Nipped home at lunch today to find him on his side on the bottom of the tank. When I went to take him out (in a guinness pint glass), he got a bit more mobile, ate some food, then went to swim inside his log.
My housemate has kindly turned his pump off I noticed.
Is he on the way out or is there anything i can do?

water too hot? Not oxygenated enough?

that’s my initial thought. He’s got a plant and I’ve put some cooler water in to try and counter the pump being off.

Sounds like the water isnt oxygenated enough. Clean the tank out and give him some fresh water if you can.

Overfed? gives swim bladder disorder I think ( from previous posts on here)

Put im into another tank, with clean water, while you clean the other one out. Sounds a bit odd, but hold him by the tail and pull him backwards through the water, as this will open up the gills (we’ve had fish come back to life by doing this)

Ciao

Pook have you tested the water recently? Goldfish are quite dirty to keep in a tank, they create quite a bit of waste, well for fish anyway.

he does do exceptionally long poos.

You’ll need a very light batter for goldfish, and make sure you don’t overcook it.

It sounds like you haven’t been able to turn the pump back on – this would be a priority.

Cleaning the tank out is definitely a good idea, but be careful with changing the water quickly for ‘fresh’ tap water as this may not necessarily be a healthy thing either…

Most likely its due to lack of oxygen in the water. My brother has had several goldfish and even though using a submerged pump/purifier the fish get lethargic. Try positioning the pump so that the water falls into the tank water and you see bubbles, this will keep the water oxygenated (better than plants IMHO). Also as said they are shitty fish so water gets mucky quickly.
I’m no expert, just talking from what I’ve noticed, there may be other reasons.

the pump is back on.

Chlorine in new tap water needs to be removed, sure you know about this already though Pook.

Have you been overfeeding him? They can be very greedy.

Chlorine in new tap water needs to be removed

Technically yes, but goldies are pretty hardy.

For most trops you would have to put something like FreshStart in the water first.

And if you have overfed it would explain his sinking – all that heavy food in his belly…

Doesn’t the swim bladder disorder tend to make them float rather than sink though?

Doesn’t the swim bladder disorder tend to make them float rather than sink though?

Yes, typically upside down…

Putting in new “colder” tap water could thermally shock your fish, you should try to add dechlorinated water at the same temperature as the tank.

my goldfish did exactly the same – on its side lethargic – nothing worked – i went out brought everything under the sum to keep it alive! 4 years of good life over in 48 hrs – RIP Debs 2!

We used to deliver meat to an old lady, she had a goldfish it was 8 years old..
ballacks you thinking… so was i…

this thing had a round bowl and used to swim in circles all the time and only one way..

this old lady used to pop the bowl on the side. pick the goldfish out and leave it on the draining board, pour the water out, quick once over with her brillo pad, quick swill and fill the thing back up.. she never rushed over this process, it wasn’t like 10 mins but i’m sure i recall it being nearly 3 mins once.. this poor bloody thing gulping and flapping about.. i took a look at the beast the one day and it was bent.. nothing drastic but it had a curve to it from swimming round the bowl i presume the one way all the time..

resilient thing it was.. she won it at a circus stall 8 years earlier.. still to this day i see the image of the flapping gulping goldfish on the draining board as she cleaned out a stereotypical bowl.

Maybe he’s tired.

Chlorine needs to be removed form the tap water, either by using a chamical 9€from a fish shop) or by leaving the water out over night, this will also (at least partially) get it to room temperature.
The new water should be roughly the same temperature as the tank water.
You can keep goldfish in a bowl, but they have a poor life and certainly arn’t happy about it.

In this sort of weather (hot) you especially need your aeration device turn on all the time.

The one with the bent spine would have been caused by keeping in a tank too small. Other reasons can be: lightning strike or an infection.

If he gets too hot, put some of the tank water into an ice-cube mold and put in the freezer. Then put into tank when frozen, don’t put more than a couple in a bowl though. Ideally the water temp should be 16-24° indoors.

Fish update:

Water changed and treated, new plants in, rocks, log, toy turtle, chopsticks holders (don't ask) all cleaned.

Fish looking a bit battered from sitting on the bottom, but he's fighting – keeps trying to move. Not very strong but looking a bit more determined today. Hopefully he'll have perked up come lunch

:o(

smack your housemate one for turning off the pump!

The same thing happened to our rabbit. I think it was drowning.

Pook, you do know that completely cleaning the tank may well cause problems – you need the bacteria that grow in it to keep the nitrogen cycle going or you're going to have to change the water one hell of a lot…

http://www.tropicalfishcentre.co.uk/Cycle.htm
(apologies if I'm teaching granny to suck eggs)

I made sure he got a load of his old water in there as well. About 50/50 to be honest.

What size is the tank and what filter do you have?

Put some aquarium salt (http://www.bestfish.com/fwsalt.html) in after the water change, as it de-stresses the fish. Mine was looking a little under the weather yesterday and it gets a water change every week (1/3 tank), i put it down to the warm weather and the water temp rising. It picked up again straight away after the water change, presumably because the water temp had dropped a little.

You can get some good advice here Pook, they have a goldfish forum section too:

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=192

Pook – it's not jus the water though – most of the bacteria you want live on the surfaces so if you clean everything you get rid of most of them…

fish – 1.5 inches.
tank – 15 inches x 10 inches
filter – not too sure, but it pumps very well and gets a lot of bubbles going.
Bacteria-wise – I've put some in from a mates tank too with some more plants. Should be some in there now. fingers crossed

Adding water from another tank can casue problems too, as can adding new plants.

Before I add new fish or plants I always rinse / soak them in a weak solution of Esha400 / Ich – Its an anti white spot treatment but is good at killing off other harmful bacteria.

I gave up on Goldfish as they always ended up getting ill, despite a relatively rigorous approach and treating them with all the relevant treatments.

I found 'King British' medicines very expensive and not effective. The only things I use now are a green one called Myxazin, a blue one I can't remember the name of but does all the stuff the green one doesn't, and the Esha400.

I now have weather / dojo loaches that are supposed to be more sensitive to goldies, but IME are much hardier.

Have you changed the sponges / renewed the carbon in your filter (if you have one). When you change the filters you need to do them in halves – one half now then the other in a couple of months so as to maintain the useful bacteria.

Isn't all this getting a bit OTT for a bl00dy goldie? Just flush it down the bog* and get another one – it will be much cheaper than all these treatments, carbon filters, time spent reviving etc.

*If you want a more humane death, get some ice and chuck the fish on top – the shock kills them pretty quickly and entirely painlessly (apparently).

By the way – is it a filter or just an aerator? The 'bubbles' comment suggest it is the latter – useful for oxygenating and a small amount of protein skimming, but it isn't filtering the water per se…

My preferred method is to wrap them in paper then squish with a brick.

filter mastiles.

Oh, and I've not spent anything on these solutions. Friends have given them to me.
I'd just prefer not to kill the thing if i can make it better.
Yeah it may be over the top, and I'm just being soft, but i don't care.

GOLDFISH UPDATE[/B]

he's upright now.
🙂

Cool

Yay. what with this and the hamster being found STW's a pet happy place at the moment 🙂

picture please!