Hello
Please can somebody help me? I bought a tank and 4 goldfish 16 days and I stupidly thought that adding the fish straight away without leaving a tank to sit for a week would be ok as I had a goldfish when I was younger that lived in a bowl of
tap water for 3 years but I have found out (in a very distressing way) that this was the worst thing to do as the following occurred
Day 1 - put 4 fish (roughly 2.5cm each) into a 14 Litre tank with an air pump filter
Days 2 to 8 performed 20% water changes every other day adding Neutrafin Biological aquarium supplement and Neutrafin water conditioner each time, I have since found out should only have done this when there were no fish in the tank.
Days 9 and 10 Noticed the fish were not as active and seemed to lying at the bottom of the tank or hiding
Day 11 Noticed one of the fish had severe problems swimming and its tail was badly torn, then I seen one of the other fish take a bite out of it, so I quickly put it in the jug I used for water changes but it died about 10 minutes later.
Day 12 Another fish died I went to my local garden centre with a sample of water from the tank and explained what I had done, the test showed the there was a very high level of ammonia in the water, I was advised to do an 80% water change that day and to add some KingBritish Safe Water to get rid of the ammonia and to give a salt bath to the fish in the morning.
Day 13 Found another fish dead which just left one I removed her from the tank and gave her a salt bath and she immediately picked up when she was added back to the tank. I took another sample to get tested and the ammonia level had gone down but I was told to perform partial water changes until the ammonia was gone and to keep giving salt baths.
Day 14 I went to check on her in the morning and she was at the side of the tank when she saw me she floated up to the top, the man at the garden centre told me I could give her a little food so I broke up 1
fish food flake and put it in the water beside her she followed it around the tank for a bit and did take a few bites but then she went back to the side of the tank again and spat it all back out. I gave her another salt bath and did a partial water change making sure the water was the same temp as the tank when I put her back in the tank she picked up but only for a short period of time and for the rest of the day she never left the side of the tank she appeared to float at the top and sometimes all her fins would come out and then she slowly pulled them back in at the same time as sinking back to the bottom I went to a pet shop and I was adviced to put Sera water conditioner into the water.
Day 15 I checked on her in the morning and she was still a the side of the tank sometimes at the top and sometimes at the bottom when she showed all her fins I noticed that she wasn’t using her left fin very much and upon closer inspection noticed that it was red at the base. I took another sample to the garden centre, which showed there was 1.5 mg of ammonia in the tank. I spoke to the same man as I had done on my first visit there and explained what had happened he told me to keep giving salt baths and to add 75mg of soluble aspirin to the bath and use water from the tank for the bath and to do a water change when she was in the bath and to put the Sera water conditioner and Kingbritish safe water into the new water before adding it to the tank. I also explained that she wasn’t eating and that her fin was sore, he told me to give her live feed and not to worry about her fin yet as getting rid of the ammonia was the main problem to sort out first. I came back and gave her a salt bath with the aspirin and did a partial water change. When I put her back in the tank she swam around for a while but then went back to the side, I added the live feed and she showed no interest in it at all I then crumpled in 1 flake of food and again she followed the pieces but this time she didn’t take any bits into her mouth so I removed the dried food.
Today I went to check on her and she is now at the bottom of the tank hiding behind an ornamental cave and she won’t come up for food and she’s not moving much she is opening her mouth but not frantically. I bought a water testing kit yesterday and I’ve tested the water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate the ammonia level is 0.8mg the nitrite level is 0.1mg and the nitrate level is 0mg
Please can you help it’s so upsetting seeing her like this especially as I know this is all my fault I really would appreciate any advice you can offer
I look forward to hearing from you soon
Dawn
. I really hope she pulls through.
1 Cat = Tibbs
but never forgoten
) Sphere, Rounda and Jazz
