My Fantail Goldfish, he is sitting on the bottom but if bothered swims away or to the top of the tank for air.

Question

My fantail is in a 30 gallon tank with another fantail. both are older, one is 7 yrs and the one sick is 5yrs. The sick one is a calico fantail that stays at the bottom, does not feed much at all. He will swim to the surface for air or move if bothered. Once or twice he will turn on his side and then swim and straighten out. There appears to be no physical issues like ick or fin rot etc. We thought he was getting too fat, he appeared to get larger over the last couple months. The only other clue that must be related is that the tank has had issues with a white fungas(its white and looks like cotton until removed from the tank, then its like slime), it keeps growing in the rocks, I did a complete water and tank tear down and clean including the rocks two weeks ago but this stuff has appeared again. Help! I can't figure out what is happening. The other fish is fine swimming around, eating and protecting the sick fish by laying next to him.

My fantail is in a 30 gallon tank with another fantail. both are older, one is 7 yrs and the one sick is 5yrs. The sick one is a calico fantail that stays at the bottom, does not feed much at all. He will swim to the surface for air or move if bothered. Once or twice he will turn on his side and then swim and straighten out. There appears to be no physical issues like ick or fin rot etc. We thought he was getting too fat, he appeared to get larger over the last couple months. The only other clue that must be related is that the tank has had issues with a white fungas(its white and looks like cotton until removed from the tank, then its like slime), it keeps growing in the rocks, I did a complete water and tank tear down and clean including the rocks two weeks ago but this stuff has appeared again. Help! I can't figure out what is happening. The other fish is fine swimming around, eating and protecting the sick fish by laying next to him. The tank Temp is around 68 degrees.

There are only two Fantails in the tank, the tank gets a 1/3 water change every 3 weeks. Feeding is once a day and there is no food left on the bottom. The goldfish either eat it or it gets sucked into the filter. I have a 30-60 whisper filter. The fungas started while I was on vacation and when I came back it started. After I cleaned the tank I vacum and scrub the filter intake every day to make sure there was no food but the fungas keeps coming back. I will go today and see what the Pet Store can give me for the fungas. Hopefully that will help the Orange Fantail.

Answer 1

Sounds like ammonia poisoning. Consider investing in a 30$ master testing kit to determine all your water parameters. Or bring some water to the petstore - they'll usually test it for free.
The white fungus you're seeing, if its floating around in the tank, is just eating food with fungus / mold growing on it. Feed less food - only what the goldfish can eat in 30-60 minutes, and only once or twice a day. Remove any uneaten food.

How often are you cleaning the water? 3 fantails in a 30 gallon tank is a wee bit tight. It's fine, of course, for your fish - you just need to make sure to keep the water clean. Do 40% water changes every week, and always vacuum the gravel with the syphon tube, to remove uneaten food and poop.

Don't competely tear down the tank unless it's an emergency... it removes all the benficial bacteria that your tank needs to break down the ammonia produced by the fish. The tank is probably going through an ammonia spike which is making your fish sick.
Keep up with frequent, small water changes for next few weeks to keep the ammonia levels down until the bacterial populations can build up, and test your water for any other problems.

Good luck! Goldfish are very hardy and he should be fine :)

Answer 2

Sound like you are over feeding your fish. The fungus stuff you are seeing is the water mold that is growing on the left over food in the tank. I would goto the pet store and get some medication for the take. Explain to they what you have said here and they will give the the propert medication. Good luck! The full water change was a good idea and you may have to do this again.

Answer 3

My fish was the same way. It WOULD NOT eat yet lived for over 3 years. I have had much veterinary traning so TRUST ME!

Answer 4

whats the Tank Temp like?

Answer 5

Call local Fish & Aquarium store. Someone there can answer better.

Answer 6

try some fungus killer get snails or cleaner fish to clean up the slime
he may just be old or lazy