My fish are sitting at the bottom!! help!!

[drew77]

Thank goodness for this site!! I have been on this site, reading and thank goodness for all the great info.

I am a new member and I have a problem and I am hoping someone can help.

I have a 30 gal tank and I have 4 fantail fish, I found out through this site that I was not suppose to give my thank a 100% change of water and including my filter. Well I did just that this past sunday, I also put in 1 drop per gallon because my bottle said 1 to 2 drops, so i put 1 drop, well they have been sitting at the bottom, the first few days (mon-thurs) would come up for food and were more active, today is really the first day they do not want to eat. I went to the pet shop and asked the owner what maybe went wrong, and what i could do, he ofcourse said that I should not have gave my tank a full change, but he asked how many drops of chlorine remover did i put, well he said since we live in houston, that I should have put 3 drops per gallon. I did just that and Im so afraid they are going die, they are still sitting at the bottom help

 

[bluegourami2]

i would think with water problems they'd be doing the exact oppisite. they'd be jumping out of the aquarium.

are they red in the gills at all, or are they having respiratory problems? that could be ammonia burn or lack of O2.

it would be nice to know your water parameters

 

[FroggyFox]

Well, welcome to the site I'm sorry I don't have much help to offer, it would help to let us know what your ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels are...as well as what kind of fish. Fantail guppies?

How long has the tank been set up?

Best thing you can do is make sure the fish are comfortable. See if you can find some Stress Coat...leave the tank lights off (unless you have live plants) don't overfeed.

100% water changes can be dangerous...usually the biggest I would suggest would be 50%. I do 25-50% every 7-10 days...depending on what the tank looks like and where the nitrate levels are.

Hope your fishies make it through this!

 

[drew77]

well they are goldfish fantails, and the tank has been set up almost a year, I usually just change 20% or just add water and change the filter, but I only wanted to change the entire water because in the past few months the water is almost a yellow dirty color and just adding or changing 20% wouldnt clear it up. I wish I would have the items to check my ammonia level, but I Just never needed it, i have had the fish about the same time as the tank. They are beautiful fish about 4 inches.

 

[drew77]

also they are not red at the gills, its just so strange, but I do notice that they do have few very small white spots on their tails, does that mean anything? oh and just turned off the lights, thanks, maybe that might make them a little comfortable.

 

[FroggyFox]

ohh goldfish. what is the temperature of the water? Do they look like they're gasping for air more than normal? What kind of filter do you have on the tank?

Goldfish like cooler water than other tropical fish...because they need more 0xygen (02) cold water hold more oxygen. Also your water has more oxygen in it if the surface of the water in your tank has a lot of movement (bubbles)

Otherwise I think it sounds like they just got shocked because of the water change and need some time to readjust.

As for the white spots...do the white spots look like little grains of sand? If they do then you want to get some medication for a disease we call "ich" or "ick" it stands for a long word that no one can remember so thats what we call it. Poor water conditions or shocked/stressed fish can get it easily and you pretty much need medication for them to go away. You can do a search on the board for it and learn more.

 

[drew77]

Yes it does look like little grains of sand, ok well I will get medication tomorrow, and sorry, but i use to have a temperature sticker but it was old and started peeling off, so i have no clue what the temp is and i will get one of those tomorrow as well, as for the filter i have a bottom filteration system and a power filter, its called Second Nature Whisper Power Filter.
Also, yes there is plenty of movement on top there are lots of bubbles.

 

[drew77]

Also, how long if they are shocked/stress does it take for them to recover?

 

[FroggyFox]

Depends how stressed they are I guess...if they got ich then they're stressed pretty bad. I would say it will take at least the amount of time that your ich medicine says to treat (usually a week I think) plus a few days before they'll really be recovered. Even if they look better after a couple days of treating with meds, make sure to treat the full time because the disease will still be in your tank.