# Automatic fish feeder.........overfed my goldfish, worried



## rae3988 (Jan 22, 2008)

I was away for 10 days and bought an automatic fish feeder...and it's safe to say he was extremely overfed. He's ENORMOUS (potbelly like) now, and there was a ton of crud in the tank--had to do a huge water change to clean it out. He is swimming but stays fairly close to the bottom...should I withhold food for a few days?


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## herefishy (Dec 14, 2006)

Most definitely, another water cange may also be in order. Make sure to get the excess off of bottom of the tank. keep an eye on the ammonia levels. The excess food will start decaying and drive it up to toxic levels.


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## Falina (Feb 25, 2007)

As Bob said definitely hold off feeding for a few days and remove any excess lying around.

Were your water params off when you got back? I'd expect they were. keep a close eye on them until they go back to normal and do plenty of extra water changes to dillute any amonia/nitrite/nitrate.

If your params are off this, on top of being bloated, would explain his sluggish behaviour.

After a few days, if the bloating doesn't subside you can try feeding a shelled pea or 2 to loosen him up.


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## rae3988 (Jan 22, 2008)

I basically did a 70% water change-I emptied out the entire tank (saving approx 2-3 gallons, after straining it) and rinsed/strained all the gravel at the bottom because there was so much gunk floating around when I stirred things up. Once I refilled the tank, I checked most of the params. and the ammonia levels were just above 0ppm and when I added this stuff that helps neutralize it, and rechecked the levels, it was 0ppm. 

I also just double checked nitrite and ammonia, both are at 0ppm. He's still pretty sluggish, but is swimming around a little bit more.


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## rae3988 (Jan 22, 2008)

ALSO this is new, but there seems to be a VERY long stringy white thing (similar to a piece of white thread) coming from his rear, where the bowel movements should be exiting. I just noticed this, it wasn't there 10 minutes ago, duno if it's related.


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