Goldfish Water Condition

Question
I purchased a goldfish with a 10 gallon tank that comes with a filter about a week ago at a local pet store. For the first 3 days, the fish was acting normally, but after that, it was always in a corner, going up and down, and breathing rapidly. So I went back to the store to test my water and they said I had no chlorine, but a lot of ammonia. They recommended me a water conditioner called "CYCLE" and I used the whole bottle within a few days without any improvement. So I went back AGAIN and still, I had too much ammonia. Then, I decided to do a 30% water change, but there was no change in the behavior of the fish. I thought one water change wasn't enough and had two more water changes in the following two days.

Now the tank is all cloudy and fogged up with a bad smell. The fish changed its behavior to a worse one: BREATHING VERY RAPIDLY ALL THE TIME; SPITTING OUT ANY FOOD GIVEN; AND SWIMS WEAKLY. What's wrong with my fish?

Answer
Hi Kwan;

Your tank is going through the break-in period. It can be very hard on the fish, as you now know. If your fish is bigger than an inch long it is just too big to get the tank through the break-in safely. The population has to be kept at one inch of fish per ten gallons until it is through this difficult time. Stop feeding the fish completely and make a 50% water change every day for the next 3 days. On the fourth day you can try to feed him a little tiny bit, like a flake or two only twice per day. Any food he is trying to eat until then is only polluting the tank and making the ammonia higher. He can't digest while under stress anyway. Three days, a week, or even two weeks is not too long to withold food from a fish. It's for his health and well-being anyway. The ammonia will still remain present and then nitrite will come up, but they should be low enough for the fish to tolerate until the break-in is over as long as you do water changes.

Here is more about how to handle the break-in and why it is happening on my web page about it;

http://www.xanga.com/Expert_Fish_Help

I hope he feels better soon......

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins