Our common goldfish is 8 years old. It was struggling to swim properly in the filter current yesterday & spent a lot of time at the bottom of the tank. I tested water levels ph 7.5, 0 ammonia & nitrite & nitrate was 0.5 using. Nutrafin test kit. No signs of fungus, external damage etc.
Is my fish dying of old age or is there anything I can do to help it??

Thanks

Rebecca

Hi,

Sorry to hear your fish is unwell. It isn't old age, as common goldies can live to 15 or more so he's only middle-aged.

How big is the tank he's in? How big is he? Are there any other fish with him? How often do you change any water and how much each time? Which dechlorinator do you use?

The initial problem is that the tank seems not to be fully cycling as it should. In a fully cycled tank ammonia and nitrite should read 0 at all times, and because the way those get to 0 is by being converted to nitrate, we'd normally expect the nitrate reading to be higher than that.

There can be many reasons for a cycle to fail, but to help him immediately, start changing 25% of the water in the tank every day using fresh water, treated with your usual dechlorinator and warmed to the same temperature as the tank.

Post back with the answers to the questions above and we'll see how we can help further as advice depends on those answers, especially regarding the curvature.

Just the one goldie, 120 litre tank, 25% water change each week with Nutrafin dechlorinator & cycle. It's been in the bigger tank about 3 months now (he previously lived happily in a 35 litre tank that we know was too small for him). I cleaned the tank & changed the water yesterday & he seems worse today. It's so upsetting to see him suffer & my little boy is in floods of tears. Maybe I've misunderstood the nitrite reading of the Nutrafin test kit. I've double checked & it's 5mg/L.
Is there anything else you can suggest? Please help :0(

Rebecca

5mg per litre is a readng of 5, not 0.5 so that sounds more likely. Still rather low though. What is the reading for nitrIte as with the &'s in your first post I can't tell f it's "0 ammonia & nitrite" or "0 ammonia....nitrite & nitrate 0.5" ?

If there are no signs of any infection, injury, or fungus it's most likely to be a water quality issue, but the curvature could be related to being in a small tank up 'til now. How big is he? At 8 years old he should be fully grown and that means 10-12 inches long. If he's a good deal smaller, then it sounds like he's stunted which would account for the curving. Is he curved in a "C" shape or an "S" shape?

Nitrite is 0 too. We rescued the fish around 5 years ago from a neighbour that was moving. He had lived with 3 other fish in a children's tank with no filtration & the water was like pea soup! We bought the largest tank we could afford, but the fish were in a bad way already & we lost 2 in the first month :0(
The other two fish were fine until last year when we lost one fish in exactly the same way as we seem to be this one. We moved & had more room for a larger tank & so we bought & cycled the tank & added our existing goldie, who seem really happy until yesterday. He ate when we put food in yesterday & then started to list again at the bottom. Today he shows no interest at all. He seem worse now, he is curved in a C shape & I really think we're going to lose him.

Rebecca

Have you seen him poo recently? If so what was it like? Sorry to be a bit gross but poo can be quite useful sometimes! What's the temperature like? And do you have any aeration in the tank? Any chance of a pic of him?

Not sure how to upload the photo I've taken on my iPhone onto here. I've not seen him poo recently. We don't have a thermometer either, so I would say room temperature. We have a large Eheim external filter, but no aeration at the moment. We did have an air stone in our previous tank though. I have a picture, so if someone can let me know how to, I'll upload it. He's still hanging on, but his tail looks a little shredded from drifting across the gravel. It's such a sorry sight to see & I either want to make him better, or put him out of his misery. Hate the idea of him suffering.

Rebecca

Don't think my upload worked. I have the photo on photobucket, but not sure which code I use to show my pic on here.
Please if anyone can help :0(

Rebecca