fish such as "grains of salt", bloody streaks, frayed fins or fungus?
- Red fantail (Dynamite) had whitish patch on tail for couple of days which is now turning redish. Also similar but not as bad patch in same place in other side of tail.
- Lionhead (Bean) has small red patch on body. He is still recovering from something very bad 1 or 2 weeks ago where his tail was eaten away in a couple of days, he lost heaps of weight, sat in corner and didn't eat. Got a lot better after the Wunder Tonic and water changes but tail hasn't grown back much. Red spot just noticed today.
- Veiltail nymph (Griblet) seems to be highly susceptible to things, has tail rot, whitish covering on some bits of body and clampy fins.
- Blue fantail (Pedro) seems normal.
# Any unusual behavior like staying at the bottom, not eating, ect..?
- Veiltail nymph is a bit lethargic and swimming near top.
- Others seem fine, Bean is just swimming a bit weirdly due to his lack of tail.

There was a bit of an ammonia spike a couple of weeks ago, which I think is why Bean got his first sickness. But since that was fixed water params have been fine except for the changeable pH.

What is the best thing to use to fix the red patches? And what sort of disease would it be? Hoping it's not something bad...
Also need suggestions for how to fix Griblet's almost constant fight with a fungus/tail rot thing.
And also... what's the best thing to use to try and stabilise the pH level?

Keep in mind that I'm in New Zealand and may not have a lot of the good medicines you guys have!

Thanks for any help you can give.

Hi there, Twiglet2, and

Sounds like you have various problems going on - from the dropping pH, overstocked tank, and something bacterial that causes the red patches. All of them are related, and it has to do with the size of the tank, unfortunately.
You see, goldfish need quite an amount of water to be happy and healthy. They are much bigger than tropical fish, and produce a lot more waste. So, an adequate tank is something you might need to look into. 38 litre are less than 10 gl, which is by any means not big enough for 4 goldfish. Each goldfish should have at least 10 gl, which equals to at least 40 gl (160 litre) alltogether.
With adequate space, the pH issue would be much better as well. Everything in a fish tank is interlinked, and one thing can cause a not so nice chain of events. The dropping pH is directly related to the small tank - fish waste will turn the water acidic, which isn't so much of an issue if the tank is big enough. The more fish are in a small space, the faster the waste will drop the pH. That at least is one reason for a reoccuring pH drop. The other one would be that there isn't enough buffer material in you tank (kH and gH), and there are test kits for that as well, or your pet store can test it for you.
The low pH can cause the fish's whitish coloration - the fish is trying to protect itself from the acidic water, and tries that by producing more slime coat, which is the protective layer, so to speak. That thicker slime coat looks whitish. Low pH also effects the beneficial bacteria in you tank - the good bacteria that takes care of ammonia and nitrites. Some part of the bacteria will reduce in numbers or even die off when the pH is constantly and dangerously low, and that will effect the efficiency of your filter alltogether.
Giblet's constant battle with fin rot and fungus - overcrowded conditions will do that to the fish. Different fish react different to advert conditions, and some fish aren't affected at all. Looks like your Pedro falls into that category.
Now to the red patches - bacterial problems. That also is linked to overcrowding. Overcrowded fish are stressed so much more than fish in the proper water mass, and are more suspectible to things that wouldn't bother them otherwise. As to exactly what kind of bacteria - that is impossible to tell without a look under the microscope. A good broad spectrum antibiotics would be good at the time, but you being in New Zealand is tricky. I don't know what medications are out there, so I leave that to our Australian members here.

Foremost, it is the best solution to take care of the root of the problem - the lack of adequate water mass. Is there any chance at all that you can get another housing for your goldfish? Maybe splitting them up into two tanks? Even a plastic container like a Rubbermaid would be a better solution than such a small tank. Again, that should be something Australian members could help you out here - I don't know if rubbermaids are even available in NZ.

I assume its day now in your part of the world, so I hope somebody closer to you will help you out pretty soon.

Good luck with your fish, and keep us posted on their troubles.

Wow are you sure the measurements are right? I had no idea what the tank was in gallons or that it was too small! The fish don't seem overcrowded... The actual dimensions of the tank are 24x12x12 inches, but I don't fill it right up. I had read somewhere that you could have so many inches of fish per inches of tank, that's how we worked it out, with space to spare. Now I feel bad for my poor fish!

We have another very small tank which is 14x8.5x10 inches, but would have to get a filter for it. That's the only other option we have at the moment...

Hi twiglet - firstly if your tank is 24x12x12 then it's 56.5 litres (or 15 gallons) which means you're overstocked by 25 gallons (or 100 litres). Unfortunately this is far from ideal for your fish especially if they're all falling ill. Sadly your second tank is only 5 (and a bit) gallons so not much good to you there

Whenever overstocked, it helps the situation a little bit if you have jolly good filtration and the little aquaone (with insert cartridge) is (and forgive my bluntness) a waste of space. I have 2 aquaone's (that came with tanks purchased) and ended up throwing out the cartridges on both and inseting ceramic noodles and sponge, cut to fit - here's a pic of my larger aqua one:



Even this one isn't up to the task of handling the waste of 4 fish - not even close but I use it on my hospital tank only. I think this is their middle size and it sounds like you have the smaller one (as do I) - that I don't really use except in cases of emergencies. This doesn't mean you can't make it work better and removing the cartridge and replacing it with media that helps both biologically and mechanically will work in your favour. Unfortunately throwing out the cartridge will remove your cycle and you may see ammonia and nitrites appear until the new media has a chance to cycle.

So as a suggestion, adding another filter and altering how your current one works will be a massive help to your fish and your aquaone can work harder for you if you adopt the changes I made...

Just on meds - is there any way you can ring your local aquarium and ask what they have available for bacterial infections? Then post back the options here and we can look at which would would be the most effective to use