Problems with fancy goldfish

[hyperd_uk1]

Hi,

I have a Red cap oranda. Its orange with a red cap which I purchased and entered my aquarium around Jan 2010. After about 6 weeks it started to go upside down and float to surface. It looked healthy and just seemed tired from battling with a buoyancy problem. I changed its diet to peas and bloodworms and it has slightly subsided.

However, for the last 4 weeks it has started having black patches appear on it, starting of small and now covers its entire belly, gills and upto its mouth. It doesnt look like a slim and I change the water roughly once a week.

Has this happened to anyone else? Does anyone know what it may be?

The water in my area is known for being hard.

Thanks

[nlribeiro]

I have a Red cap oranda. Its orange with a red cap which I purchased and entered my aquarium around Jan 2010. After about 6 weeks it started to go upside down and float to surface. It looked healthy and just seemed tired from battling with a buoyancy problem. I changed its diet to peas and bloodworms and it has slightly subsided.

Hi, it sounds like he have had swim bladder problems... This is common. When they eat, they tend to swallow at lot of air while they are at the surface, more so if you are feeding them flake food,

You migth also want to try switching to a pelleted variety (or push the flake food under the water so it sinks,) this is thought to decrease the chance of the fish swallowing air because they spend less time at the surface, adding a few veggetables to their diet can also help with digestive problems, as for peas, you should squeeze them out of the shell first.

The greater the variety off foods suplied the better...

Swim bladder disease is rarely fatal by itself; as long as your fish seem otherwise healthy, this should not endanger their lives.

However, for the last 4 weeks it has started having black patches appear on it, starting of small and now covers its entire belly, gills and upto its mouth. It doesnt look like a slim and I change the water roughly once a week.

For now i will redirect you to an outside link, that offers two possibilities to this situation link, if you wish post here some photos, i might give you a better accessment of the situation...

Has this happened to anyone else? Does anyone know what it may be?

Nevertheless, wathever is the cause, don't wory is a frequent happening...

The water in my area is known for being hard.

Goldfish thrive in medium to hard water 100+ ppm, the ideal range being 200 to 400 ppm CaCo3

Hope it helps!

[hyperd_uk1]

Hi thanks for the advice, much appreciated.

Unfortunately today, the fish died, my tank does have a reputation of the 'tank of death'!

Im going to strip it out and start over, renewing the gravel, clean the tank and buy myself a brita water filter to filter the water even more prior to doing water changes as he was the third fish to die over past 8 months from unknown cause. There isn;t any signs of algae problems and both my previous fish had same problem, so would be very unlucky if all three had swimbladder.

Do you think hard water with lots of chemicals/chlorine etc could cause bouyancy problems?

[nlribeiro]

I'm sory to ear that, i've hoped to have had given some help

To clean the tank use a comercial brand o hidrogen peroxyde, it will kill any prejudicial bacteria /patogens int the tank, use gloves and a sponge and pass it thoroughly in all the tank's parts...

The gravel is usualy not a problem if you boil it, or put it in the oven for 30 minutes to an hour high temperature will also kill all the bugs, fungus etc...

As for the problem it might be also a bacterial outbreak, with the filter you might also get it solved, but let me tell you i dont think the hard water has anything to do with the problem, mine lived and breed haply in an outside concret tank for years, and with hard water for start also, so...

A more acurate diagnose would need a picture at least, i'm afraid...