Hi there,

I'm babysitting my sister's goldfish while she is out of town on a 3-week trip.  The goldfish is sick, and I'd appreciate your any advice on how to help it get better.  A few details:

- The fish is about 4 years old, and has been healthy to date.  he's has always been quite fat and roly-poly - almost spherical.

- A few weeks ago my sister moved him into a bigger tank.  Almost right after he developed large black spots over his body.  She had that checked out, and the fish was diagnosed with ammonia burns.  She has since been changing the water regularly, but the burns haven't gone away.

- Before going on the trip she moved the fish to a ~2 gallon fish bowl for temporary housing at my house while she was away.  Yesterday was the first day we had him, and the first day I got a look at the spots., etc.  I took a picture of his ammonia burned area, see below.

- Since having the little guy, I've noticed that his belly is swollen in the same spot as the black spot.  The swollen area makes him swim lop-sided.  I've noticed that he swims real funny and seems to be having trouble "balancing" in the water.

- My fiance and I plan on doing a ~25% water change every 2-3 days.  I've taken a few water quality readings:  pH = 7.0, ammonia = 1.2-2.4 mg/L (it's between colors on the chart), unionized ammonia (read from a pH/ammonia chart) = 0.002 ppm, nitrite = 1.2 mg/L, nitrate = <5 mg/L.

- From the above, it looks like nitrite is very high, and pH is a bit too low.  I'm going to buy some of the "cycle" chemical that was recommended elsewhere in the forum.

I'm going to take the little guy to the neighborhood aquarium store for a diagnosis, but would like the opinion of all you goldfish experts out there.  Is the fish suffering only from the ammonia burns, or is there something else I need to look out for?  Anything other than the "cycle" and frequent partial water changes I need to do?  I would like to have this guy all healed when my sister comes to get him, and definitely don't want him to get worse.  She's quite fond of the little guy.

All help would be definitely appreciated, by both human and fish-folk!

thanks,
Shakeel

Why in the world did she move the fish to your bowl if she figured out that he's got ammonia burns already?!
I don't want you to think that I'm angry at either of you, but this just doesn't make sense. She must have moved him to a bigger tank for a reason in the first place.

If the fish is bloated a bacterial/parasitic infection is surely involved. You need to treat this fish for internal infections asap. Buy some medicated food that you'll feed him with three times a day for at least the remainder of the time you have him under your care. Follow Hanna's advice as well, about the filter and airstone etc. I'd say it would be even better if there's a way for you to move him back into his bigger home.

Good luck!

I can't see why she had to move him at all. Wouldn't it have been better to keep him in the big tank so you could just go there from time to time and feed him?

And no, you shouldn't even bother bringing HER tank to your home just for a few weeks, the tank will just have to cycle longer, and the fish will get stressed and most likely die anyway. Bring him home to her tank maybe? You could try going to her place and checking on the tank's cycling process and see to it that the fish will get back to his home as soon as it's possible.

And learn, for next time that a goldfish should never be kept in a bowl, not even for three weeks. And especially as long as there's a better option! But, I'm glad that you care, bet most people wouldn't even ask on this forum what might be wrong with the fish

Hi folks,

An update.  First of all, I don't think bringing him back to his tank is feasible.  If we do, he'll have to live unattended except for maybe a once-a-week visit.  I live too far away to visit more often.  Howabout this option - my fiance has a planted tropical freshwater tank with good, old, well-balanced water.  We  bought a cheap 7 gallon tank and power filter, and used the good water from the planted tank, plus a bit of water from the fish bowl, plus some conditioned tap water water, and put the fish in there.  We added the microbe cycle chemical ("tank starter") to the new tank.  We plan on adding medication too.  Is this a decent approach?  We risk stressing the fish, but he's apparently already stressing in the bowl, and bringing him back to his home tank, for better or worse, isn't really an option.  We considered bringing his tank here, but that seems like more trouble than it's worth.  We'd have to change most of that water to bring it over, and that would risk the same stress, right?  That tank is what also gave him his original ammonia burns, so I'm wary of that water.

The local aquarium store thought a "hospital tank" with filtration was the best bet, and they offered to sell us a used tank for a deal.  They agreed that the fish bowl was a death chamber.  We're on our way to the store with the fish for them to take a look and give us their opinion on what meds (pimafix, etc.) to go with.

let me know what you think.  On a related note, since our water changes in the fish bowl, the little dude seems to be doing a bit better - his swimming seems more balanced and he seems to be swimming around doing his thing, not struggling or sitting there.  Don't think we're out of the woods though.

thanks,
Shakeel     

Remember in the future, that a one-week visit with feeding is more than enough for the goldfish to stay healthy. Not to mention that the water in that tank is getting better and better as the cycle is proceeding.