Help my fish is sick!

[Lizzy]

A week ago my goldfish started floating upside down. I didn't feed him for two days, and then on the third day I started feeding him peas (just a 1/4 of a pea per day..he's a small fish). Then a few later he started sinking, he had a very difficult time getting to the surface. Now, as of two days ago, he sits on the bottom and can't swim very well. He still eats very well, I have to hand feed him b/c he doesn't have enough strenght to swim to the top of the tank. I checked all of the parameters and everything is normal. What should I do??

[yeemiau]

try reduce the water level shallow enough ... say if the fish is 3cm in height, put 4cm of water. that will help a little. 100% of water change plus a little of salt with the new fresh water. Remember aviod giving the fish any temperature shock durnig the changing water steps. Heavy aeration at one corner. stop feeding for 3 days. Don't worry, they can live without food for 7 days.

Try and see if there's any improvement. Normally, you'll notice the improvement in 2-4 days.

Good luck...

[dusty]

Try feeding him flakes again. I had the opposite problem with my goldfish a while ago. He kept floating to the top. But he got over it. Have you made any drastic water changes lately? How long have you had the tank running? When my tank was new my goldfish did the same thing. We later figured out that there were no benificial bacterias in the tank and that was killing him. You can buy a liquid that will add these bacterias to a new tank. Hope he gets better soon! Poor little guy! -Mandy- P.S. don't change 100% of the water> That will definately kill him.

[yeemiau]

dusty,

why 100% water will kill fish? is there any explainations? cos i'm interested to know.