Fish drifting helplessly
 

A while ago we took some tiny recently born goldfish from the outside pond
and have kept them successfully for a couple of years in an indoor aquarium.

Recently one after another have started 'folding up' and drifting around
helplessly although still staying alive for four or five days.

Would anyone have an idea what this is? Can we put the remaining fish
outside with the others, or have they likely been infected with a disease of
some kind?
Thanks for advice.

Fish drifting helplessly
 

"john brook" wrote in message
...
A while ago we took some tiny recently born goldfish from the outside pond
and have kept them successfully for a couple of years in an indoor
aquarium.

Recently one after another have started 'folding up' and drifting around
helplessly although still staying alive for four or five days.

Would anyone have an idea what this is? Can we put the remaining fish
outside with the others, or have they likely been infected with a disease
of some kind?
Thanks for advice.



I've had a look in Goole and founf this page which might help:-

http://goldfish-emergency.com/viewpage.php?page_id=4

Hope this helps

Bill

Fish drifting helplessly
 

On Sat, 1 Jan 2011 22:24:33 -0000, Bill Grey wrote:

http://goldfish-emergency.com/viewpage.php?page_id=4

Goldfish keeping these days seesm to be a damn sight harder than I
remember it when we had a couple of Goldfish in a plain tank on the
sideboard when I was a lad. Seems these days you must have a
bio-active filters, monitor the water weekly for hardness, Ph,
Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate. do partial changes weekly, (adding
stuff to tap water to make it "safe") etc etc.

We are setting up an aquarium ATM and all information I've seen is
that Ammonia (from the fish respiration, decompostion of waste and
excess food) is lethal above a few PPM. The bio-active filter has
bacteria that take the Ammonia and convert it to Nitrites, they are
only toxic to the fish. Another set of bacteria take the Nitrites and
convert them to Nitrates that are harmless to fish except in very
high concentrations but the partial water changes should keep the
Nitrate levels low.

Does the OP's aquarium have the "technology" or is it just a tank
with water in it? What regular water quality maintenace is performed?

--
Cheers
Dave.

Fish drifting helplessly
 

On Mon, 3 Jan 2011 09:55:13 -0000, john brook wrote:

most helpful site Dave thanks.

I didn't find it, some one else did. That's the only reference I have
seen to high Nitrate levels being a problem, maybe because the weekly
10% or so water changes should keep them low enough.

I guess with the fish looking so ill a significant water change is
probably required, I'd bung one of the propritary "tap safe" products
in just to be sure about chlorine and heavy metals. With very hard
water I wonder if the carbonates and other trace elements can build
up overtime if only due to evaporation. Does the filter have an
activated carbon section along with the mechanical section? May also
be worth getting a water test kit for Nitrates at least. A full, wet,
test kit is expensive (£30 for the API one) but you can get each test
seperate for about a tenner that will do several tens of tests. Or
there are single use dip sticks that do hardness, pH, Nitrite and
Nirate, again expensive about a tenner for 25 sticks.

--
Cheers
Dave.

Fish drifting helplessly
 

On Mon, 3 Jan 2011 10:21:50 -0000, Bob Hobden wrote:

With the filter system it sounds like the water quality should be fine

Filters are not a fit and forget solution, they do need maintenance.
If only rinsing out every few months or so. In old aquarium water
*NOT* tap water...

which leads me to think perhaps the water company have been flushing the
mains in your area recently. They use chemicals to kill the freshwater
shrimps that infest the system and fish don't like the chemicals either,

Would the propritary "tap safe" products remove these chemicals? Or
are the chemicals "crustaceasides" that are persistent.

--
Cheers
Dave.

Fish drifting helplessly
 

On Mon, 3 Jan 2011 14:43:09 -0000, Bob Hobden wrote:

They used to use Pyrethrums but probably use something else these days,

Maybe but pyrethroids break down fairly quickly in the enviroment so
presumably are a good choice to add to the water supply to kill of
shrimps.

I have no idea if "Tap Safe" would remove these but thought they were to
remove chlorine.

The labels also say heavy metals, I must admit my "does it really"
alarm is triggered by the claims of "instantly removing" all these
things.

--
Cheers
Dave.