Goldfish convulsions with new water & conditioner

For Persian New Year I received 2 goldfish. One died as the other one would body and head but it into the tank wall. He also started getting brown/black spots. Not sure if it was bruising. Went to Petsmart and purchased conditioner as I don't drink the tap water and have ongoing e-mails with the water district about it killing everything and smelling like the swimming pool at bathtime.

I have a 12 or 15 gal tank, with filter. Yesterday I put tap water the conditioner and gravel in. Bad pressure at the sink is only good at warmer temps so it got up to 80 degrees. Put the fish in and he was very excitable and convulsing.

As I was reading the gravel bag it said to rinse first. Gosh I wish it said that in big letters on the front. Only one of the bags said it and I only checked because I got a wiff of the bag smell when I was going to toss it in the trash.

I rinsed the tank twice but some of the water and all gravel still in.

THe fish was doing great on bottled water. SO I filled it with bottled, used no conditioner. He is ok but is he supposed to open and close his mouth continuously???? I fear he isnlt getting enough oxygen or whatever he needs from the water or is he just damaged from that horrible chemical malais?

I did ask at Petsmart about the kit for testing the water and said I didn't need it. They do take returns so I can take whatever is bad back.

Also the fish food I started with are mini floating pellets, both fish would spit them out repeatedly. I bought flakes and he doesn't even recognize them.

What should I feed him?

 

Are they just spitting the pellets out whole? Or chewing them a little, spitting them out, eating them, chewing a little, spitting them out, etc?

Regular goldfish food should be just fine.

-Chelle

 

my fish arwe doing the same
i asked the petstore about the amonia nitrate and nitrite a\testing kits and she said it was 90$ and she sadid i shouldnt bu y and and it wouldnt help me anyway and i think my filter is killing my fish shes always grasping at the top for air...for round 30 min at a time then she goes to the bottom and buries her face in the rocks???

 

Great. THe dimensions are 20 * 18.5 * 10.25. He is only about 2 inches long. THe paper the persian market gave was a comet goldfish.

He had been in a bowl then I did just dump him in without acclimation.

The fish that died had the spots. THe bottled water that I filled the tank with and the living fish was gasping last night. It did have a little water remaining. He isn't gasping now. DOes purified drinking water and distilled water have the nitrates in them?

What about doing the 25% water change with bottled water until I can get the test?

He intakes spits out, intakes spits out. Sometimes it looks like it has been chewed. THe flakes are of no interest to him. What is regular goldfish food?

THe water district said "The state of California says we can have up to 4mg/L of chloramines. We use 2.6 mg/l. Yes the filter will almost completely remove all of the chloramines. Should I also buy a home filter?

Thank you so much!

SOrry to hear about the other person's fish (the other response to my appeal for help)

Colleen

 

sick i went to this park in the perisan newyear and they had goldfish in bowls for free i didint take any

 

Your tank is about 16.5 gallons. Unfortunately, that will eventually be too small for a comet goldfish. They get around a foot long and will need about 50 gallons.

Could be partially due to temperature/pH shock then.

What happens in an established tank is the fish produce ammonia (very toxic - burns the skin & gills). There's bacteria in the filter that converts the ammonia, into nitrIte (also very toxic - makes it harder for them to utilize oxygen). There's more bacteria in the filter that convert the nitrIte to nitrAte (not toxic at low levels - can cause stress and some diseases at higher levels). That whole process is called the nitrogen cycle.

When you first start up a tank and just put fish in it, there's no bacteria so there's nothing to convert the ammonia. Before the bacteria is able to for sufficient colonies, the ammonia and nitrIte levels can get very high and poison the fish. This is what you're probably experiencing. During this process, lots of water changes will help reduce the ammonia & nitrIte until the bacteria has a chance to catch up.

Once that bacteria forms large enough colonies, they'll be able to handle all the ammonia & nitrIte as it's made so you'll never have any. Unfortunately, there's no bacteria (in aquariums anyway) that convert nitrAte (then end product of the whole process) so it slowly builds up over time (the more fish/less water you have the quicker it will build up). The only practical way to remove nitrAte is to do water changes. Your goal should be to keep them below 20ppm.

That's fine.

He's probably just chewing then. I wouldn't be too worried unless he starts getting thin. For food, I use Tetra Pond Sticks and Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Pond Food (the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals stuff is a little better, but the Tetra stuff is cheaper and easier for me to get).

Before I went to that expense, I'd buy a chlorine/chloramine test (the pet store might have one, if not a swimming pool store should). Test your water straight from the tap just to see how high it is. Then fill a 1 gallon bucket with tap water. Add dechlorinator starting with the recomended dosge and then test for chlorine/chloramine (make sure you have a dechlorinator that does chlorine & chloramine - not all do both). If it shows 0, then it's fine. If it's still showing chlorine/chloramine after the recomended dosage of dechlorinator, then keep adding a little more & testing. Eventually you should figure out the correct dose to get rid of all the chlorine/chloramine in your tap water.

-Chelle

 

In an attempt to keep all your info in the same place, I'm going to reply to this in your thread.

-Chelle