Feeling bad about a goldfish
We have a Ryukin Goldfish named Doofenshmirtz who lives in a tank in our kitchen/computer room (we've adapted the dining room area to be a space for our computers, since we're on them so much). We got the fish about three or four years ago after the former Doofenshmirtz (it's just too good a name for a goldfish not to use more than once) moved on from this world. He's been lively and interactive (like his predecessor, he enjoys watching us do food prep on the counter near his tank) until the last year or so... when he's started doing weird things like "sleeping" (where he would just float there, right side up, and startle awake if we tapped the tank) or actively swimming upside down. Now, he's always done some creative swimming, but this started to get consistent. And then came the day I walked into the room and he was floating upside down, not moving. I was sure he was dead, but the moment I tapped the tank, he flipped over and started swimming quickly around.
I started trying to clean his tank a little more often, in case there was something going on there (we're on well water so the tank is very prone to algae), and he'd be extra lively for a little bit, but eventually the odd behaviors would start up again.
Yesterday, I cleaned his tank. Like, REALLY cleaned his tank... I took out three buckets of water and refilled things with water I had prepped. I scrubbed down all of his tank furniture and left it out to dry (to hopefully kill off any remaining algae). I vacuumed the crud out of the rocks at the bottom of the tank... and, throughout the day, actually replaced the filter twice in order to make sure things were really clean. And this morning I came out to him floating upside down again. I tapped him and he started swimming, but it got me thinking, so I hit the internet.
I feel like such a cruel idiot for not checking these things sooner. All those quirky behaviors he'd been developing? Were signs of hypoxia. I started delving a little deeper... because when we first set up the tank, everything I read at the time told me our setup was fine for a single goldfish and that our filter would do a perfectly fine job with aerating the water. Apparently, where the tank is wide and tall-ish, this is not necessarily the case. So, today while I was in town, I stopped by Wal-Mart and got an inexpensive pump and aerator, brought it home and hooked it up. Doof has been having a party in the tank ever since... and now I'm feeling both extremely happy that I seemed to have fixed the problem and pretty much devastated that we've been making him live in an oxygen poor environment for so long.
I really am hoping that this fixes the issue, but it'll probably be at least a few days before we know for sure. He's still occasionally "gulping" at the top of the water, but not constantly like he used (one of the symptoms of needing air), and he's doing a LOT more swimming in the rest of the tank than he's done in ages, which I'm hoping is good sign!
I started trying to clean his tank a little more often, in case there was something going on there (we're on well water so the tank is very prone to algae), and he'd be extra lively for a little bit, but eventually the odd behaviors would start up again.
Yesterday, I cleaned his tank. Like, REALLY cleaned his tank... I took out three buckets of water and refilled things with water I had prepped. I scrubbed down all of his tank furniture and left it out to dry (to hopefully kill off any remaining algae). I vacuumed the crud out of the rocks at the bottom of the tank... and, throughout the day, actually replaced the filter twice in order to make sure things were really clean. And this morning I came out to him floating upside down again. I tapped him and he started swimming, but it got me thinking, so I hit the internet.
I feel like such a cruel idiot for not checking these things sooner. All those quirky behaviors he'd been developing? Were signs of hypoxia. I started delving a little deeper... because when we first set up the tank, everything I read at the time told me our setup was fine for a single goldfish and that our filter would do a perfectly fine job with aerating the water. Apparently, where the tank is wide and tall-ish, this is not necessarily the case. So, today while I was in town, I stopped by Wal-Mart and got an inexpensive pump and aerator, brought it home and hooked it up. Doof has been having a party in the tank ever since... and now I'm feeling both extremely happy that I seemed to have fixed the problem and pretty much devastated that we've been making him live in an oxygen poor environment for so long.
I really am hoping that this fixes the issue, but it'll probably be at least a few days before we know for sure. He's still occasionally "gulping" at the top of the water, but not constantly like he used (one of the symptoms of needing air), and he's doing a LOT more swimming in the rest of the tank than he's done in ages, which I'm hoping is good sign!