Possibly odd goldfish behaviour

Hi

The last 2 days my 2 comets have been very inactive, they are usually very active swimming all over the tank but they are now spending most of the time in the corner behind the filter pretty much motionless. They are feeding OK.

Is this normal winter behaviour? Or something odd?

Thx
Dec

What temperature is the water? Under 10 degrees Celsius goldfish will go into a torpor or hibernation (this is normal). If the tank is indoors in your living room or something though I'd doubt it was that cold. That they are feeding well would further go against this idea.

Other than that it could be any number of things, from water quality to illness to who knows what. If it's not due to very cold water, bottom sitting in goldfish is a sign of illness of some kind (dropsy, parasites etc). Check for pineconing of the scales.

Thanks for the reply I'll have a close look and try to upload a pic.

In light of your other thread about the new pleco in this tank, the possibility of the pleco having either introduced something or having physically hurt the goldfish in some way has also occurred to me.

My thinking also re the pleco, first thing I thought was what has changed and it would be the new pleco and the recent colder weather although the temp at the moment is 21 C but I assume it is getting colder than that overnight. I don't have a quarantine tank so pleco went from LFS to tank after some acclimatization kinda trusted the LFS to have ensured the fish was healthy, naive perhaps.


Here is the best I could do for photos






Thx again
Dec

should have said pleco is about 3-4cm would physical harm be a possibility from a fish this small compared to the goldfish about 8-10cm

Idon't know much about goldfish but both the ones in the picture look ill, clamping of fins and a sort of greyish hue over the fish, maybe iyt is the photo maybe not, can you test your water or get a local shop to test it for you, maybe test for ammonia nitrate and nitrite for starters

It won't be dropping below 10 at night if it's 21 during the day. 10 feels painfully icy to your hand. If you turn the heating off in the fish room at night it wouldn't drop more than a couple of degrees anyway. But I don't think that's your problem here. These fish are ill and I think this could have been brewing for a while.

I see clamping of fins on both of them, more so on the common (red/white one) than on the shubunkin (calico/tricolour one), and both have fin damage. Again the common is worse off, with a frayed tail, but the shubunkin also has a split in one of the pectorals. I'm seeing white spot on the tail of the common - but it could just be the camera angle and lighting making fin deterioration look that way. I think they have fin rot.

Maybe the pleco introduced something, maybe not. At the sizes you've specified it's definitely big enough to suck slime coat off them, especially if they're spending a lot of time hovering motionless. But I don't think this is the main problem.

Many LFS, if not most, source their goldfish from the fish equivalent of puppy farms in south-east Asia, where welfare and breeding standards are not what we would like. They are not bred with any kind of care because they are not expected to be the kind of fish that serious fish keepers buy. They are largely bought for kids by parents who hope the fish will not live much longer than the kids' interest in them. These are basically low-quality stock which is not quarantined, treated or screened for any kind of infection such as white spot, fin rot, worms or what have you.

Now, I couldn't possibly say for sure if this applies to your own LFS but these fish are ill, and the symptoms they have point to stress and poor immune systems. It might have come from the pleco, it might have been there beforehand and the stress of adding the pleco just brought on the symptoms, or it might just be a coincidence. If the pleco injured them I might be wondering whether it was a case of it opportunistically picking on sick fish.

So here's the crux of the matter. You can use simple treatments such as performing regular 50-80% water changes, salting the tank water (make sure the salt you use does not contain any additives or anti-caking agents as this will poison the fish) or putting a raw chilli in a bit of tights material in the water but to be honest I think without antibiotics (which will kill your filter bacteria) these fish will die in fairly short order. You will need to decide whether you want to go down this path because it will be costly and you'll probably struggle to find a vet who knows what they're doing with goldfish, or who gives a hoot for that matter.

Here is a webpage which gives the info you need in a nutshell. You can find many more by Googling "fin rot goldfish". You might also look into white spot (also known as ich or ick) treatments just in case. aquadaily.com/2009/01/26/fin-rot-symptoms-and-treatment/

Sorry I couldn't help more.

ETA: You could try one of the over the counter fin rot treatments sometimes sold in LFSs if you wanted but I'm not sure how effective they will be or if anything will be available to you.

quote:Sorry I couldn't help more.

you have been very helpful, not the best news but very useful none the less. I'll look for suitable aquarium salt and/or fin rot treatment. I'll also get the water tested and do a few water changes next week a bit bigger than usual, which is normally 15% a week.

Thanks
Dec

I'd be going with 80% water changes once or twice a week while they're sick. Actually 50% or more is probably necessary anyway with goldfish, sick or not. They are a lot dirtier than other fish.

I'm no expert myself - I've just been reading up and studying a lot since we got our fish not so long ago and made some silly newbie errors - but if you ever want to PM me with a goldfish problem please do feel free.

Yeah new to this and thought I had made most of the mistakes at this point but not noticing the state of my calico's tail is a pretty big one.

I'll let you know how they get on.