Goldfish sits on the bottom of the tank?

Question

Goldfish sits on the bottom of the tank?
I have 2 beautiful goldfish that are 5 years old. One is lying on the bottom of the tank the other sitting on the bottom. Niether is eating. They seem to have a gray skin like substance pealing off them. Sometimes they are over an inch long. If you move the fish with the net, the skin like substance just floats away. I've tried ich medication, but it just seemed to make more of the skin like stuff float off them. They seem to be breathing very rapidly. Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated. thanks Eileen

Answer 1

The skin like substance you are seeing is actually the fishes slime coat. It is thick and sloughing off due to some irritation in the tank. I would first suggest you change about 50% of the water and check the tank temperature as well. Many things could cause this including pH problems, high ammonia, temperature, parasites and even an over dose of some medications. A water change will help all of them and even solve some of them right away. Test the water conditions to see if any of those is the problem and do the water change to correct that or an over dose of medication. If the problem doesn't get better within a day or two, I would plan to trat the tank with Paracide or Clout to clear a parasite infestation.

The reason you fish are sitting and gasping is that the slime coat is covering their gills and potentially a parasite is infesting the gills as well. Clearing up the problem will get them swimming around again.

Hope this helps and best of luck with them

MM

Answer 2

Have you tested the water? PH/alkalinity problems can cause discoloration though I've never seen skin float away, perhaps you've got low PH/alkalinity along with a disease. Test the water - if it's bad treat that first. If after the water is good they're still ill go ahead and try some kind of fungus medication as someone else pointed out Marcyn is good.

P.S. It's definitely not ich. Ich looks like little white dots - like salt on a fish kind of.

Answer 3

Humm. . . properly enable us start up with you do not might want to flush your fish like maximum everybody is declaring (gee). The pink streaks on your fish's body is maximum probable do to Hemorrhagic Septicamia (pink streaks on body) or Furuculosis (open pink sores on the body). to attend to this you are able to merely purchase Fungus sparkling by Jungle(product's business organization call) out of your nearby puppy keep or Walmart. merely drop in a unmarried pill for each ten gallons. even as including this Fungus sparkling on your tank be effective to get rid of the carbon out of your clear out, so it received't get rid of the cleanser even as filtering the water. If the first clinical care of 24 hours would not help wait 24 hours with a clear out back and repeat clinical care. in case your fish is new it really is probable that it had gotten smaller this ailment from yet another sick fish on the keep. also the rigidity of being in a clean ecosystem, consistent loud noised or flashing light fixtures, abnormal sound asleep trend, or the advent of a clean buddy can weaken your fish's immune gadget and cause them to settlement an ailment that ought to have died off earlier they were contaminated. be effective to proceed to keep the tank sparkling and including salt. Salt helps construct to the fish's exterior mucus that protects them. in case you do not take care of this it should be deadly. good success my buddy and that i desire this helped. also, my fish have lengthy previous by diseases, many, many diseases and performance come out tremendous. So do not problem she should be tremendous in case you're taking action.

Answer 4

might be a fungus. I would increase waterchanges and use a good declorinator. The clean water might help. If not, try dosing with a Marycn.

Answer 5

You need to warm up your water a little bit, to kill the stinky parasites.

Answer 6

use a stress coat.