Baby Huey the Goldfish

Question
Hi Dave:

Well, big guy is still living on his side at the bottom of the tank.  I don't know what else to do for him. He will not eat the peas or spinach.  He just spits it back out.  There are days when he seems like he is going to just start swim right again and days when he just lays there and only occasionally will scoot around.  Any other suggestions that you might have will be appreciated.  I have added and subtracted so much "stuff" that my levels are so messed up and I have no idea how to even get them back to where they need to be.  NITRATE 40, NITRITE 3.0, ALKALINITY ALMOST 0 AND PH IS ABOUT 6.2!!!
I would appreciate any advise that you can give.  I don't want to kill the rest of my fish.  But of course, I would love from him to "get up and swim"  

Thanks for your help Dave.

Donna

Answer
ok... we need to bring the nitrite down to zero... really clean that tank good... take the fish out put them in a container and clean that gravel, take all of the decorations out and clean those too... something in your tank is rotting... he may have nitrate poisoning... your pH is low too... should be 7.0-8.0.  Do you have driftwood or something in your tank??? Do a 50% water change, put the fish back in... and wait a day and retest the water values... then let me know... dave...


try separating him from the rest of the fish... get a small fish bowl for him... you will eventually need a hospital tank and those work well... he may be getting picked on at night... so lets separate him and see... feed him some brine shrimp.... see if he will eat those.