i have a gray long goldfish he looks like a sardine and i call him that...anyway not long ago i lost a goldfish and now he is very scared and active or something and he breathes very fast...he keeps swimming around every where really fast then just sits at the bottom of the tank for like 10 seconds and it all just repeats and his fins seem to be breaking cause he cuts them on the rocks and plants ect...

I have a 180 litre tank...its got a light and 2 filters with plenty of plants and a big boat so they can hide and theres onley 5 fish in there...i feed them once every 2 days...as much as they can eat in 30 seconds and are treated with melafix,algafix,stress coat and Aquariam salt once a week and when i clean the water and do a water change...also the ph is very good a blue colour when the pet store tests it weekly....


please help tell me what might be wrong the water,the tank...anything


I love little sardine

The description of Sardine, sounds like it could be the water quality bothering him, so this would be the first thing to deal with.
Do you have a water testing kit, or a local aquarium shop you could take a sample of water to?
It is good that you check the PH but it would be really helpful if we could know what the water quality is currently like, with regards to Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate.

How long has the tank been set up? Did you cycle it before adding fish?

May I also ask why you treat weekly with melafix, algafix and salt? Unless there is something wrong with the health of the fish, you do not need to use these three products on a weekly basis. And even if something was wrong, you wouldn't need to use all three at once.
The stress coat is more than enough on a weekly basis, to treat the new water you will be adding during the water change

You also mention there are only 5 fish in the 180 litre tank. May I ask what the other 4 fish are?
If they are goldfish, then as Cheri has already said, the tank is over stocked. May I ask what breed of goldfish they are? If they are in fact goldfish.

{**** Cheri you got there before me  }

 I am very sorry for your loss.
PH is important but ammonia, nitrate and nitrite are more so. These are what should be tested at least every week. There is definately something wrong and I suggest you get to the bottom of it. Goldfish can live 45 years so if you are losing fish all the time you are doing something wrong. One goldfish, no matter what kind needs 80 litres, you need an additional 40 litres for each of the other goldfish, so with five fish you would need 240 litres. If you have regular (common) goldfish then they need even more room, around 80 litres per fish. It does not matter if they are tiny now, they still need adequate space.
Moving on- goldfish need a lot of filtration, I know you said you have two filters but it is imporatnt that they are moving 1,800 litres per hour, look them up online to be sure.
Lastly- I think you misunderstood, use the stress coat when you change the water but do not use any other chemicals or salt UNTIL you need them. With a healthy tank your fish will very rarely be sick. If you use medication and salt all the time it will not be as effective when you really need it.
I would suggest you buy your own test kit for now, research your filters and start looking around for a larger tank. Good luck with the rest of your fish.

I'm sorry to hear about losing your goldfish Adrian, I know it's hard to imagine tiny 2 inch fish growing, but believe me they do, the fish you currently have are juveniles/babies. So at one moment, yes you will have fish that look like this;
[image]


But after a while and with the correct conditions they will start to look more like this;
[image]


I found it hard to believe at first myself, but when you think about it, if you buy a puppy/kitten you expect it to grow into a dog/cat, the same applies to goldfish! If you buy a little juvenile fish, you should expect it to grow into an adult fish 

What breeds are your goldfish, if they aren't comets?

Ah Cheri, thanks for clearing that up about the water conditioner and other products, my apologies Adrian if I didn't word myself correctly there! As Cheri said, use just the stress coat, don't bother with the others unless you absolutley need them 

Something that may help you for the future- If you do notice a fish is sick/acting strange, it is best to check the water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate as well as the PH. Quite often if a fish is acting up - with no visual symptoms on its body- it is often that one of those parameters is too high and all that's needed is a water change. If however when you test the water everything is perfect -so in a cycled tank ammonia and nitrites at 0ppm and nitrate is under 40ppm- Then you would try and think about what could have caused this illness, for example was anything new added to the tank? Did you perhaps over feed by accident? Is one of the fish acting more violent towards the others? Just a general analysis of the situation can often help clear things up.

Sometimes, in some cases, salt is seen as a useful treatment, it's not as harsh as medicines and can often help.
If you do add salt and it doesn't help, then you either have a strain of illness that is salt resistance or a slightly more serious issue at hand. Medication will only be useful if you know what is wrong with the fish, if you are unsure do not use medication, until you know what's going on. Diagnose twice, treat once

For example; I once noticed my goldfish was acting strange, I tested the water, the Nitrites were above 0ppm and a water change pretty much sorted it out. Another instance I noticed my goldfish had some veins in her tail, I agonised for weeks trying to figure out what was wrong, what medicine would I need etc etc and as it turns out there was nothing wrong with her! It was just veins that had been there the whole time and I hadn't noticed XD I monitored her for around 20 days and the veins never changed or got worse. So in the end I never needed to treat her

I know this is a lot of information to take on board, so please take your time with reading and I wish you the best with the other fish 

That's great, 300 liters will be perfect for your four fish! The Fluval 105 moves 500 liters per hour so you are still a bit short, and when you upgrade you will certainly need more filtration. Good luck!