my goldfish is always gasping for air and almost never moves any more, he will just lay on the bottom of the tank on his belly or on his head. i dont know what is wrong with him so if someone could please help me out that would be greatly appreciated. Also he isn't eating as much as he use too and is having long white stringy poop.

You will need to answer all of the questions below:

• Test Results for the Following:
  Ammonia Level?
  Nitrite Level?
  Nitrate level?
  Ph Level, (If possible,KH and GH and chloramines)?
  Ph Level out of the Tap?
• Tank size (How many Gals) and How long has it been running?
• What is the name and size of the filter/s?
• How often do you change the water and how much?

How many fish in the tank and their size? <li>What kind of water additives or conditioners? <li>Any medications added to the tank? <li>Add any new fish to the tank? <li>What do you feed your fish? <li>Any unusual findings on the fish such as "grains of salt",
bloody streaks, frayed fins or fungus? <li>Any unusual behavior like staying
at the bottom, not eating, ect..?

Could be a number of things. Upside down could be swim bladder, what are you feeding, and are you soaking their food? A moderater can help you, but you will have to answer those questions.

If you can answer as many of the Qs as you know the answers to - thats all we ask. Any detail at all may help with diagnosis. Please post back soon !

ok umm i don't really test the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and Ph level of the tank and tap but i have a 100 gal tub and it has been running for around a year now. the filter is a home made filter that is a 16 L bucket filled with bio balls and a foam top and has a modified pump that pumps all the water in. (The filter is more than strong enough to filter all the poop in the tank) and the water gets changed around once every month.

There is my fish an oranda that is around 18 centemeter in length (including the tail) and another red cap oranda that is roughly around the same length if not longer. then there is a 12 centemeter long ranchu a bubble eye that is around 12 centemeters also and 6 babyish gold fish that are maybe 3-4 centemeters long. when we change the water we change around 70-80& and use prime. the fish food is home made gel food with shrimp, peas, broccoli and i think some other stuff (sorry i forget since me and my brother made a big batch and made it a while a go). there are no unusual findings on the fish, but he doesn't eat very much any more i don't know if it is because he can't see the food since his wen is getting really big, but he isn't eating as much and just lays on the bottom more and looks like he is gasping for air. i hope i gave enough information for you i will try to test the level in the tank later tonight and post it later.

Thank you for the help

That is the first thing we will need to know. If you don't have a test-kit it would be important to get one as soon as you can. The local fish store should test it for free if you take a sample. But, any serious fishkeeper should not be without a test-kit. If you don't know what's going on in the water, diagnosing is very difficult. Sometimes bad water quality will produce very similar symptoms to diseases. There are several possible causes for the symptoms you describe but we'll need to know the water first.



This is far too infrequent and will lead to a build up of organic waste and high nitrates which can easily make your fish sick. Gfish really need water changes every week to maintain good water quality. Depending on your level of filtation it might need to be more. Do you know how many gallons per hour your improvised filter pumps? It sounds a clever invention by the way. On a 100g tank you're really looking for somewhere around x10 tank vol p/hr. If you're understocked you could go with a little less.

Before we get the water results, I would do a large water change to see if the fish shows any improvement at all. Reserve enough water to test before doing the change.

Post back and let us know how things are.

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