I have had Hammerhead (my Black Moor Veiltail) for about 2 months. I bought him along with a little Comet and bought a little starter kit tank with filter at the same time. It lives in my classroom and my class of 5 year olds love our fish.

The tank in 10 Litres and came with water conditioner to neutralise the chlorine (lots in the water in NZ) and some kind of 'heathy bacteria drops' (Cycle something?).

I was initially concerned as the comet zapped round and ate all the food while the Black Moor missed out (not good vision?) so I was advised to add oxygen weed to the tank as an extra food source which I did.

All was good until last Thursday when I noticed the Black Moor was swimming down and then floating up in a ghost-like fashion. By Friday he was looking awful and was being churned around by the filter, eventually getting stuck to it. I took him out and put him in his own bowl and by the end of the school day he was floating on his side on the top. If I put my finger in he would swim around for a bit but float again. I took him to the pet shop and they said bathe him in a epson salt mix for 25 mins then treat the tank for 3 days with Melafix. I treated the tank and put a tiny amount in his little bowl as I couldnt put him back in the tank with the filter on and with the filter off it got dirty really quickly. The pet shop said that he looked thin (maybe the comet was eating all his food) and looked like he had a fungus (which I coudnt really see). The next day the furry slime was more apparent but over the next few days at my house he seemed to get a bit better. He could stay down at the bottom for some time (although he was in shallower water) and he was eating well (sunken tablets) and emptying his bowels.

However, I am now trying to rehabilitate him. He is spending some time in the tank with the comet but he can just about manage for half a day with the filter on low before he tires and floats on the top, head pointing down. He can't stay down easily and with the filter on full he cant stay down at all and he feeds off the bottom so this is important. He sometimes floats mid tank and just appears to be unconcious for upto a minute and then he suddenly wriggles back to life.

I have in home now in a bowl on his own and he floats on the top for a few minutes and then wriggles back down. Is he just resting on the top as it is an effort to stay down? I notice now he also is turning brassy on his underbelly (gradual over the last week) and he appears more of a brown colour in his fins and tail (but this maybe just more noticeable in the bowl).

Is he in pain? What else can I do to help him? He is such a character and my class would hate to loose him. Sorry for the long message but best to give as much info as possible and as a novice I dont know which bits of information are important to diagnose and rescue him.

Thanks so much for any help given :-)

Hello, and welcome to the forum!

This is going to be very short as I am on my way to work. The first thing you need to do is get your fish out of a bowl and put him back into a tank. Those teeny tanks aren't big enough for 1 fish, much less 2. Your comet requires 20 gallons of water by himself, and your moore requires 10, so you would need a 30 gallon tank minimum to safely raise healthy fish. Comets are fast moving strong swimmers, and moores are somewhat slower and move more ponderously, so they would not be good tankmates in such a small area.

There is a box at the top of the page with a bunch of questions. It would be very helpful if you could answer as many of these as possible. You will need to get a drop tester for your water params.

The most important thing right now is to get your moore into a tank and out of the bowl.

Welcome to kokos and goldfish keeping Softhead.

Fancy goldfish are rather less hardy than single tail fish but both your fish are going to get sick and will not live long in a 10 liter tank. Comets need 20 gallons each and fancy fish 10. Any less and its only a matter of time before toxins in the water overwhelm and kill the fish.

Your fancy fish is suffering from New Tank Syndrome which is basically dangerous levels of ammonia and/or nitrite in the water and it may I'm afraid be too late to save him. First of all you need to do a 100% water change on the tank. This is the first thing to do every morning because any less than a 100% water change daily is not going to be enough.

You will need to find a larger home for these two and begin the process of "cycling" your tank. This process (the building up of the de-nitrifying beneficial bacteria in the filter media that convert ammonia produced by the fish into nitrites and then into nitrates-the safe end by product of the nitrogen cycle-) usually takes 6 weeks or so. During this time you need to commit to partial water changes daily. And as vickie says get some test kits to test for the killers- ammonia and nitrites and swinging pH. It's a process we all went through and all tanks go through to reach "safe" where after once weekly partial water changes are usually enough.

Goldfish are rather high maintenance pets for this first few months. 99% of all goldfish bought from petstores die within this period due to New Tank Syndrome and the lack of information there is about this to be found from petstores. Wishing this plan possible & please feel free to post back with farther queries!

i have a blackmoore is all normal in the morning night time he will float on top head down sometimes upside down

only night time when they go to sleep

and he has been like this for a while and day time he is just normal so i wouldn't worry

Welcome to Koko's! Between the many posted articles and the community on the forum, you should be able to find all the help and advice you need.

I agree with Vickie that commons and fancies are poor tankmates: commons are better suited for ponds than tanks (just look at that long, streamlined body), and can practically swim circles around the slower-moving fancies. You are probably correct that the common is eating all the food. In a larger tank, you will be able to distract the common by feeding him on the opposite side of the tank from the moor. This is yet an other benefit of the larger tank.

A healthy moor will be able to swim about in the filter's current, and some fish even like to play in the current (like salmon swimming up a river).

Please keep us informed, and good luck!

P.S. many "black moors" change color and become chocolate, or even fully orange. This is normal.

How are things with your little guy now, Softhead?