EggShappedFish

No I don't think it is an issue with the swim bladder. I actually am pretty certain that it is not. This looks neurological to me. Maybe brain damage, aneurysm, brain tumor/infection maybe?

Thanks for the reply! I wish that it was, but it is not. It does sleep vertically, and at times in the surface. Just today, I got hold of the breeder who has kept 20 fish from the same batch, and she told me that she only has two left and that the rest either died with similar behavior, on some kind of internal infection that would break through the skin! So the ods are that its genetic. It does not seem to be suffering though, so for now, I think that I'll just treat it well. But if it start struggling, I will know that there is no reason to put it through too much medication attempts in order to solve it

I have this goldfish that some times seems to be having issues figuring out what side is up or down. It does not have swim bladder issues but rather seems to both not care and not register that it is swimming vertically, or sometimes belly up. Most of the time it will swim well, but it will sometimes get into either a trance or a random spin. Se this video for an example Could it be a stroke, aneurysm, maybe a brain tumor? The fish is 2 years old and I have had it for most of that time. No major changes in neither feeding, parameters or anything else. I have recently moved it into a smaller tank with some friends, but this is mainly due to his issues and not a cause for them Besides the irregular balance, it seems to he ok pH: 8 Nitrates: max 20 Hardness: 12 dH Nitrite: 0 Ammonia: 0 Water Temperature : 24C

Perfect. I will get a gram weight later today and start treatment in a treatment tank. I do have multiple filters, but they all run 1000lit/hour. I will find a way though. I think that I can build a filter and re-use some of the filter cycled media Just to be clear, you would only treat with Funox - does this mean no salt?

Thanks! 3 follow up questions The active ingrediends of the Funox powder that I have are (p.g.) 0,33g Nitrofurantoine (is this equivalent to nitrofurazone?) and 0,33g Oxytetracycline. How do i weigh 1gr of the powder? I have a mini scoop for some test set that require powders. Would that be 1 gr? When treating with antibiotics, do they also kill the benneficial bacteria of the filter? I ask, in order to adjust accordingly when setting up a treatment tank. Does it need a cycled filter or is an airstone enough, and do dailly water changes?

Does this look like bacterial or fungus infection? It seems to be getting worse. I can treat with Funox (although i'd need to donse 0,7gr so it could be an issue. I also have methylene blue but thats about what I have access to at this point!

Diatoms grows on surfaces. This looks like it just lays on top of it. More/better circulation should help the mechanical filtration to pick it up

I can not tell you why, or the reason why. I can only guess that it is because the EU wants better control with anibiotics and maybe also with what gets poured into the sewage. Practically, to legally buy fish medications here, you need a prescription from a vet. This in itself is difficult, because partly very few no vets know much about fish treatment (3 in the whole country and they don't take consultations they work in zoos). The reason they won't prescribe medication is that they can be charged for wrongfull medication if they prescribe something that was not needed. Now, even if you can get a prescription from a vet, for treating your fish, you can't buy the well known fish medications because manufacturers haven't gotten their medications approved by the national authorities. This means that the best a vet can do, is find similar substanses in medications for dogs or cats, and prescribe them in the appropriate dosages. Luckily, it is possible to import medications from other EU countries as long as it is for personal use (no selling to others). How are they available in other EU countries you ask? This is the weird part. The EU is, as far as I know, not targeting home fish keeping. They are after the fish industrry who breed fish in large scale for consumption. Therefore, the EU has allowed member countries to exclude aquarium fish keeping from these regulations (we could once buy medication off the shelf at pet stores). Each country decides if the want to use the exception or not. So the country where I live, has chosen not to, but the neighboring country has, so I can order them from there, online and have it shipped. By the time the right medication arrives though, most fish that are in need of more treatment than salt, have already passed the point of recovery. I am sorry for the long rant, but I have been quite involved in this, even talking with politicians, local authorities, and even manufacturers and EU representatives. There is not much to be done really and it frustrates me that fish are being differentiated so much compared to other pets. Imagine a vet only being able to suggest treating an infected dog wound, with salt or let it die. We had a similar situation with pet rabbits/bunnies, as they practically also can be bred for consuming. Medications were being regulated so much that vets were not allowed to prescribe them to pet rabbit and guinea pig owners. This has been overturned though, and is not a bit more relaxed. I personally think EU has done some great things, and this seems great too. It is my country's implementation of them that is terrible.

All fish medications are out of bounds here. I live in EU and in my country I can't buy fish medications at all. I can import it from Germany though. I already have a stock of methylene blue, some Potassium permanganate and some yellow powder that i am not quite sure of what it is right now.

I won't be able to check before tomorrow but usually ammonia and nitrites are at 0 and I dont let nitrates get over 20. Its quite hard water and a high ph of around 8 but i figured they are better off with that, than fluctuating values of me trying to lower them. I have removed a lot of the stuff that they could get hurt on but it seems that goldfish are experts at it nontheless! I dont see how she should have cut herself but i guess if some food was stuck in an anubias rhizome, she may have gotten a bit too enthusiastic and got hurt

The private fish market in Europe is quite challenging, mainly because of shipping. If you can quarantee safe transportation, and have qood quality and/or good quantity, you may be able to sell to the larger fish distributors in your country or maybe even in central distributions in Germany. That said, I have multiple times considering setting up a European community for fishenthusiasts, because we do have very different requirements and products than the (mostly) American based communities

Yesterday I noticed that Wendy had gotten an injury just bellow her right eye. I have previously lost fish to similar injuries, but in a different tank setup where it might have gotten infected (not that I don't believe that this one can!) I am not too nervous about it, but still a bit concerned. I understand that sometimes trying to help, can do more damage than help, so I am planning to leave it as is, and see where it goes. I gave her a salt bath/dip that might have been too tough on her, but she recovered within 5-10 minutes although slightly stressed Do you think I should be concerned? Any advice? I have no access to medications other methylene blue, and salt Here is a link to a short video that may show the injury better: https://i.imgur.com/rSHyGsq.mp4

That is interesting! To me it looks like something that has dropped from outside. Like dust or pollen

Today, my very effective and highly appreciated DIY filter, fell apart! 😱 It turns out that Acrylic does not stick very well to glass. At least not using silicone! The good news is, that I run multiple filters, so losing this one, is no as catastrophic as it could have been. The bad news is, that I have one more of these that seems to be slowly breaking apart. I am actually quite sad that they didn't hold, because I was really happy with the way they had turned out, and how effective they were! Here is a short animation that I made, showing how one of them works: And here are a few pictures from when I was putting it together: Arguably, it took me longer to make the video than the filters...

Ah - the quarantine tank maneuver. "I can't risk infesting my tank, but this could take some time" Then proceed to make it look really pretty and be very happy with the way it looks "What a shame that it has to go down once the fish are safe"

It's a tricky question to answer I am sure! I also expect that there are many types too! I was looking at this type that has some decent length, and seems to be pretty soft so it won't hurt the fish if they try to find food in it. It seems like it has some rubber underside, that I also am not sure how suitable it would be, to use in fish tanks. Don't people use these for edges of ponds too though? The info on the site mentions: grass material: 100% polyethylene back side: polypropylene, latex Free of lead & cadmium free

It's interesting, because most of the ones that I have looked at say that they are pet safe. The ones who have replied to my questions though, can't promise that their product won't affect water chemistry in the tank. This of course does not mean that the product will, but rather that they haven't researched it.

I remember back when I was young, and worked in a LFS, that the manager had modified a large canister filter, to be used as a gravel vacuum cleaner. They basically just mounted a gravel vacuumer on the inlet, and used a valve to regulate suction. This was of course most useful for cleaning hundreds of tanks, but if you have an old canister filter laying around, maybe it could be an option. As far as I remember, it only had sponges in it, in varying PPI.

I am considering using plastic grass to cover the background of my tank. I know that this may not be a typical aquarium thing, but I bellive it might be very practical with goldfish! Do you have any suggestions or considerations that I should make, when I choose what type I'll use? Seems like the most affordable option is synthetic lawn grass but some of them are on rubber mats. Also I am based in EU so it is not certain that anything available in the US also can be bought here

Oh that is a super interesting subject! The ingredients that I used above, include spirulina and kelp powder. Both are algae. Spirulina is green and Kelp is red algae. Beside their huge nutritional values, they also boost coloration. I found a pretty interesting article about this here: https://allnaturalpetcare.com/blog/2013/12/28/naturally-enhance-color-aquarium-fish/ Besides adding the spirulina and kelp powder to their food, maybe you could try feeding them some krill maybe? The article also mentions adding a little bit of cocoa oil in the mix, but I haven't tried that personally

First off, thanks for the compliments! It's my first try, but I am quite happy with the result myself too! In regards to Cod Vs Salmon, I cant tell you for sure. I had a very interesting discussion about this on a different forum, with a user who was really well educated about the nutritional needs of fish. I got banned from there though, it so I can't even thank the person or ask for more details! My guess would be that salmon maybe is very fatty compared to cod, so you get more protein per fat with cod. But I can't say with certainty that his is the case. For sure! If you can control it? You don't really want them cooked as such. I just had to soften them up because of my weak blender. I only have a smoothie blender and not a proper food blender. If your mixer can manage raw veggies, I don't think you'd even need to treat them. At least for goldfish, they will eat it raw and I am sure that smaller fish would too, if it was mixed well enough.

EDIT: Although this recipe works ok, I have tested some more, and found out that Agar works best when boiled. Also I suggest using more of it than noted here. A moth ago, I told you guys that I had tried making my own fish food. I have now been using it since, and I feel that it is safe to share with you. I Although it may be daunting, making your own fish food is not that complicated. Making your own fish food, allows you to use fresh human grade materials and fine tune the ingredients to suite your fish. It is also quite affordable! I did some research and got a lot of qualified help to get this recipe for fish food right, but you can change it, depending on your needs and what is available to you. I would not skip the spirulina and kelp though, because this wraps up many of the important nutrients that any fish needs Ingredients 150gr mixed shellfish or shrimp 100gr cod fish 150gr peas 1 garlic clove ½ squash ½ carrot 1 teaspoon Kelp 1 teaspoon Spirulina 1½ teaspoon Agar (ideally more) How to do it Chop the carrot and squash into rough pieces and boil for 5 minutes. You don’t want to boil them but just make them tender. Add the peas and boil a few minutes more. I mostly did this because they were frozen and I wanted them to thaw. If you have a powerful blender, you may not even need this step, as your fish can eat the ingredients raw. I just needed them to soften for my smoothie blender to cope. Add the vegetable, fish (in chunks) and shrimp into the blender. Add 1½ dl of water, as well as the Kelp and Spirulina powder. Blend until you have a lean mix. You may need to add more water if it won’t blend properly. I used some of the water that I boiled the vegetable in. Pour the mix into a pot and heat it up, without boiling. You don’t want to cook the mix, but simply dissolve the Agar powder into it. I used 1½ teaspoons this time, but I will use 2 or 2½ next time, to get a more firm result. Stir for 3-4 minutes and let it cool for 10 minutes (this may vary if you use more Agar, so keep an eye on it). Before it settles, pour into zip lock bags. Make a rolling movement, to get rid of all the air in the bag, before closing it. You can decide the thickness of the final plates, but don’t make them too thick, because they will be harder to break into chunks once frozen. Let the bags cool, until he mixture settles and solidifies into a gel type of texture. Put the bags in the freezer and place them flat until they freeze. When you want to feed your fish, simply break off a chunk, let it thaw and let the fish take bites off it. I used to break it up into smaller pieces, but this resulted in even more loose food floating in the tank. My fish will easily bite chunks off it, and I believe that most fish will be able to do so too. My fish will spend hours cleaning up after feeding time, but will be ready for more food by the end of the day. I feed twice a day, some times changing it up with sinking pellets, or frozen artemia (brine shrimp) or blood worms. Here is a video of my fish enjoying their breakfast this morning

They may or may not, but who wants to take the risk really? Corydoras are basically barbarmoured fish, and when they get stuck, are really hard to get out of anything really. I'd personally stay away from them even though they temperature wise are a pretty good match. Personally I feel that the goldfish prefere to be with goldfish. I wouldn't even mix fancy goldfish with commons, and even among fancies, I can be picky at what types i let live to gether

IMO, these should not go into a 55gal or an aquarium at all. The reddit godlfish community suggest the following for common goldfish: The general standard is 55-75gal (208-283l) for the first one and 20-30gal (75-113l) for each one after that. (ref) That said, the minimum is what barely can be managed by experienced goldfish keepers, and with very regular water changes. For fancy goldfish, tanks are much better suited, but commons are very good and fast swimmers. Ideally I'd look to rehome them, to a place that has a pond for them. As additional info, mostly relevant for fancy goldfish, heating water for goldfish, is generaly widely discussed. Some keep them warmer, to boost growth, but this ads to the bio load and will require a lot more filtration, aeration and space. It is also considered as a factor that shortens their life. Tank mates (ref) are not recommended but often tolerated. They will eat smaller fish, that are not fast enough, and be bullied by larger fish. Especially eating smaller fish, can be hazardous, in particular with coridoras. Also plecos are often ill adviced. Although many do use them, there are also instances of them really damaging fish, while they sleep. Best goldfish buddies are goldfish, and preferable goldfish with similar swimming abilities (personally i wouldn't even mix fancy and common goldfish)

It's always a learning curve and probably also very different from tank to tank. I also realize that keeping it attractive may also be a factor when it comes to improvising solutions. Personally, I have experimented with my outlets pouring onto a sponge mat. This maintains high flow through the filter, getting the water filtered very well (6000l/h), while keeping the current super slow. Actually so slow, that I had to add some more, because it didn't get aerated well enough!