Emergency...sort of

[ian2mic]

We've been doing the pea thing. He gets 3-4 a day along with small amounts of goldfish crisps and flakes. We've also amped up the cleaning to every other day until I can get the nitrates down some more. I removed the carbon...again...and am going to finish off the Melafix.

We've been reading up on the protein thing on goldfish. I've read that goldfish really should have a meat-free diet. Has anyone else heard of this? The only "vegetarian" fish food I've heard of is those made for bottom feeders.

 

[Lupin]

Test the pH. Keep temp to at least 72-76 degrees Fahrenheit and do more water changes. Your issues are all water quality related to me. At this point, I'd advise maintaining clean water. Of course, keeping a teaspoon per gallon of salt (sodium chloride) is also useful to keep infections at bay. And no antibiotics.

Ditch the flakes. Your fish is not getting any nutrition from it. Clip vegetables in the tank for 24 hours and dispose the leftover after that. Then try to use shrimps, brine shrimps and vary the pellets. Can you make gel food for your fish? I'll get you the recipe if you want. It's very easy to make.

Where are you located? You might want to consider Mazuri gel food for him. It can be ordered online at Goldfish Utopia. I prefer to mix the mazuri powder with my homemade gel food recipes. It can work as a staple diet. 1 part meat to 3 part vegetables. Baby foods will work well with this.

Are these decorations also hollow? If so, please remove them and vacuum your substrate THOROUGHLY. Make sure the possible dead areas beneath the hollow decors are carefully vacuumed to remove the nitrogen gas which can contribute to your fish's health issues.