URGENT help - my fish is sick/dying!

I was given a fish tank and 4 fish (quite largish goldfish). I didn't want it, but it's a favour for someone. So i'm a complete fish novice.

This morning one of the fish is lying on it's side on the bottom of the tank. The other 3 fish keep nudging him or just floating very near him. He's currently on his side hiding behind a 'log'. It's awful. Clearly all is not well with him. He doesn't appear to have any visible issues.
The water is slightly alkaline, but no more so than when they first got here a couple of weeks ago. I have added a ph down treatment.

He's nearly 8 years old according to his previous owner. This seems oldish. I can't ask the previous owner for advice - honestly, i've had them less than a month, and one is already looking shaky.

I don't mind too much if he is just dying because he's old. However tonight we are leaving for a wedding and not returning home for 12 days. What if he dies? He can't just float around in a tank for that long. The other fish will get traumatised. It's too yukky to imagine. We don't really know the neighbours well enough to ask them to check on a potentially dead fish.

HELP. I really don't have a clue what to do.
Thanks in advance.

Rule number one with keeping fish, if there is a problem change 50-75% of the water with clean, dechlorinated water! The solution to pollution is diltution. Although if the other fish are well it may not be related to water quality. Changing pH for gold fish is often unnecessary. He may have a parasite which at this point there is little you can do to help, if his abdomen is very bloated and scales are sticking out it could be dropsy (renal failure caused by bacterial infection) you could try adding a broadspectrum antibiotic to the tank although this oten involves adding medication and changing water over a number of days which is going to be difficult if no one is there to do it.

Have you added anything new to the tank? If so take it out in case it is contaminating the water.

Goldfish can live for over 30 years if cared for properly so its unlikely to be old age but if he had a really rough start to life and lived in poor conditions it may have reduced his life expectancy.

Unfortunately if he dies he is unlikely to traumatise the other fish, as horrible as it sounds fish will often eat other dead fish. If they dont his body will pollute the tank as it decomposes and potentially kill your other fish

If he is still looking poorly before you go you can euthanise fish etiher through your vet, using clove oil in water (ggogle for the exact ratio of water to oil) or by putting him in extremely cold water then freezing (apparently they metabolicaaly shut down and dont feel pain with these methods but who knows). lushing a dying fish down the loo can be very traumatic for the fish.

I hope your fish makes it, unfortunately when fish show signs of illness it is often too late to save them but changing water etc may prevent other fish in the tank getting ill too.

ETA if you are prepared to pay there are companies that will come in and look after fish while you are away

I would go out and get a smaller tank and put him in there. prepare the water in the new tank, pop some water from teh old tank in for him. pop him a plastic bag with water from teh old tank and float him on top of the water in teh new tank, then after about 10-15 minutes, slowly and gently pour him into the new tank. this way if he does die, he does so in a separate place to all the other fish. also if he has an illness this could prevent spreading ITMS.

Thanks. Where do i get dechlorinated water from? Do you buy an anti-biotic from a vet or a pet-supplies shop.

ETA - thanks too cassius. I did think of that, but then i thought it would be mean putting him in there as i only have one fish feeder and pump and all that stuff. (see REAL novice, i don't even know what they are called!)

most pet shops, supermarkets, bigw etc will sell water dechlorinator (also called water ager) that you add to tap water to take chlorine/chloramine out as it is toxic to fish. If you have a pura tap or rain water you can use that without having to add anything to the water

You can by broad spectrum antibiotic solutions from pet stores but check the instructions as they often involve a number of days of treatment/water changes.

Putting him in a smaller tank is also an option if you have a spare, altough buying a new one can be expensive and will require a filter with some o the filter material from your old tank and frequent water changes, every 1-2 days as its a new tank and the healthy bacteria needed to maintain a fish tank wont be present in large enough numbers and any of his waste will accumulate in the water and make him more ill rather than being rendered harmless by the healthy bacteria.

You can also call a local fish store for advice, general pet stores will try and sell you what ever they have, Ive found fish only stores more reliable IME

When I first started keeping fish I found Badmans Tropical Fish website really helpful with some articles for begginers, it will help you understand how the environment and coditions of a tank affect the fish

Good luck!

Sadly it sounds like an issue with his swim bladder, which they usually don't recover from. I would change 50% of the water every 2-3 days, and be careful of how much you feed them. Overfeeding can cause bloating and more importantly it can cause the water to turn bad, fast.

Oh, OK. I wonder about the feeding/over feeding. Gosh I hope we didn't kill him by feeding him too much.

I've changed the water by 50%. It was warm in there, due to the warm weather and the water was cold so i tried to even it out a bit so as not to shock them. Oh, it sounds silly but i feel awful. I just feel terrible about leaving them for 12 days. I think if he's not better by the time we leave i may have to euthanise him. Because they all might die otherwise. Now i'm all sad thinking about that.

He's still lying on his side - but when i was changing the water he was swimming around in a spiral and he was donking into things. Poor little guy.

Does he (or she??) look bloated??

Try putting a couple of frozen peas in the water. Apparently it can really help!

Definitely sounds like swim bladder. Really common and not much you can do for it. I tried peas with my goldfish but it didn't seem to help.

Sorry Lenny!

ETA: here's some info on how you can try and resolve swim bladder:

:

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Steps

1 Buy a package of frozen peas, or search in your freezer for the bag you bought two years ago. They are rock hard by now, so defrost them.
2 Take one or two peas and make sure they are nice and defrosted. Take the skin off.
3 Put the pea(s) in the goldfish's tank.
4 Keep trying. If the fish doesn't eat the pea immediately, remove it and try again later. The fish will eat the pea eventually, as all goldfish are perpetually hungry, and require a certain amount of greens in their diet for optimum nutrition. Until the fish eats the pea, withhold all other foods.
5 Alternatively, try feeding live, frozen, or freeze-dried daphnia to the goldfish.
6 The fish should be swimming upright in no time.

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Wow, I never knew that about fish and peas. Amazing.

I'm sorry your fish is sick Lenny. :(

I'm not sure about goldfish, but we have gone through a few fish due to similar circumstances.

What we have found is that the fish just can not stand any alkalinity in the water. They tolerate acid better. Cheap food from supermarkets is terrible and just sits at the bottom of the tank and makes the fish sick. When they show signs of being not themselves, we take them out and put them in a container with a bit of epsom salts in it (not sure of the ratio, but you could google it) and we do a 25% clean out when a fish shows signs of being unwell.

Good luck.

Thank you to everyone. i really appreciate it. I have learnt a lot about goldfish. Unfortunately I doubt this is going to have a happy ending. :( Seems that these things need to be caught early - before the physical symptoms appear. He's currently lying upside down and gulping. He's in a separate bowl.

I feel a bit sad and bad for my lack of ability to help him. But i sincerely appreciate that there are people who are trying so hard to help me - and him.

DS1 is explaining it to the other three. He thinks they are worried about their fellow tank mate.

Oh my goodness. It's like some kind of christmas miracle! He's not 100%. But there is so much improvement.
He's in a bowl with epsom salt water (rain water) and he's eaten half a pea. He's still very wonky, but he's not just lying there looking up at me with one sad eye.
Oh, i hope it's the start of good things. I'll need to put him back in the tank tonight before we go. Keep you fingers crossed.

Thanks, truly thanks to everyone. (I'd have never googled peas or salt!)

My neighbour saved her fish with a frozen pea! We've kept fish for years and I'd never heard of it until then either. Go fishy!! ;)

Yay!!! Go fish!

How's fishy going now?


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Oh! I caught this post/thread and am so concerned about the fish.

What's happening to him (her) now - is all okay? My brother had lovely fish but they ended up all dying because he didn't get the water right.

I couldn't read and not post!
Hope Mr/Mrs Fishy is okay after all this :crossfingers:

Oh wow, I hope fishy fishy fishy fish is doing OK.

FWIW, my friend had a number of fish that we called Yuri (the test fish). She's obsessive compulsive and kept their tank too clean ....

:hide: Lenny, update please. I have been thinking of you both. Hope it's good news. :crossfingers:

The fish lived. We went away that whole time, and when we came back he was just hanging out in the tank. It was the first thing we checked when we got home. We were convinced he was going to die - he was so sick
Admittedly he's still not 100%. He tends to hang around the bottom of the tank and has little or no reaction when we feed them (the other's go nuts for food). I do a 30% water change every week, and a water improver stuff once a fortnight.

I honestly feel like you guys saved his/her little life. I am very grateful xx

that is very cool news Lenny :hug:

hopefully the little tacker will continue to improve xx

Peas worked for a while with our swim bladder issue fish, but he did eventually succumb (at about five years of age). The depth of the water is ultimately the problem. Goldfish apparently only need water as deep as they are long (mouth to fin tip). Our shorter goldfish was the one with the problem. The longer ones are perfectly happy because the water is not too deep for them.

Goldfish only need shallow ponds, so this kind of makes sense. A deep fish tank is not their natural environment.