I think I have killed him,
As I was heading to bed I found my guy stuffed behind a rock with no motion. Thinking he might have passed I went to move him and found some slight movement.

A very panicked ph test showed it was way too acidic. Spending the last few weeks looking for a new place, I completly forgot to check.

I dropped in a couple of ph neutralisers and a bit of soda, (didn't want to add too much and shock him)

Then I did aprox. 15% water change as our local water supply is neutral to basic.

Still afraid he was burning up in front of me, I mixed a bucked of 50/50 new and old water and brought him in.

He is swimming around lots, but completely upside down and has horrible red blotches at the base of his pectoral fins, his port side by his annal fin and the veins in his fins are going red.
I am sick to my stomach right now.

Man if I am like this with a fish, how will I ever have kids of my own

Possible bio-filter crash. Do you have an ammonia test kit? The red blotches may indicate ammonia poisoning. Sometimes a pH crash is an indicator of excess ammonia. How are the other fish acting ? How big is the pleco? The pleco and cory's are tropical fish, also unless the pleco is a dwarf it will out grow the tank eventually.But back to point, If you use a dechlorinator that also removes ammonia double dose and do a 50% water change.If you can remove the goldfish from the tank until it is testing 0.0ppm pH. You will need a QT tank or even a large bucket only used for fish and use a dechlorinator and do partial water changes as needed to keep any ammonia rom building. Also stop feeding all fish until you are up and running.

I think Woe means test for ammonia until the ammonia reaches 0. The pH should be somewhere around 7. Do water changes everyday, up to about 50% until the major crisis is over then slow down to 3 times a week then 2 times a week and back to normal routine of once a week.

Hopefully you caught this problem quick enough that your goldfish will survive.

Yes, I did mean ammonia 0.0ppm. To add,If the pH stays low it is OK if the ammonia has spiked. Ammonia is less toxic at a lower pH. Don't concern over it though. The best chance of survival for the fish is getting the ammonia down.The red marks are probably chemical burns from the high ammonia. They should be addressed also.But wtaer conditions are a priority now.

Yes, I have not kept goldish since I was very young but I think that other goldfish would be a nice addition o course the tropicals would have to go. For a 33 gal 3 gold ish is the limit. Plecos are poop machines like goldfish and really add to the bio-load when they grow. The cold water will slow their growth, possibly , but they are tropicals as are the cory's. Cory's are schoolers, 6+ are reccomended.

Thank you everyone on the Pond and Aquarium forums for all your words of advice and kindness.

I must admit I never thought I would stay up to 4:00am talking to a pet fish in a bucket or spend the entire next day at work worrying about him. (Even made a couple of calls home to see if he was still alive)

As of 19:45 PST, he is doing better I think, or I hope at least. I bought a kit to test the ammonia on the way home from work and did a test right away.

The Ammonia vial was a bit green 0.3 I think
Ph had swung 180* and was basicaly off the akaline scale.
Ugh!

I did a 20% or so change and now the PH is a little less dramatic.
But what is with the Ammonia test... it did not include anything to adjust the ammonia like the PH tests do.

The fins on my little guy do not have the red veins like they did last night and I think, (hope) the red patches are not as bad.
He still is just sitting on the bottom, but now mostly upright and not laying on his side as he was last night. He seems to be labouring in his breathing though.

"Bob" the pleco was about a year old or so and just up and died. Sometime on Monday afternoon I think, but I did not notice until Tuesday. (He liked to hide) He was about 4 inches long. (Compared to my parents whose Pleco is about 18 inches long and wider then a 2X4 through the body)

I am unsure where to go now. Leave my guy in the tank for now or take him out into a bucket? Either one would seem to stress him lots.

If anyone has any ideas or comments, I am all ears.
Thanks very much
Scott

I'd like to add that you should add some Stress Coat to the water you're keeping him in. It replaces the slime coating fish have and also helps them heal.

This is a link incase you're not familiar with it: http://www.petalia.com.au/Templates/ProdSubList.cfm?specie=Fish&Category=77&SCategory=139&Group_No=6210&CFID=2473051&CFTOKEN=67adfd9a5effdc91-7D4A7F5B-D60D-4417-24C2D035E5BAD414

What I would do for my own fish. Keep up on the water testing and do water changes as needed you may be cycling again. I would add salt to the water. Replace salt for the amount of water you are changing each time. I would also feed him jungles antibacterial feed pellets just in case all of this has started an internal infection. I buy the pellets at pet smart. I would keep him in the tank as long as you have controlled the ph. Find out whats wrong with your filter . A 30 gallon tank is good for one goldfish alone, but your have other fish in there too. Is your system overloaded? You might think of upgrading to a large tank maybe a 55 to 80 gallon. The more water the better.

You can use a dechlorinator that also removes ammonia and chlorimine to reduce ammonia or part water changes to keep it under control.IMO Unless you have 0.0 ppm ammonia I would not keep the goldfish in the tank. It sounds like your bio-filter crashed for some reason. You will need some ammonia source in the tank to re-establish the cycle. If you have fish in the tank keep it

Hello again everyone,
Thanks for all your notes.
Tonight is the 3rd night of all this. I have no idea if he is getting better or worse.
I picked up some medications upon the advice of a local shop.

The kid suggested using "Melafix" and "Pimafix" together. (They smell like Tea Tree Oil)
I also picked up some liquid medicated food that solidifies into little balls when it hits the water. Problem is I don't think he is eating.

Where yesterday my guy seemed to swim a second and then nose dive, today I think he has been on his back/side all day. He is breathing quite strong/heavily, so I know he is still alive. I can not tell if is body is swollen or not as he has always been a round little guy.

My Ph tests still show the water just over neutral and the Ammonia test reads just over 0 (0.1 or 0.2)

Sitting and waiting is the hardest part.
I am a little shy of changing any more water as I don't make things worse.

His Ventral and Pectoral fins seem to be sticking out and not really flaping at all.

None of he pet shops here have staff that really inspire confidense when I am talking to them.
That's why I am talking to you guys.

Hope you all have a good night
Scott

melafix and pimaix are both non drug "medication". They are herbal healing oils from India I believe. Even the Stress coat that was mentioned uses Aloe to heal, all 3 are made by aquarium pharmaceuticals.Anyone I have communicated with that used these products said it either didn't help or where unsure if it was what woked. Most people panic and try a mixture of "cures" and dont really know what worked. At the end of the day if the fish survives I guess its worth it. Anyway no one claimed that it hurt the fish or interupted their system in anyway. IMO it may have been better money spent on aquarium salt(I use table salt iodized and non-iodized with success) and follow the directions for healing. Epsom salts work the same way "pepso" does as far as flushing out the fish. I dont know if you bought an anti-biotic type or not, but they also flush out the fish. To help the goldfish to eat and heal a heater would be beneficial. Heat increases the metabolism and encorages a week fish to eat and move about more. You could lower it down after treatment or remove it until you need it again (the cory's would do better with some heat, they are tropicals). Just don't go above the max temp. for a goldish (cant think of what it is at this moment). I you raise the temp. ,do it gradually over a 3 day period until maximum safe temp for a golfish if reached.

Well it is day 5 of all of this now.
Today was the first day in a few that he is upright, on his feet sort of.

I have not seen him swim, but at least he is sitting right side up now.

The sores on his sides are slowly dissapearing and the red is gone from the fins.
His left pectoral fin seems a little droopy compared to his right.

But his breathing seems more in gasps and he shakes his whole body when he takes a breath.

I called a local Koi farm that has a very good reputation for raising high quality koi and asked if there was anything more to do.
They suggested not to try anything else for now and let the little guy rest.
Hope all of you have a good weekend and those down in the Gulf survive in good shape.
Scott

Sounds good. Keep a watchful eye on the Ammonia levels. Safe range for gold fish 60-80 F. Ideal 62-78F.

Well it is now day 10 since this all began.
My little guy is still alive and makes his way slowly around the tank once every few days. But he has spent 90% of his time on his right side.

There are no traces of the red sores on his side anymore.
I am not sure how much the Pimafix and Melafix have done.

How long can it take to recover from such episodes.
Days weeks longer?

I don't think he has eaten at all.
Ph and amomnias are fine.

At the same time, the 2 corys with him have been laying eggs.

any more ideas?
Hope you have a good weekend
Scott

Did you try the heater? If anything the Cory cats will enjoy it.

Hello Everyone,
Thanks for the notes.
Well we are just finishing day 17 (Friday October 7) of all this. My little guy is still alive and seems to be on a very slow recovery. Although just how far he will come is still a mystery.

I did the full 7 day cycle of Melafix and Pimafix that ended last weekend. I did a 60% water change on Sunday night,as suggested with the medication.

Up till this point he had spent most of his time on his side and slowly moving the odd time. Breathing had varied between slow and rythmic to gasping and full body lunges.

As the water emptied suddenly my guy flipped over and started swimming around upright like nothing was wrong.

I replaced about 70 percent of the removed water as I had talked to a store earlier who had mentioned a last ditch effort would be to lower 80% of the water in case the weight of the water above was to much for him right now.But since I use an undergravel filter and a HOB filter if the water was that low I would have no filtration at all. So I filled the water up to the intake of my HOB filter only to help him at least a bit.

Over the last week he has moved around quite a bit. But when he is resting he is fully upside down. He will swim both right side up and upside down then rest for a while.

I am hoping this is a good sign.

He skin is fully healed now and his fins are fine.

All I can do is wait and watch.

Unfortunately sometime in the next week I will have to move him again as I am going into my new place now.

Hope everyone has a great weekend and for those Canuks out there, Happy Thanksgiving.
Scott

P.s. Shadegodess... I have known many teenagers who were smarter and more with it then those who were much older then themselves.

Well Happy Thanksgiving to those North of the 49th out there.
Today was a good day for my little guy. Yesterday he was sitting upright most of the day.
I have not seen him eat for this whole time. Since I have only been feeding him a gel antibiotic food that you can see foating in the water I thought I would experiment and try a few flakes today as well.
I have watched the gel droplettes float right past his nose and he hasn't flinched. But today the flakes were only in for a few seconds when he jerked up and started going crazy hunting for food. He moved more in 10 minutes then the previous 10 days.

So I am taking this as a good sign.

A down side is I can not see if he has a left eye. He lost his right eye 2 years ago and it looks like there is a blister over his left eye now.

I will cross each bridge as I come to it I guess.

Have a great weekend
Scott
P.s. Andrea, how is your fish doing now?

Sorry, I forgot its been a while but was swim bladder disease ruled out?