Help with a very young ryukin goldfish!!!?

Question

I have a very young ryukin about an inch long and it has no hump yet. It has very nice color and when it gets bigger I think it might win some competitions some day,but it can't if it looks like it's sick!! See my goldfish has a red face on it and the gills,there regular. I don't use any water softeners or ati stress fluids. My goldfish always is just hanging on the top of the tank trying to eat the bubbles or something. I use an airator that very sufficiently supplies oxygen. There are no chemicals in the gravel I have and he only has two other tank mates. There all in a ten gallon tank. I change only about 30% of the water at a time and I do it adleast 1 time a week. His other tankmates are so lively so I'm pretty sure its not the water quality beacause then theyed all be affected ,right? Now,some parts of his body are loosing it's color and turning pink. I feed them a liitle food twice a day,but the problem goldfish isn't really that exicited about eating. What am I doing wrong????

Answer 1

First of all a 10 gallon tank wont fit 3 goldfish but since they are babies, it would be okay. Advise you get a bigger tank when they're bigger though.
If the tank is newly setup, then ammonia or nitrite poisoning would probably be the problem. Suggest you get a test kit. Losing its colour could also be ammonia and nitrite poisoning and is stressing you little fish. Others include poor water condition, pollution (overfeeding) or maybe if you keep bigger fish with him, they could be stressing him by trying to eat him.
Loss of appetite isn't a good sign but try to keep the best water conditions and wait and see what happens.
Gulping or trying to eat the bubbles is pretty normal behaviour for goldfish. Again trying to eat the bubbles could also be from high nitrite and ammonia.
Suggest you buy the test kits. Making 50% water changes every other day would help improve water quality.
Carbon can be placed in you filter to also improve water quality and absorb poisons from insect spray etc that can kill fish.
Hope all helps.

Answer 2

I have a calico ryukin, his name is Davey Jones. He frequently surfaces for air as well; as all goldfish do. he isnt looking to eat the bubbles it's just a normal goldfish behavior. I have had Davey for about four years now. He too had some slight discoloration when he was young. I found it was the ammonia levels in the tank. He was apparently more sensitive to it than some of my other fish for whatever reason. Get a water test and check the ammonia levels would be my first suggestion. I hope this is helpful

Answer 3

You didn't say since how long you have the tank setup up
but assuming that it's a pretty new setup, i would check for nitrites and ammonia right away, if they're not at 0 or at least at 0.25 your tank is still cycling and causes the slimecoat of your fish to burn off and makes streaks which look like blood lines

if your parameters are off the chart, you need to do a 25% waterchange every 3 days to keep your parameters down and help your fish to survive, once your cycle is finished, you should do weekly partial waterchanges with a gravelsiphon, and replace ALWAYS with conditioned water



Hope that helps
Good luck


EB