[erikamc]

So I rescued three small goldfish (2 inches long) from someone who was losing her house. I set them up in my 75 gallon aquarium on sunday January 4th. Yes freshly set up, with decorations, gravel and 5 gallons of water from their previous tank. Monday night I was looking in the tank and didn't see one of them. so I moved a log and he was just hanging out under it. this sent up red flags and I decided to do a water change (i didn't have any test kits). did the water change and hoped that would suffice. The next day, same thing, just hanging out on the bottom. I went and bought an ammonia test kit (that was the only one they had) and some ammonia remover JIC. I honestly couldn't tell if the test was reading 0ppm or .25ppm so I did a water change and added ammonia remover JIC. the next day he looked worse. Today before I left for work he was struggling near the top. I'm sure I'll get home and find him dead, but the other two have been fine. I'm at a loss. I mean I know this isn't an ideal way to go about it, but the other two seem fine and I am doing water changes. could it really be issues from cycling this soon in this big a tank?

 

[Marshall]

the 5 gallons of water probably didnt really do anything for your cycle, very little bacteria is found in the actual water, what you could have done was run the old filter on your tank for a while.

but as it is now, you are cycling with fish in so lots of water changes are in order, goldfish are hardy, they'll get through it

 

[erikamc]

well my fears were realized, he was gone when I got home from work. The other two seem to be doing ok so maybe there was an underlying issue with him and he just couldn't handle the stress. I didn't even think of that. It was some walmart HOB that was better suited for a ten gallon than the 29 they were in so I just junked it *forehead smack*. thought the gravel and decorations would help though. I'll just keep up with the water changes and testing. my additional test kits should arrive tomorrow.

 

[erikamc]

now I don't know what the heck is going on:-( did a water change last night, now another goldfish is not well. I've determined the ammonia is 0, unless its coming out of my tap with ammonia. additional test arrived today and I tested the hardness, ph nitrites and nitrates.other than the water being pretty hard, everything looks good. I just have no idea whats going on:-(

 

[Farm]

The water from your tap may be very different from the water they were living in before. The ph difference, hardness etc. It is a good thing that you used their decorations and gravel as some of the good bacteria is definitely on these items. Have you got your readings? When you say you are doing water changes... at what percentage are you doing them? Do you have access to a product called Prime? Is by Seachem and is very easy to use. It binds with the toxins and neutralizes them until you can perform the necessary w/c' s to keep the fish safe. How are they doing now?

Edit.... I read your note wrong. Your readings could be zero because you are not cycled at all, because you are using that product to correct? I believe it is the difference in the water between the two homes. Did you acclimate the fish from their old water to their new water? Test your water from the tap by placing some in a container and letting it sit 24 hours with an airstone bubbling in it for 24 hours. Then you can get a true reading. I am curious what your ph is. Not to be cruel but now that the fish are dying in the tank it should kick off your Nitrogen cycle a bit quicker. Sorry for your loss.

 

[erikamc]

I did acclimate by slowly swapping the water from the bucket they were in with their tank water with water from the tank. My assumption is that the levels are 0 because its not cycled yet because it just doesn't make sense (to me) for levels to go up quickly in less than two weeks with such a small load. The first few changes were maybe 20-25%. the one I did the other night was probably 40%. Today both fish look just fine. I think I'm going to hold off on water changes and just test the water every few days. I'm going to buy a couple more buckets and have some filled with water on the ready and maybe also get some bottled water. My roommate commented that he thought our tap water smelled more "chloriney" than usual so I added some extra chlorine remover (my sinuses are horrible and I have a poor sense of smell). I don't have prime, I'll look and see if I can find it. I did put in stress zyme and I have ammonia remover that I'll probably just finish off. so what I got was API 5in 1 test strips.for general hardness it said 180ppm carbonate hardness was either 80-120 (color is very close) ph was about 7.5 and nitirte nitrates were both 0

 

[Farm]

How are your fish doing now? How is your water testing? Somehow I am not stuck to this thread and lost track of it. Hope all is well.

 

[erikamc]

thanks for asking so far the tests have all looked good. I've got water on hand for water changes so its not coming right from the tap. They've both been doing great. then a couple days ago I had an incident with my filter, somehow I knocked the connector loose. It really makes quite a mess! I got everything all hooked back up and today my orange one is sitting on the bottom looking ill again. My tests looked good prior to the filter issue and I think they still looked good last night, although my roomy thinks the ammonia test might be .25ppm not 0 (its really hard to tell the difference on my test). I plan on doing a change when I get home from work tonight. wondering if the filter incident kicked some stuff around thats not agreeing with him.

 

[majerah1]

Just curious, have you tried to medicate them? I suspect some parasites or something making them feel a little unlike themselves. It is common for many fish to carry internal parasites and it just not present itself right away. I would look at their bellies. Do they look sunk in? How about the poo? White and stringy is a sure sign. Praziquantel is a great antiparasitic. Also look for possible ich or velvet.

Also I highly suggest you go with the liquid test kit. It will be much more accurate on the ammo readings.

 

[erikamc]

I have not medicated them...interesting hadn't considered parasites, makes sense, they were feeder fish bought from walmart from what the girl told me. The orange one does look thinner. I honestly haven't noticed his poops, just the white ones, which appear normal. If my cat could talk I'd ask him, he spends most of his waking time sitting in front of the tank lol! They do not have ich or velvet, positive on that. I am using a liquid test for the ammonia, its just hard to differentiate between yellow (0 ppm) and yellowy green (.25 ppm)