Sudden unexplained lethargy??

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Inka4040

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Mar 31, 2008
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Please bear with me through this paragraph, but I'm really at the end of my rope with this. When I came home from Thanksgiving dinner, I noticed all of my goldfish just sitting on the bottom. As soon as they saw me, they immediately came up for food, but soon settled back into inactivity. Yesterday, I tested all the params in triplicate, and came up with nitrate between 0 and 5, nitrite and ammo at 0. Performed a 50% water change anyway, and went to bed. Today, they are exhibiting the same lazy behavior. They are still feeding greedily, but seem to bottom sit most of the rest of the time. Weirdest thing is, over the past year or so, this is now the third time that my goldfish have shown a sudden unexplained decrease in activity. All three times, there has been no loss of appetite, which first, led me to belive it was flukes. I treated with praziquantel, and the fish got better. A few months later, it happened again, and again I treated with prazi. This time however, it didn't seem to have any effect, and after one of the fish dropsied up (immediately quarantined where it eventually died) I decided to treat the whole tank with kanamycin and metronidazole treated food. Again, the fish rebounded, and it's been about 4 months of good health and growth since then. The tank in question is 75 gallons, and holds 3 (used to be 4 till an unfortunate siphon accident last week) goldfish ranging from 4 to almost 7 inches. Filtration is a rena XP3, XP2, and a fluval 4 internal filter. No new fish, plants, snails or anything have been added for months. Again, sorry for the essay, but I really have no idea what I should do at this point. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
 

wataugachicken

The Dancing Banana
Jul 14, 2005
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my first thought was flukes, but then i kept reading. but saying that you treated them for it, and then they got better, but then relapsed into lethargy later on, makes me think that maybe this is an issue of the parasites becoming resistant to the medication. the second time the prazi may have weakened them slightly and then the metro finished them off, but i don't really know. metro is an antibiotic and anti-protozoal, so it *could* have killed flukes. first thing i would do is try the triple combo again, all at once, and see if anything changes.
 

Flaringshutter

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Oct 17, 2006
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I'm not a big believer in blindly medicating, especially on the second time around. I think your instincts were right, Inka, to treat for flukes. But dosing a second round of all meds at once could kill the weaker fish, besides any remaining parasites. In a situation that's as complex as this, it's really important to scrape and scope before treating again. You may want to do a very thorough S&S, sedating one or two of the worst affected fish and taking a gill clipping, a fresh fecal sample, and scrapes of skin, behind caudal fins, and around the vent. If you don't have access to a microscope, you may be able to take fresh samples into a vet for help diagnosing the problem.
My instinct also says parasites, but it's really hard to say without a scrape & scope. You may also be looking at intestinal worms, but those are even harder to diagnose.
 

Inka4040

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Mar 31, 2008
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How powerful of a microscope would I need to have access to? Seems like it might be cheaper to purchase one than to find/pay for a vet with fish experience?
 

Flaringshutter

Befriend a feeder!
Oct 17, 2006
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Most parasites, fungal and bacterial issues are easily diagnosed with a 400x scope. I bought an old science-class model on ebay for $70 a while back and it was definitely worth it. It's been very helpful in diagnosing problems (not to mention keeping me sane by convincing me there really was nothing wrong) many times.

I think this may be almost exactly the model I have. It looks very similar.

http://cgi.ebay.com/40-400x-MONOCUL...14&_trkparms=72:1205|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318

Actually, with free shipping, 50 slides and 100 covers, this one is a total steal.
 

Inka4040

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Mar 31, 2008
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Wow! That is significantly cheaper than I was expecting! Awesome. Thanks a bunch FS. I may have to pick one of those up tomorrow!
 

Inka4040

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Mar 31, 2008
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So I just bought that scope. Hopefully it'll ship out tomorrow. Until then, I'll be doing 50% changes every other day (so I can at least feel like I'm doing something). In the mean time though, are there any good sites where I can study what these lil bugs I'll be looking for will look like?
 

JenniferLynn

AC Members
Dec 4, 2008
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My goldfish did this to me once and nearly scared me to death because it was after I had cleaned. I'm new to this but I figured out what got mine doing this...the water change changed the temp in my tank more than I thought and I had removed a tree from their tank that was a pain to clean to get rid of it. All three of them started sitting on the bottom and looking wigged out. I did more water changes to get my temp back and ended up with the old tree outside right out side the tank and they slowly perked back up. When they've done this have things changed for them some how? I didn't realise how they'd react to change until I scared my goldies and they started acting just like dogs do when stuff is getting moved out of the house. Just wanted to give you another idea.
 
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