Ugh!

[luvabunny]

Some don't consider them "other" pets, but I have had fish tanks for as long as I can remember. Got tired of seahorses, and wanted something less time consuming, so went with just a tank full of colorful goldfish this time.

All has been well for over a year, then late last week, everyone began looking ill. No new additions, no changes to anything including diet. The only thing I could come up with was chlorine burn off a water change I had done a few days prior.

Nothing was different about the water change that I hadn't already done numerous times. Added same way, same chlorine remover used. Same PH balancer used. Yet this time, everyone is going downhill in a big way.

I've already lost 3 of my largest and prettiest. I expect the rest will go soon. Crazily, it's only affecting my goldfish. They have an angelfish roomie, who doesn't seem to be affected at all. It's not hurting my live plants, my dojo loach (who die if you look at them crooked) my otos or my cory cats.

40 years of fish keeping, and you would think I had seen it all, yet, here I am, stumped as to what just happened to my beautiful goldfish.
Weird. Makes you think twice about just drinking the water that comes out of your faucet.

 

[ladysown]

makes you wonder eh?

My hubby keeps cichlids. I used to keep a tank of community fish, and my lad has two tanks right now. One of crayfish/toads and another of fish from a stream.

 

[Dood]

Bummer

It really messes with your head when you mange to keep supposedly delicate animals alive but the 'beginner' critters croak on you.

I hope you figue this one out. Good luck.

 

[Secuono]

Well, they shouldn't be living with warm water fish to start.
We need more info/pictures, just dropping like flies isn't enough.
There are several good fish forums out there and some good goldfish ones, too.
Bloat, too hot, worms, ammonia burn, chlorine issue, ate rocks/substrate an so on

 

[Marinea]

So sorry to hear this. I would look at two things:

water temp. If you have a heater in the tank and it has gone bad, it can cause serious problems pretty quickly.

second, look at your filtration system. Under gravel systems (and less frequently HOB types) can crash and cause an ammonia spike. Goldfish are very messy- they eat and poop a lot, adding to the ammonia load.

You've had saltwater systems before, so you know about the ammonia. There are test kits for fresh water tanks- I would check out your parameters and go from there. Definitely check your ammonia, pH, and phosphate levels.

 

[Demamma]

Goldfish thrive on neglect. Cold tank, low cleaning and such. We have had our goldfish tank now for about 6 years and they are thriving.

 

[luvabunny]

Well, all the fancy goldfish have met their maker. The little comet goldfish is ill, but acts like he may pull thru. The angelfish is absolutely fine and begging me to feed him (again). None of the scavengers seems to notice anything is wrong.

No heater in the tank. I don't believe in them. The water temp is whatever my room temp is. Tank lighting is left over from saltwater. Plenty of output, but high up off the tank so no particular heat. It hasn't been changed in the past year, so nothing to do with that. Filtration is also left over from saltwater days. Three canister filters with all the bells and whistles. They could keep up with a dozen seahorses being fed frozen Mysis twice a day. I'm sure they can handle 7 goldfish. Added a bubbler when I added the goldfish. Mostly because I thought it was cool, but also helped the goldfish who need a little higher oxygen.

I use a chlorine/chloramine remover with every water change and my PH balancer also removes chlorine/chloramines & ammonia. I've never checked it that PH wasn't dead on 7.0 using this stuff.

I'm wondering, because I use a pond chlorine remover, if maybe I just used too much and burned them with it. You are only supposed to use a capful per 100 gallons, or some such. I don't recall using any more than I ever do, but they sure appear to have been burned. It's got to either be that or chlorine, and I just can't see how that could happen.

So, I guess after the busy weekend, I'll end up doing a thorough cleanup and adding more fish eventually. Maybe my angelfish needs a mate. Never raised angelfish....

 

[Marinea]

So sorry to hear about the fish.

If they appear to have been "burned", something's in the water. Ammonia, chlorine, too much chemical something. Sorry you lost them.