Goldy the Goldfish Poorly

[millimurphy]

Need help with my girl. She has been sank to the bottom of the tank for the last 5 days. I have been feeding her peas as she has had problems with her swimbladder in the past and this has always sorted her out. Not this time. She has red streaks in her tail through the stress. Water paramenters are good: Ammoia 0, Nitrite 0 and Nitrate 0-5 ppm. 25% Water gets changed each week with a gravel vac.

Please don't tell me to euthanise . She is a fancy goldfish - one of the funny squashed up types with fluttery fins and tail. She is approx. 7-8 years old (I adopted her when I got together with my partner). Her and her pal Red have been in a 200litre tank since April this year when I realised I had been keeping them in much to small a tank .

Does anyone know of any fish vets near Northampton and what sort of prices they might charge? Please help as she looks so unhappy and I don't know what to do.

[EauRouge]

Well their environment sounds fine :) Sorry to hear she's ill. The nearest fish vet I can find is in Stafford details here. You might be able to get advice over the phone and maybe a prescription for antibiotics. No idea on prices, sorry.

[onceortwice]

Oh sorry... The only advice I can think is to take her on a bus ride.. Worked for Peppa Pig's goldfish!!!

Can you not just phone your local vet and ask for a recommendation?

[millimurphy]

Both good advice - don't know why I have not thought of calling the normal vet - I guess you just don't with fish . Will phone them when able (the son has just woken up, lol) and if no good will try the ones in Stafford. Thankyou for your swift replies.

[MamaPizza]

OMG! Sorry to jump into this, but I didn't know there was a vet in Stafford! It's just around the corner from me, how cool is that! Hopefully I won't need them for my fishies, but if I know there is someone local.

Hope Goldie gets better soon, really sounds like you are doing everything right.

Laughing at the bus ride, I know the episode. I want to shout every time that that poor fish is in an uncycled, tiny bowl

[Willmouse]

[pushmepullyou]

I was going to suggest a bus ride too, but DH is well up on his fancy goldfish and has rather more helpfully contributed the following (gleaned from

Fish sitting on the bottom is either parasites or water quality. Red fins are also typically stress, water quality, parasites or bacterial infections.

Is your other fish ok? I suspect that as you haven't introduced any new fish recently water quality is the most likely candidate even though the test looks ok (could be an old or inaccurate test, particularly if it's a dipstick one). Do you have a good external filter? This can affect water quality.

First of all try a 50% followed by a salt treatment with uniodised salt (available from fish shops). Can't link as on my phone but if you google there are dosage instructions. The man you want is Dr Erik Johnson, who wrote the Definitive book on fancy goldfish and also has a website.