My fishies wont eat anymore!

Question
I have five fish: four fancy goldfish (telescope eye, oneida, bubble eye,
fantail) and a sucker fish. They've all stopped eating the last week or two.

I don't think I've ever seen the sucker fish eat, and he's about 98% dead now.
He lived about five months, so I guess I couldn't really do anything else.

The other four fish, though, I really want to live, and I'm extremely worried
about them. They used to eat fishy flakes, but that clouded the water too
much. I changed to pellets about three weeks ago, and they did fine the first
week. Now, they won't eat any of  it, and they used to beg for more. I've gone
through all of their favorite foods, and they won't touch anything. I've had to
scoop food out of their tanks every time I feed them.

The black moor (my telescope eye fishy) has even started turning colors. His
black tail is white around the edges, and he has orange spots developing
around his gills and the back of his body. All of my fish are much less active,
and I am scared to death that they won't make it to Christmas.

Can you help me?

Answer
Hi Taylor,
 Have you been doing regular weekly partial water changes -- it sounds like the water in the tank is not very good.  You need to be changing 25% of the water once a week, every week to keep them happy and healthy.  When a fish is not healthy, the first thing they do is stop eating.

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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