I have an oranda and a bubble eye goldfish just sitting at the bottom and I dont know why. My tank size is 10 gallons. The temperature is at 67 and my ammonia is at 0. I dont know what my Ph is but I'm assuming its a neutral 7.0 because I've been doing big water changes. I know 10 gallon is small for these goldfish but right now they are small. I have a bubble wall in the back and i recently changed the filter carbon media and sifted up the gravel. I'm using reversed osmosis water for my water changes. Have I done too much cleaning to the tank and it has to cycle again? I'm feeding very little because of this but now they arent really eating. Any help is appreciated because I've had them for a while and I think they will die soon and I don't know what to do.
Both Goldfish Dying Please help
- Thread starter sharpblade15
- Start date
why r u using R/o water? its too pure for freshwater fish unless u mix 1/2 tap with 1/2 r/o
Did you replace all of the filter media? How long has the tank been running? I'm not sure where your beneficial bacteria would be coming from if it is a newly established tank and you replaced your filter media, unless the substrate is providing it b/c the tank is up and running. Are you using a tank additive like Prime or Easybalance to supplement the bacteria growth? I'm assuming your water is dechorinated.
Hello sharpblade and welcome to the site. We'd very much love to help you with your fish, but without more information about the problem we can't possibly help you diagnose the cause, much less recommend appropriate treatment. If they're both sitting at the bottom, clearly, something is wrong. And that's a big list of possibilities. In the thread title, you've shown you feel they are dying. What else can you tell us about their physical state and their behavior to help us narrow this down for you?
We can tell you already that the tank size is way too small, the ideal temperature for goldfish is between 70-73 degrees, and the validity of your ammonia reading depends on what kind of test kit you're using. (Liquid drops for testing from a kit like API are reliable; using test strips is not). Doing water changes doesn't mean you get neutral water in terms of pH. That needs to be measured as well. On that point, however, goldfish do well in both high and low pH conditions.
Unfortunately, it's the "right now" that you need to focus on - particularly if your fish are already sick or dying. The 10 gallon you have is already too small even for small goldfish. Keeping them in this size tank with even extraordinary maintenance practices still leads to a wide range of life-threatening health problems.
Strong aeration is good and goldfish love playing in the bubbles anyway.. so this is a good step. Filter media should be cleaned using existing tank water (no chlorine/chloramine)... not from the tap (which has chlorine/chloramine) and not just changed and discarded. You'll need to find out more about establishing and maintaining a colony of beneficial bacteria to keep your water parameters safe.
Very possibly, yes. You'll need a liquid test kit to find out exactly what your levels are for ammonia, nitritres, and nitrates. If you don't yet know what your the pH of your water is, then using reverse osmosis water isn't something we would recommend.
I'm glad you're here and you're doing what you can to find out what needs to be done. That's always important and we're happy to help. So, for us to find out the details we need to advise you, let's start from the beginning.
Here is a list of general questions to show you the type of symptoms, setup, and history information we're looking for. You've answered a few of these already, so just expand on that to add whatever else you can. Whatever you don't know, we'll help you figure that out too.
I know this sounds like a lot of detail, but this will help us narrow everything down for you in the shortest amount of time.
Let us know what you can and don't worry. We're here to help.
