Faded Goldfish

[fyremarble]

I'm a first time poster and have only just registered. About a month ago i had my 4 goldfish and a pleco in a 10Gal tank, yes bad i know. Well about a week later you probably know him as cdsang, we're related, visited me and before he came he bought me a Magnum 350 canister filter, and while visiting he bought me a 55Gal AGA tank and stand, what an upgrade. Well we ran ito a bit of a snag when my well water did'nt want to cooperate, the water was soooo filthy. So we decided to put the canister filter on the 55Gal in hopes it would clear up the water. A week later the water was clearer than it used to be but i was still unsure about puting the fish in yet untill later that night when i went to go feed them i noticed 2 of my goldfish had spots of fadeing color by this i mean they went from orange to spots of white. Well faster than you could say Quidditch i got out my trusty fish net and put them in the 55Gal. They are fine now but the same fish still have fadeing. Whats wrong? What can i do?

 

[Jaws My Shark]

Cycle?

Did you cycle the 55 gallon tank? If not, your fish could just be suffering from ammonia poisoning. Fading color is a common sign of stress.

Even if the tank was seeded and cycled, you should still take some water tests, to find out what's wrong. Chances are, it's you water parameters. I think you should do a water change.

 

[TaffyFish]

You need to check the water parameters in the tank and from the well source before doing any water changes, be sure you are not going to make things worse.

It is quite common for goldfish to change colours so you might be getting alarmed for no reason. Over a period of a few months we had a black moor change from black to entirely gold! right now he is getting black spots once again on the fins!

Are there any other signs of distress like shimmying, clamping fins, struggling with respiration, sudden jerky movements, hanging at the surface or on the bottom, flashing against rocks or gravel etc.

 

[fyremarble]

To answer your questions, no the fish, i don't know if they are male or female which is why i did'nt say he or she, is not behaveing strange at all and i have'nt noticed any change in appitite, by this i mean the fish is eating normaly and its not taking the food in his mouth and spitting it back out. About water testing, how much does a ammonia test cost? Are there any other tests i should do just to be on the safe side? But maybe it is just natural color changeing because like i said the fish is not behaving weirdly and it does'nt have clamped fins. But i just want to be sure that my fish are okay, i'm attatched to my fish and i'd hate to loose any of them. By the way thank you all for your input i really appreciate it

 

[goldfish125girl]

I would get at the very minimum test kits for ph, ammoina, nitrite, and nitrate. Fadeing in goldfish can be due to unstable ph, poisioning, bad water quality, no light source. Are you useing a water conditioner. Nov aqua is good for well water as it reduces the heavy minerals. It also works for chlorine (not a concern). I would check the hardness of the water to make sure you are not having ph crashes.

 

[TaffyFish]

Don't be alarmed fyremarble, if your fish are not showing any other signs you can safely discount poisoning, pH crashes, bad water quality for the moment.

I would get test kits for ammonia and nitrate as a first priority, then pH and nitrite when you can and finally hardness (GH/KH). You might find it's more economical to buy a master test kit (many folk here use the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals one) rather than individual kits in the first instance. The online stores like Bigalsonline usually have them at a reasonable price.

Do your tanks have lights? This might be the simple and completely unproblemmatic cause of the fading.

 

[fyremarble]

No i don't have any lights on my tank because at the time of the tank purchae there was not enough money left over to buy one for a 55Gal or 2 24" hoods. But a plus i saw at the store we were in most of them came with their own light bulbs so if i were to buy one there i would'nt have to buy light bulbs. But just as a note, i forgot to mention it in my original message, i did a pH test on both tanks before i put the fish in there, i used seperate tubes so i could compare the results, and both came out the same. The wierd thing was that the water in the tube for the 55Gal was a darker blue than the water for the 10Gal. The water for the 10Gal matched the color i the chart card i got with my test kit. Does that mean that the 55Gal water had a higher pH? Oh yeah and you're probly wondering how i got 2 tubes, my Mom has a pH tester kit as well because she has a tank of her own. Its a 10Gal with a Beta in it. How much do the master test kits cost by the way? Again thank you all for you help i appreciate it, seriously i do*thumbsups