Reptile & Amphibian Forums

At the beginning of this week I bought a Black Moor goldfish and a Leucistic goldfish. We put them in with a liv plant and a filter, with colored gravel at the bottom. They looked very happy for the first few days, swimming around and digging and eating. But one day we found them float and barely moving in the fish tank. we hurried them up to my tropical fish tank and they are now doing fine. Any ideas why? we brought it to the pet shop for the water to be tested and they said it was perfect. They are doing fine but I would really like them back in the kitchen. It's ten gallons tall and I don't think the problem is the oxygen. There was also a weird coating of bubbles and slime at the water's edge. My pet shop said that it might be the fish's protective slime, but other than that they were just as puzzled as I was.

PLEASE HELP! My leucistic one died and was eaten by the other fish . I don't think it is a disease, the rest of my fish are doing fine, including my black moor. Can my other fish get anything bad from eating Albert? I have two pearl danios, three orange danios, one chinese algae eater and four cory catfish in a 30 gallon. the catfish are just babies. the water's perfect and the black moor seems to be fine. Any help would be greatly appreciate

So you just set up the tank for the goldfish? That could be why your leucistic died. Goldfish produce a lot of ammonia compared to your typical fish. Then you moved them to an established tank where the water parameters are fine, that could be why they were looking better.
When you transfer fish from the pet store to your house also keep in mind that they may or may not have just been thrown into the tank at the petstore. This is very stressful on a fish and can affect their slime coat that protects them from the outside illnesses. Once there is a break in their slime coat all kinds of illnesses can enter its body. That could be the reason your fish died, however, it could be any number of things. The slimy bubbles could be proteins, that would be an indicator of lack of oxygen. It wouldn't hurt if you added an air stone.

You should remove a dead fish as soon as you realize its dead, but there is a possibility your other fish could get something (or they could not catch anything at all). When I've had a fish die over night, the others would pick at it, and I've not had any other issues with the living fish.

Your goldfish should not be kept in that tropical tank for long. It will stress them out because the temperature is too warm for the coldwater goldfish. Your goldfish tank will need to cycle before it can handle anymore fish. Goldfish are hardy, so I am guessing your one goldfish was just sick when you got it.

Hope this helps.
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Phishie
Site Coordinator

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

The tank had all ready been established for a few months so I think it was probably the oxygen.

Your tank was established, and then you added 2 fish, so it would need to cycle again (although it's possible that it was the oxygen). The cycling after the fish were added would not be as bad as starting new, but the system was only able to handle whatever you had in there previously (be that no fish or one fish). Your fish tank will always cycle again with the addition of even the smallest fish. It could have a been a combination of the two (oxygen and cycling). The proteins that were on the surface indicate the low oxygen, but your fish would not die from that alone once transferred to your other tank.
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Phishie
Site Coordinator

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Well thanks! Oh ya, if it helps at all I had three orange danios in there during june.