Dropped Tail

Question
Hi Chris, I have a 10 gallon tank of 5 fancy goldfish and recently they had Ich which I thought I treated successfully.  Now the fish seem very lethargic and have dropped tails, float most of the time, and one of them seems to like the corner a lot. I recently changed out 20-25% of the water, added a tablespoon of Aquarium salts.  I don't know what's wrong if its too hot here in Vegas for them (my house is around 80 degrees).  Thank you for any help you can give me!

Answer
Hi Emy;

The tank is just too small and it really is too warm. Goldfish are messy guys that get 6 to 8 inches long. Each goldfish needs at least ten gallons of space all to itself even as a small one. This means that you actually need at least a 50 gallon for those guys to thrive. Waste toxins are probably high in there so it's burning their gills and causing them to suffocate. The higher temperature causes lower oxygen saturation in the water too. All in all, it's just not good.

Goldfish need their temperature to be below 72f or they just get sick very easily. They can tolerate a few days of hot weather once in awhile, but it weakens them. I know it gets pretty hot in Vegas in the summer and it is probably very expensive to run air conditioning all the time. You might be better off with higher temperature tropical fish instead. Let me know and I can give you some suggestions of fish that tolerate higher temps.

Until you decide what to do, get more oxygen to the fish with an air pump and air stone. Also, change 25% of the water every day to lower the waste toxins.

Here is a web link to more information about goldfish and what they need;

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

I hope they feel better soon...

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins