# My Last Two Goldfish Are Acting/Have Strange Symptoms



## marblemicros (Jun 15, 2013)

I used to have 4 comet goldfish. Two of them died from a sickness I never was able to diagnose. (They lost their appetite, swam on their sides at the bottom of the tank, and then in their last days would just lay at the bottom of the tank on their sides and have a spastic twitch. One of the fish also had small, scarce red spotting) Each time, I always did a half tank water change twice. The second death of my fish occurred a few weeks ago.
My last two goldfish are about three inches long, and I've had them for maybe 2 years. Just recently, one of my goldfish, Calico, continuously started to swim in circles. It never stops swimming in circles. It's appetite is fine, it looks fine, it just keeps swimming circles, it's never done this before. A week after the one fish died, the other one, Google, looked like it was bleeding from it's mouth and swimming kind of crooked. When I looked closely, it looks like the pelvic fin on the one side of the goldfish, is really small and sort of scrunched up. Almost looks like some of it is missing? I did a half water change and added some aquarium salt, and the bleeding on the mouth went away, but now it looks like one of it's eyes Is bleeding? And if not bleeding, swollen-like and red. It's still swimming crooked and the pelvic fin doesn't really look like it's being used anymore. I don't know what to do, or what's wrong with them. It's something different from what my other two fish died from (whatever that is) Any help would be great


The tank is 5-6 gallons. And has been set up for a year and half. I don't have any equipment to check pH and ammonia and nitrate and temp and such. I perform water changes whenever necessary. It's usually a 50% change. 
I've never added anything to the tank but aquarium salt once. (I've also fed them peas once) 
I have a filter, I'm not sure how big or mow much it pumps. The brand is regent, though. There are not live plants or any of that sort. No heating, or any light or sunlight exposure. I think it's well water that I use. I feed them ever other day.


the filter

The side of Google (the fish without the red eye)

The side with

Google's mouth is also a little red

The red arrow is pointing to who the fin that looks like it's been broken off or something. The blue arrow is pointing to the fin that looks like it's bunched up



From the front, it looks like the bad eye is sort of swollen 
　
The other fish swims in circles too much to get a good picture. It's an albino colored goldfish.
Any help would be greatly, greatly appreciated.


----------



## SeaHorse (Dec 27, 2010)

Hello marblemicros. Welcome to the Forum!
I'm sorry you are having troubles....I'm afraid I don't have good news for you... I do not want to sound harsh, I'm sorry. I want to say right up front that sadly a 5-6 gallon tank just isn't big enough for 1 goldfish let alone 4 of them. The LFS (local fish stores) sell us these fish all the time and tell us it's ok... but its not. I have a Comet right now and she is almost 9 inches long, she's in a 75 Gallon, and really needs to be put into a pond. That's really where they belong. 
So... what does being in a tank too small do? It causes "stress". Stress can show signs of trouble in all sorts of ways. Dogs and horses will spin in their crates/stalls, humans get sick with really bad stuff. Stress eats away at you. When fish are housed in a container that is too small, (you may not have known any better) their insides continue to grow even tho their outside bodies don't. Eventually their systems shut down as you are seeing. What seemed to be ok for SO long suddenly is no longer ok and you think... why? They need to grow and can't.
Do you have anything bigger, any other tank? I don't think rehoming these 2 will do any good at this point, I may be wrong. You can try to put them into something much bigger but it may be too late. 

If you want to know what should go into a 5-6 gallon just ask here, I can advise if you want help. 
Just so you can see the difference...
You can see pics of my "Goldie" in my aquarium tab to the left under my Username and above my Avatar. 
<---- She lives with a turtle... and that is NOT ok either! She was a "dinner" the turtle couldn't catch and this is how big she grew to... so far. Yes she is a plain old Comet Goldfish! She is probably about 3 years old and lived in the bottom half of a 45 gallon and is now in a 75 gallon needing a pond.


----------

