Help my goldfish is at the bottom of my tank and panting?

Question

Help my goldfish is at the bottom of my tank and panting?

Answer 1

Try doing a water change.  Ammonia poisoning will cause those symptoms.  If that doesn't help, then it might be a gill fluke infestation, which would require meds.

Answer 2

Lol. Donna if ever you see this again, I'd love clarification on what you mean by "too much ph imbalance".

Bottom sitting is never a good sign in goldfish. Here's some troubleshooting:

-Has your tank cycled? By this I mean, do you have the bacteria that converts ammonia into nitrites, and then nitrites into nitrates? If not, then your fish could be swimming in its own waste and showing symptoms of ammonia poisoning. To help him out, please do a LARGE water change using a good dechlorinator (Prime is excellent because it binds the ammonia to a nontoxic form, but leaves it available to your cycling bacteria).

-Is your tank well oxygenated? Do you have a bubble wand or an airstone? Fish are living creatures and they need O2 just like you. If you don't have an air stone, lower the water level on your tank: that way the cascade from your filter (assuming that you have a hang-on-back filter) will create water movement to allow more gas exchange at the water's surface. A water change is also in order: new water will not be as oxygen depleted as his.

If these water quality issues are not at stake here (if you know your tank is cycled and you have good water movement/bubblers) then you could be looking at an illness.

I will link you to a webpage with information about possible problems if your fish is bottom sitting:

http://thegab.org/Articles/DiagnosisChar...

The table will help you troubleshoot and hopefully diagnose which scenario is more likely affecting your goldie.

I hope this helps you.

If your goldfish's condition worsens I hope you will post on a good goldfish specific forum where they will be able to help you. thegab.org is excellent with vet techs as its mods. Here's a link to the sick fish forum:

http://thegab.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=...

Good luck!

Answer 3

Do a water change. Your water might have too much ph imbalance.  Or it just needs to be cleaned.