One of my goldfish is sick..it has been floating on its side or upside down for two days now. I put it in a separate fishtank yesterday , and today i put some melifix in. It has not gotten any better or worse since yesterday. Its just floating around, and every now and then it trys to flip itself upright. One of the other fish looks like it has ick, so i also put some melifix in the original tank. What should i do for my sick fish?
thanks

Hello bunny and welcome,

Could you please answer all the questions that you can from the box at the top of the page? You should be able to copy and paste the questions and type in the answers. This will enable us to be able to know more about what is going on with your fish and its environment.

Thanks, and looking forward to your post!

• Test Results for the Following:
  Ammonia Level? 0.0ppm, but the water was changed yesterday
• Tank size (How many Gals) and How long has it been running? 30gal. 5+yrs.
• What is the name and size of the filter/s? aqua-tech 20-40
• How often do you change the water and how much? 2wks. 1/2 of water.

How many fish in the tank and their size? 4 goldfish. 2 are fantail and the other two are about 2in. long. <LI>What kind of water additives or conditioners? aquarium salt<LI>Any medications added to the tank? melifix<LI>Add any new fish to the tank? no<LI>What do you feed your fish? tetrafin goldfish flakes<LI>Any unusual findings on the fish such as "grains of salt",
bloody streaks, frayed fins or fungus? frayed fins, scales sticking out, bloated stomach.<LI>Any unusual behavior like staying
at the bottom, not eating, ect..? a couple days ago it was laying on the bottom alot, but now it is floating near the top

bunny, the first thing I noticed in your post was you stated you do a 50% wc every two weeks. This isn't nearly enough, especially with an overstocked tank. With your tank overstocked and ill fish, you need to be changing 50% of the water at least 3 times a week. If you read around the forum here you will see that fantails (double-tailed goldies) require a minimum of 10 gallons each and comets (single tailed) have a minimum requirement of 20 gallons of water. So if you have 2 fantails and 2 comets that's 60 gallons minimum. You also stated that you did a wc yesterday. Was this also 50%?

I also noticed that you posted an ammonia reading of 0, but no other readings for your nitrites, nitrates, etc. These readings are also crucial as it lets you know if your tank has had a cycle crash for some reason. If you don't have a tester kit there, you can take a sample of your water to a lfs and ask them to test it for you. Just please be sure they give you the exact readings of each category.

Adding any medications to an overstocked tank with poor water quality isn't going to work. There are different medications for different fish problems, just like with humans and animals, and using meds in toxic water can actually make the problem worse.

One more thing. The Aquatech 20-40 is too small. Goldfish are nasty little critters and put out much more waste than tropicals. Therefore, they need lots and lots of filtration. I have a 30 gallon tank with 2 filters on it that pump 400 per hour (I think thats the amount it said).

Wow, this looks like a lot, huh? It really isn't, though, as the main thing that you need to do is an immediate large ph and temp matched water change. But we really need the rest of your water params or its just like shooting in the dark.

Oh gosh, I just saw where you posted that the conditioner you are using is aquarium salt. Are you using a dechlorinator? I assume you are since your tank has been running for 5 years.

Peapoo Bunny, how are things with your fish now?