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Help something is wrong with my mom's goldfish Spazz. he's a 2 in red ryukin that i gave had for 5 months. he's on the bottom and listing to the side. he's not active at all. i lost his buddy a white ryukin on last monday he died suddenly no syptons or signs.

the water params are
ph 7.6-7.8
ammonia .25 my tap water has chloramines in it i use Stress Coat
not sure what my no2/no3 are but last test done on 5 /22 was ok
did 25% change on 5/22 too
the thank is a 55 gal with one ohter ryukin and a dozen or so white clouds
i have a 330 bio wheel and a canister the i just have spones and Matrix bio medeia in it
i did anther 50% change tonight
any help is apreciated

PSG80

No wonder it's dying - your ammonia is through the roof! You should definitely fix your ammonia. High ammonia can kill fish or make them unwell. You'll have to lower it to zero, and your goldfish may recover. Good luck!

ammonia is throught the roof?
.25 if no that high 1.0 and up is high
i use jungle quick dips and according to that its the safe range. and also its not true ammonia like fish waste ammonia.
my town uses cloramines in the tap water when i use my stress coat that breaks the cemical bond of the cloramines resulting in clhroine and ammonia. the stress coat takes out the resulting chlorine and leaves the free ammonia. and using something like ammeo-lock or prime won't help because all that will do is make the ammonia less toxic. it will still be in the tank.
i do hundreds of water tests for customers every month and eveyone has the same ammonia reading its just a fact of our tap water. its never been a problem before and i have lived here two years. if and one has any idea on how to deal with the ammonia that results from our tap water it will be very much apprecatd by a few hundred people.
anyone have any ideas?
PSG80

NH4 (ammonia) is NH4, it doesn't matter where it comes from! Anything above 0.2ppm can be fatal. You need to start treating your water with something that neutralises the chloramine and ammonia. You will find Prime very good for this, or even Ammolock. I suggest you do a 50% water change and treat the fresh water with either Prime or Ammolock. Both work to ionise the ammonia and make it into a non-harmful version that wont hurt fish but can still be converted by the bacteria in your filter.

Another thing - ammonia effects the gills on your fish. They are less able to extract oxygen from the water when there is high ammonia - hence your listless fish. Adding airation in the form of an air stone and pump or increasing surface aggitation will give you the most immediately effective results.

At the end of the day... this is a water quality issue by the sounds. Get rid of the test strips and get yourself a proper test kit. Even with a proper kit, any change in test water colour is a bad thing and you should be aiming for ZERO ammonia in your tank.

Hey Petstore,
Yes, the above posters are correct.
Any ammonia in a tank that is cycled
is a very bad thing.

However, has the tank cycled?
Do you know what the cycle is?
How long ago was the tank set up?
When You do a water change do you vaccuum
the gravel?
When You change the filter media do you
do it at the same time as the water change?
How often do you change the media in the filter
or wash it?

Stress coat is not really a very good product.
Prime is much superior, Id highly recommend
getting it. It doesnt just remove chloramines,
but also chlorine, heavy metals, detoxifes ammonia and nitrites.
I too agree, junk the test strips.
They are a waste of money, and must be replaced
monthly to get close to accurate results,
and the stuff they are dipped in deteriorates
instantly on exposure to air, rendering strips
useless after about 1 months time.
Go with the liquid kits.

It does sound like your goldfish is suffering from
ammonia poisoning.
Your only action is to reduce the ammonia
to zero. Keep up on small reqular water changes
with 50% gravel vacs.
Ditch the stress coat and the strips and get
some accurate and quality products.

Watch for other signs in the fish, scratching,
white marks, red marks, white feces, red gills,
etc.


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