Dying fantail

Question
Hi Chris,

I've read through the past answers and I'm still not sure what I should do next. My poor fantail is dying and I'm at a loss for what to do. First off, the saga of our ordeal. We've had our fish for about a year and we've kept it in a small bowl with a live plant (I know this is terrible for the fish but we couldn't get a bigger tank until recently). So, about 6 weeks ago we bought a 12gallon tank with a filter/lighting system for him. Unaware that there is a certain procedure of adapting a fish to a new tank, we dumped him in there. We also added more gravel to the tank. He seemed to enjoy the bigger tank and we thought he might need another friend to keep him company. This is where things get bad. We bought an oranda from the pet store, along with a couple of new plants, and some pellets. When we got home we dumped the new fish in, added more plants, and fed them some pellets. We noticed they didn't like the pellets so we gave them flakes instead. We scooped out the uneaten pellets and left the fish alone. Over the next couple of days we noticed a change in our fantail. The fantail was listless, sitting at the bottom, and not eating. The oranda was even more listless and floating sideways near the top. We also noticed that our fantail's fins were disintegrating and that the plants had a white fuzz on the leaves. We did a couple of water changes over the next few days but there was no change in either of the fish. The next day the oranda died and the goldfish seemed happier, swimming somewhat normally, however, his fins were extremely tattered and he had a bit of white film on his body similar to the film on the plants. We discarded our oranda and changed the water. After another day, our fantail was again listless and not eating. Upon inspection of the tank, we noticed that the pellets we had fed earlier had not been sucked up into the filter and started to mold. We immediately cleaned off the mold and changed the water and put the fish back into the tank. Our fish started to get worse as more of his body was covered in the white film. We felt our only option was to put him back in his little bowl and do frequent water changes. We also added salt, tail rot treatment, and an antibiotic to his bowl. Over the next couple of days our fantail seemed to be doing really well. He was swimming and we even noticed that his fins were growing back at a rapid rate. We thought he would be okay to move back to his bigger tank to heal in a more comfortable environment so we put him back. The next day he was ill again and his newly grown fins were gone. We've taken him out of the tank and he's back in the bowl. We're still adding the medicine but now he's developed the white film again and his scales/fins are turning black. We've checked the ammonia, nitrate/nitrite, pH, hardness levels and they are all within normal ranges (except the pH is a little acidic). We're at a loss for what to do now. Please help our little fish. I'm sorry this is so long.

Thank you,

Tiffiney

Answer
Hi Tiffiney;

I'm so sorry your fish is sick. Hopefully I am not too late and can help...

He really needs more room in order to get well. A fish bowl is not a safe place for a goldfish, even short term. I would change all the water in the bigger tank and remove the gravel. Refill with clean water and be sure to use a water conditioner. Remove the carbon from the filter if it has any. Removing the gravel and filter carbon keeps them from absorbing the medicine. Add water conditioner to the tank.

When the tank is ready, acclimate your fish by floating him on the tank water in a plastic bag half-filled with some of the bowl water, leaving a big air bubble too. Let it float there for 15 minutes. Net him from the bag over to the tank and throw away the water in the bag. Don't ever add the transport water to the tank. There's too much waste in it. While the fish is acclimating, add an antibiotic. Tetracycline is a good one to use. You can also add aquarium salt and a natural remedy called Melafix to the water. They can be used with the medicine and help heal damaged tissues and soothe raw areas.

I think what happened is that waste toxins became too high in the tank for them to stay healthy so they developed infection. It was probably overfeeding, and/or the fish stopped eating very much when they got sick so the food rotted. That's what the white fuzzy stuff is, leftover food and waste rotting.

It's also still a very new system and when a tank is still in the break-in period it can get very toxic in there. Especially with goldfish. Two is just too many to get it established safely I'm afraid, and goldfish need at least 10 gallons just for one fish anyway.

Be sure to remove any uneaten food right away. You don't want the filter to suck it up. It will rot in there in the filter pads and can make the fish very sick. Whatever you feed the fish it should all be eaten within 5 minutes.

Here are some web sites that may help you more when you get time to read through them, starting with my own about new tanks;

http://www.xanga.com/Expert_Fish_Help

http://www.firsttankguide.net/goldfish.php

http://www.bestfish.com/overfeed.html


At Your Service;
Chris Robbins