Sinking gold fish and water cycling problems

[Tatianna]

Help! My family was 'gifted' a goldfish at the end of August...lovely thought, but we weren't exactly prepared! The person who bought the fish had the best of intentions, however she was not the fish keeper in her family, her husband was. As such this great gift came to us in a bowl! We did have a tank, but it was not cycled at all. We did not want to take the time to do a fishless cycle because we didn't want the poor fish left in an unfiltered bowl. So we conditioned water, started the tank and put the fish in.
First some info: Currently we are using a 15 gallon tank. The goldfish is a fantail. That is the only fish in the tank.
Now on to the problem...within the last two or three weeks the fish will at times sink to the bottom and lay on the rocks, completely still with it's dorsal fin laid back sometimes just a little sometimes all the way. I will also say the fish always goes to the same place to 'lay down'. If anyone approaches the tank or sometimes even walks by the fish perks up and will swim around. Sometimes going back and laying on the bottom again sometimes stays swimming or floating around.
We have been looking for lots of solutions to what is going on. We feed the fish flake food usually. We have tried giving him (I am just going to call the fish 'him') peas, and fasting him for a couple days. His poop comes out in one long string, even when he has a pea.
We can't figure out if the water is properly cycled because we do have ammonia in the water. The current parameters (using test strips) are
Nitrate - somewhere between 0 and 20;
Nitrite - 0
Hardness - 150
Total Alkalinity - 120
pH - 7.8
and using a liquid test kit for Ammonia it looks to me like the ammonia level is at .5 ppm
And this seems to be where the tank has been pretty much staying. When this first started, we tried water changes then we were told not to change the water except for adding some after evaporation. At the beginning of the week we did vacuum the rocks and add new treated water back to the tank. We also have a bag in the tank that is supposed to help remove ammonia, but still have a reading of .5..... We have a liquid called 'Ammo Lock' that we could use and we also add Nurtafin cycle once a week per their instructions. Any thoughts?

 

[FreshyFresh]

Tatianna, welcome!

I feel your pain. My darling children came home with two carnival won goldfish in June of this year. Ugh.. At first, I kept them in a 2.5g bowl that I did daily fin-level water changes on. One died within a week or so and the other thrived. That comet has been living in his/her own 20g long since late July or so. I know he'll greatly outgrow it at some point. Anyway... it's GREAT to hear you're doing water changes and monitoring water parameters. My guess is your fish was probably stressed, diseased or has some type of parasite from the get-go. Unfortunately the way these poor buggers are bread, kept and shipped, it's a wonder any of them make it. I'd keep the nitrates as low as possible with water changes and ride it out.

It must have been a petshop owner who said not to do water changes? Total BS there. The more the better in regards to water changes. You can drain the water out right down to where the fish can barely swim. It's not so much the fish's excrement that pollutes the water, but more their respiration that adds lethal ammonia to the water. Weekly water changes are a must for the fish keeper.

Are you sure you have a fancy goldfish and not a comet? Fancies are a better situation IMO. It's recommended 30g for one, adding 10g for each additional fancy. Comets aren't recommended to be kept in tanks at all. They get HUGE.

 

[Tatianna]

I am pretty sure it is a fantail. He has a triangular shaped tail. We do have a larger tank to eventually put the fish in, but we didn't want to move this one until we are sure it will survive and we will do a fishless cycle first. Trying to make sure the current tank is cycled right too.
Yes it was someone who worked in the fish department at a pet store who told us not to do water changes. I found that odd as well. The lady was very helpful, but I wondered why she said no water changes when everything else I found said water changes are the best thing....then the hubby came home with those ammonia bags and said she told him to use those.