is this ammonia burn?

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devious82

New Fish
#1
Feb 20, 2006
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#1
This is the way I got the fish from the pet store. I was kinda researching it because now one of my orange ones has a tiny spot of it's top fin and a tiny spot of the bottom fin of black. I just thought the one that is mostly black was the way it was supposed to look. The picture of Hitler is the one I got that way from the pet store and the other one, Louie, is the one just getting the spots. I circled them so you can kinda see where they are. It's really hard to see them but that was the best shot I could get.

I cannot get the ammonia to go down. It is high. What is a good thing to use to get it down. We have did water changes with the water conditioner. We use Tetra Easy Balance and Tetra AquaSafe. Those dont seem to help very much. I just changed the filter last night and did a water change.

I have one fish who is on the bottom of the tank and looks like he's dying but when there is food then he will swim around and if you put a net in the tank, to take him out, he will swim around.
One of my orange and white one is just floating around in the tank. He dont swim around much
 

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Elite Fish
#3
Jul 19, 2004
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Cape Cod
#3
How big a tank is it, and how big a water change did you do? Leave the filter alone until your ammonia goes down... a lot of the bacteria live on the filter and you need them to help remove the ammonia.

The goldfish with the black on the fins is just colored that way, not diseased or anything. The spots on the others fin look like they could be from nipping, and the white tips are from them growing back, or they could be the start of some disease. I'd leave them alone for now and see if they seem to get worse or better. Try changing a bunch of water, like 30-50% and seeing if that lowers the ammonia (what was the actual reading, by the way?). Also, some ammonia removers just change the ammonia into something less toxic that can still register in ammonia tests, so you might be getting false positives... what are your nitrites and nitrates?
 

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devious82

New Fish
#4
Feb 20, 2006
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#4
It's a 10 gallon tank and 3 gallons we take out. The reading for the ammonia was 8.0 according to the test results. I have to get to the store and get the test kit for the nitrite and nitrates yet. I know I should have gotten them right away too.
 

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Elite Fish
#5
Jul 19, 2004
3,682
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Cape Cod
#5
In a 10g with that many goldfish, I'd say it's a safe bet that the ammonia really is that high (not a false positive). Goldfish are really messy fish that can get big, so your tank is pretty crowded. Keep up with water changes every day or every other day, with about 3 gallons each time. Your tank will still be cycling, it can take it several weeks for the ammonia to go down and stay that way. If you can find a product called Biospira (it will be refridgerated), this can give you essentially an instant cycle. Even once your tank is cycled, with that many goldfish you'll need to be doing water changes regularly.
 

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