Any other fishkeepers out there?

teenage_Drama · 6 December 2006 at 7:49PM

i bought 2 new goldfishes (diffrent colour) a month ago and er

1 of my old goldfishes tail has disappeared:eek: and it was an inch in width!

now the poor goldfish is suffering and just stays at the bottom of the tank

Miss_Money · 6 December 2006 at 8:17PM

teenage_Drama wrote:

i bought 2 new goldfishes (diffrent colour) a month ago and er

1 of my old goldfishes tail has disappeared:eek: and it was an inch in width!

now the poor goldfish is suffering and just stays at the bottom of the tank

that sounds like fin rot, you can buy medication from a good aquatic store to treat it(you will need to treat the tank)
do you have a filteration system in place in your tank?

teenage_Drama · 8 December 2006 at 9:38PM

i do have a filteration system in the tank, seems like the fish cannot swim to the top or cannot swim at all and stays in 1 position at the bottom of the fish tank, so i guess its not getting any food because the food floats on top, it looks to be trying to eat stones etc, the food when it floats on top, eventually moves onto the edges of the fish tank and the fishes dont eat it, so it makes me put more food into the tank which causes the fish tank to become cloudy and dirty in 4-5 days time!

Miss_Money · 8 December 2006 at 10:04PM

teenage_Drama wrote:

i do have a filteration system in the tank, seems like the fish cannot swim to the top or cannot swim at all and stays in 1 position at the bottom of the fish tank, so i guess its not getting any food because the food floats on top, it looks to be trying to eat stones etc, the food when it floats on top, eventually moves onto the edges of the fish tank and the fishes dont eat it, so it makes me put more food into the tank which causes the fish tank to become cloudy and dirty in 4-5 days time!

dont overfeed your fish you pollute the tank by doing so(as you have seen)
The fish "eating" stones is actually eating food that has dropped between the stones and also maybe algea that is growing on them.
May i suggest a radical thing? as a fish keeper of coldwater, tropical and salt water fish over the last 15 years i have found tropical, SMALL commumity fish in a medium sizes tank easier than coldwater fish. The size of goldfish (and for that matter any large fish) makes them larger waste producers and as such you have to clean the tank more often(overfeeding will not help

) if you swop for a med sized tropical community tank the fish will work in harmony to keep the tank clean as they eat at differing levels of the tank. You can get tetras for the top of the tank, mini chiclids for the middle and bottom of the tank and loaches for the bottom. The tetras are fast swimming and the mini chichlids are slow which means you get an interesting mix

when i say mini go fo peaceful species such as kribensis as they will provide a riot of colour, are easy to sex and given hidy places are very easy to breed and they WILL live in a small family group. the loaches would clean the bottom of the tank eating algea and waste food as would the chiclids.
Back to your goldfish. could it be hes just having a rest when hes sat at the bottom? how big is the tank in relation to the fish? it isnt unusal for fish to "sit" and rest this is what they do at night.
anyway anymore q's fell free to ask.

teenage_Drama · 8 December 2006 at 11:36PM

ok i had another very close look and the fishes body is actually starting to disappear started from the end!!! it basically has this white/cream fungus/or something that looks very weird, looks like its taking over the body and also may i add that this fish has black colour surrounding its mouth because it kept touching a black decorative rock thing inside the fish tank and also kept touching other fishes with its mouth (1 of which died probably due to this, it started to get black marks on its body from the fish who started to touch it with its mouth, see above posts) can you tell me what algae is please?

fish arent actually eating the stones, they keep touching them with their mouth so im assuming that there are hungry or looking for something to eat, the littly rocks are too big for them to eat(even though i put enough food for them in there)

Miss_Money · 8 December 2006 at 11:55PM

your fish has got what sounds like severe fin rot, it needs medication from the quarium shop. if the tail has completly gone and its eating the body im afraid there may not be much you can do for that fish now but YOU MUST trat the tank to stop the others getting it. I know the fish isnt eating the rocks i said it was looking for food

algea is a plant that grows in aquariums due to pollutants and food being left in the tank too long. a little algea is not harmful indeed the fish can eat it, but dont let it take the tank over. its green in colour and looks like a carpet

please get a good book on aquarium keeping and how best to look after your charges

itll tell you all about diseases and how to get ris of them etc.

teenage_Drama · 10 December 2006 at 4:31AM

ok we got 6 new fishes, everyone seems to be getting along except 1 of my old goldfish is not getting along with the new ones, he stays in a corner and if they come near he gets away from them, think he is scared, how can i tell if they fight ? lol
fishes look so much alive now, thank God, thought they were half dead and dying!
took the ill fish out and put it in a seprate container

nelly_2 · 10 December 2006 at 8:34AM

Yeah.... er any chance you can make them pictures bigger?

Open them with MS paint select Image at the top then stretch/skew

then in the horizontal and verticle boxes input 50% then save

Miss_Money · 10 December 2006 at 10:36AM

teenage_Drama wrote:

ok we got 6 new fishes, everyone seems to be getting along except 1 of my old goldfish is not getting along with the new ones, he stays in a corner and if they come near he gets away from them, think he is scared, how can i tell if they fight ? lol
fishes look so much alive now, thank God, thought they were half dead and dying!
took the ill fish out and put it in a seprate container

im sorry to sound harsh but that isnt fair on the new fish, the old fish and tank needs to be medicated and better before you introduce new fish.
The fish that is being eaten im sorry to say it looks like severe fin rot perpetuated by being eaten by the other fish. imo it would be kinder to take it to a vet and have it put down(yes you can do this with fish)
Whenever you buy new fish you should quarentine them and deffinately not buy 6 at a time.

thats too many to introduce at one time. please go and buy yourself a good book and read about fish keeping. Fish are hard animals to keep if you have little knowledge and suffer due to lacvk of knowledge. im not having a go at you but any animal needs to researched before you keep one

good luck in your quaticic keeping in the future.

the green stuff attaching itself yto the glass and bottom of the tank is algea and it needs to be got rid of, in large amounts it saps oxygen away from the tank. a good cleaning regiem should sort this out. get yourself a gravel cleaner and a magnetic glass cleaner.

Bossyboots · 10 December 2006 at 10:42AM

I think you are being too kind Miss_Money. I am appalled at the treatment these fish are getting and this poster should not be keeping them. You can't just put fish in like this and to leave one untreated even after being told what is wrong is just cruel.