Skittish Goldfish

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plp110

Registered Member
Dec 2, 2005
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Hey Everybody,

I'm kind of a newbie. I've got 3 small goldfish in a 55 gallon tank, Eheim ecco and 2 Penguin Bio Wheels. I change the water and vac the gravel twice a week, 5 gallons each time. I feed them one pellet of Pro-Gold 3X a day usually.

They seem to be happy, they've already spawned twice since I set them up in November. Ph, hardness, ammonia, nitrates all fine. Here's what I'm seeing though:

Since the weather started warming up, they've been acting skittish, darting and hiding sometimes during feeding time, and resting on the bottom. They never used to do anything like this. Can someone with goldfish experience tell me if goldfish go through phases, or maybe this indicative of an infection or something?

Thanks!
 
you may want to up your amounts of water in your changes too. goldfish are notoriously messy, and 10% twice a week may not be keeping up with them. hard to say though without knowing if there are other fish in there.

I've had some fish start acting weird (hiding, skittish, etc.) and eventually I figured out they had a fungus problem. you may want to take real close looks at them sometime soon and see if you can see anything.
 
I kinda agree that it's hard to tell without knowing what else is in the tank. 55 gallons for 3 "small" goldfish seems like a wonderful amount of space... so I'm thinking there's something going on there... what? I can't tell before eliminating other things.
 
No plants or any other fish in the tank. They are 2 ryukins and a girl with headgrowth, all about 2.5 - 3 inches. I think its a girl because the big ryukin likes to chase her and they've spawned at least twice since November.

I think I might get another 5 gallon bucket and change more water regularly. I think maybe the new warmer water temps might have caused a bacteria or fungus that I can't see, but is affecting the fish?

Do you know of any tests for bacteria or fungus? Am I worrying too much? It really is a very different and sudden change of behavior.

thanks for your help!
 
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water temp is possible... what is the temp now? unless I'm mistaken goldies like it at or below about 70 degrees (someone correct me on that if I'm off), but also the warmer your water the less oxygen it holds (someone correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure on this one) so they may be having oxygen problems. however, usually they will gulp air at the top if that is the problem.

regarless of the oxygen stuff though, if the water is too warm for them they will definitely be affected by it.
 
Lunch is right, goldies and other cold water fish need more oxygen in the water...

2 Ryukin's and a possible Oranda.... let's see, they've been together in a 55 gallon tank since November, they've "spawned" yet, they are all under 3 inches. Is that including the tails? How many babies did you get or did you get babies from the spawn?

Do you know the temp of the tank? Is there a heater in the tank?
 
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