Whats wrong with my fish??

[sleepyskater]

Well just recently, one of my Gold barbs has been acting a little stange. Everytime it tries to swim it becomes lipsided and start to swim out of control. It's like its paralyzed on 1 half of it's body or something.
Does anyone know what it is, and if someone does how do you treat something like that?
:help:

[rich311k]

Could be swim bladder, it could be he is partially paralyzed. Not much you can do. If he looks in pain or stops eating you probably will need to put him down.

[sleepyskater]

I dont seem he eating when I feed him. So I guess I will have to put him down :(
Thanks for the help though :)

[rich311k]

At the very least isolate him, whatever he has could very well be contagious.

[sleepyskater]

alright, Ill go do it right now

[wataugachicken]

i disagree. unless you have a separate hospital tank with a filter and a heater, isolating the sick fish is going to do nothing but cause it to die faster - from the illness, improper temperatures, and ammonia buildup, and stress of catching/moving. if it is something contagious, the other fish have already been exposed and they're either going to get it or they're not. at least by letting the sick one live longer, there's more possibility of identifying the problem and being able to treat it accurately.

[rich311k]

i disagree. unless you have a separate hospital tank with a filter and a heater, isolating the sick fish is going to do nothing but cause it to die faster - from the illness, improper temperatures, and ammonia buildup, and stress of catching/moving. if it is something contagious, the other fish have already been exposed and they're either going to get it or they're not. at least by letting the sick one live longer, there's more possibility of identifying the problem and being able to treat it accurately.

QT is what I meant by isolate, what else would it mean. I don't think letting it live longer and suffer more will help anything. you will not figure out what it is or what to fix it with. We are not biologists. It simply exposes healthy stock to disease longer.

[wataugachicken]

for a lot of people new to the hobby, "isolate" simply means put it in a tupperware container or old goldfish bowl. a fish that was in good body condition before getting sick can live for a week or more without food. putting the fish down or isolating it improperly in a way that will cause it to die seems a little premature to me, considering we don't know what the problem is or if the fish will be able to recover.

[sleepyskater]

now you tell me!
It died this morning in a goldfish bowl :/

[wataugachicken]

I'm sorry about your fish.

[jpappy789]

Sorry about the loss. But count this as a lesson learned, don't place a fish in an uncycled tank, ever.

Keep an eye on the rest of your tank. Upping the wc's never hurts.

[sleepyskater]

Wc?
and My Ph is droping, slowly but it still is.
It was at 7 when I first put the fish in there
6.6 after 4 or 5 days
and now it's at 6.2, should I be worried? What can I do to fix this?

[wataugachicken]

wc = water change

how long has the tank been running?
have you tested for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate in addition to the pH?
what is the pH of the tap water?
what is the pH of the tap water after you let it sit out overnight? (obviously, you might have to tell us that one tomorrow)
do you have driftwood in the tank?

[rich311k]

Sorry about the fish. I did not know it was a new tank. I still think he was a goner regardless, but we need some test levels. At least with you PH that low any ammonia will be mostly in a harmless form.

[sleepyskater]

Yeah thanks for the help
I'm going to my Lfs later and I think I'm gunna pick up a test kit

[KarlTh]

Get KH as well. This is usually the issue with crashing pH.