HELP my goldfish is twitching?

Question

My fancy oranda goldfish is like twitching it seems like. I have seen him do this before and it always seems to be at night. Is that just something that they do while the sleep or is something wrong and how do I treat it? Ah I'm worried about my fish. He is swimming around tho, just kind of twitchy.

Moby is only 1.5 inches now. He is in a 5 gallon tank with a live plant. It has a good filter also. I leave the light off during the day and put it on for maybe 3 or 4 hours per night until I go to bed. I do partial water changes at least once a week and sometimes more. It does seem like he only does this at night but it worries me. Thanks for getting back to me!!!

Answer 1

Are you turning off the light at night?
you're suppose to keep it on for 10-12 hours during the day and turn it off for 12-14 hours at night

If you do that, please give as some more info,
like tanksize,
how often and how much you feed him
how often are you doing water changes

hope that helps


EB

Answer 2

I am not sure how you define twitching, but if a goldfish is scraping itself on the bottom or side of the tank, it's usually due to high nitrate or parasite infestation, like lice or anchor worm which are quite visible to the naked eye.

If the fish is just sweeping it tail side to side very fast, then it's just the way they boost themselves through the water, usually when they see you coming and is expecting to be feed near the top of the tank. Thats normal.

If the fish is swimming head over heels in a cartwheel fashion, it has swim bladder problem and should be treated as that.

Good Luck.

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