Why does my goldfish "play dead"????????

Question

I bought four yesterday,one of them "plays dead". It stays still and slowly floats to the top of the water, then "comes alive" again.Then i noticed white spots so i took it back to the store where i got it and after a long argument,i replaced it.Now this is the second gold fish "playing dead".Im really worried.Am i doing something wrong?I have four gold fish in a 10litre tank.Please help me

Answer 1

Your goldfish aren't playing dead, they are dying.

As I said yesterday, 10 litres is about 2.5 gallons. And after plants, decor, gravel, etc your 4 goldfish have about 2 gallons of water.
You did not specify which type of goldfish they are.
Fancy goldfish - which are the smallest type of goldfish - need a MINIMUM of 15 gallons (or 60 litres) of water, each.
Other types of goldfish like koi, commons and comets are pond fish and need 100s and 1000s of gallons of water to be healthy.
Goldfish are BIG, wide bodied fish. Even the smallest type of goldfish will grow to be longer than your tank is! And they are poop machines. They eat a lot and they produce copious amounts of toxic ammonia. I am guessing that you did not cycle your tank. That, plus the fact that you have FOUR goldies in a 2.5 gallon tank means there's a huge buildup of ammonia in your tank, which is killing your fish. This is why they are acting this way; they are dying.
They need a large amount of water and they need heavy filtration.

If you want to keep your goldies, you'll have to get a bigger tank. If you need to keep your little tank, you'll have to look into getting a betta fish instead of the goldfish.
The white spots you saw were Ich, which is a parasite. It usually manifests itself when the fish is stressed or sick.

Note: Goldfish do NOT have short lifespans! They can live well into their teens and beyond if properly cared for; I think the records is somewhere around 50 years old.

Answer 2

A 10 liter tank is way too small for one goldfish let alone four. They are stressed out, and will most likely get more of those white spots and die. As far as them "playing dead" no...they aren't playing...I'm not sure exactly why they are doing that...but it is not normal behavior for any fish. A fancy goldfish needs about a 29 gallon tank to live a long and happy life. Goldfish do NOT have a short lifespan they can live for over 20 years, and they are more difficult to care for than most people believe. They produce a lot of waste so their water needs changing very frequently and they need large tanks with a lot of room to swim around.

Goldfish are the most abused aquarium fish on the planet, so please...take care of yours.

Answer 3

White spots are a disease that will quickly spread throuout your tank and will kill your other fish, there is a medicine for it that isn't too expensive. If you get another with white spots find something called "Rid-Ich" and then see if he hides in the corner or seems defensless. Also, try to start your tank small, meaning start with two fish and (though it is hard to wait) wait for a few weeks and see if everything is going well. In fact this weekend I'm adding to my fish tank, I've been waiting for 3 weeks! Haha. Good luck with your goldfish.

Answer 4

the white spots could be anything. if any of your fish get white spots see if it looks like they were salted -- that is ich. if it looks starts to look fuzzy its called columnaris. goldfish scales change color too -- so it might just be a scale gone white.

if he is playing dead it might be a problem with the water. that many goldfish in a small space need their water changed constantly. they poop a lot and that makes the water poison for them. you need to make sure the water has oxygen. like a really good bubbler.

i keep 3 small goldfish in 20 litres and that isn't really big enough. I have the best filtration you can get on a small tank and still do gravel vacuums and 50% water changes every 5 days. goldfish are a lot of maintenance. I keep bettas in 10 litres and they do fine for a week -- probably more but i don't push it. then i do gravel vaccums and change 80% of the water -- just keep them in enough water i don't have to remove them.

More than likely your fish aren't healthy when you get them (most aren't -- not your fault -- fish stores don't maximize profits on healthy fish) you do need to realize though goldfish are harder to keep than most people realize and to keep 4 in that small a space is really hard work. most people recommend more like 80 litres per goldfish because they waste a lot of food and make a lot of poop and that all makes their water really bad. in 80 litres the waste is a lot more distributed than in 10. If you want to make a go of it in 10 i suggest maybe 1 or 2 goldfish and clean it every 2 or 3 days. I keep water in a garbage can with a lid with my fish so the water is roughly the same temperature and ready to go when its water change time. you could also change to different fish -- a betta would be fine -- with some quality silk plants or some real plants you can make a very nice 2 1/2 gallon home for a betta.

Answer 5

Fist, you have those fish in far too cramped quarters. That tank is too small for even one goldfish to be comfortable once it grows a bit. They aren't playing dead, they are sick. It sounds to me that the store has a tank opf sick fish, I would return the entire batch and demand my money back. If they give you store credit, don't use it to get more fish, get some food or something. Next go home and clean out the tank really well and get some fish ( from a different store) that are better suited for a small tank.

Sorry to give you bad news, but there is nothing for it.

Answer 6

The fish you have might have ick. There are however many other diseases that fish get. I would say... got to a pet supply store and explain what is going on, and if you really enjoy the fish and want to save them ask for medicine, and read on the medicine bottle what the symptoms are for what it cures, making sure you have the right stuff.
One thing about gold fish is they usually come from a community tank and it is hard to tell if they are affected by disease

Answer 7

I'm not sure they're "playing". Maybe that store just doesn't have healthy fish. Take the second one to another fish store - see what they say. Good luck.

Answer 8

Didn't you ever watch the commercial. Give the fish some Pepsi!!

Answer 9

They aren't playing, they are actually dying. Goldfish's lifespans are extremely short so count your blessings that you at least have 3 healthy ones.

Answer 10

Maybe they don't like the music your playing.