Right now I'm feeling pretty down about the whole fish keeping thing.
Getting the bigger tank was supposed to make my life and fish’s life easier; but instead almost 2 months down-the-line the original fish is dead and I have spent
a lot of money trying to make the tank stable.
I have been thoroughly cleaning the gravel in order to keep an outbreak of Planaria under control which seems to be working as I am down to just the odd 1 or 2 Planaria visible.
The tank is a Rekord 70 and I have added to the filter additional fine and coarse sponges hoping it would eventually cope more efficiently with 2 fancy goldfish. I have in the tank at the moment 1 two-inch Ryukin.
The tanks readings are as follows:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 15
pH: 8.2 (bringing this down slowly with RO water)
To me (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) this seems like everything is just right, yet my fish just isn't well. His fins are clamped, he either hides under plants, wedges himself in a corner or 'hangs' at the surface all the time motionless until he is fed, after which he returns to his sedentary state.
He was displaying this behaviour when I originally discovered the water pH was 9, and he started to be more active on the first addition of some RO water. A week later and he is back in this state.
I feel at a loss to know what to do anymore; I seriously feel like I should just give up and give my fish to someone else as it upsets me watching him like this. I have another fish in quarantine waiting to be introduced to the tank, but obviously I want to have everything right before introducing him to the main tank.
Sorry to rant; I just feel like whatever I do, something else goes wrong
What can I do this time to try and help my fish?