sick goldie please help!

[elilk]

Wilfred is one of two goldies living in my 54 litre tank, it has a submersible filter, a few live plants and gravel. for the last few days he's been not as happy and sociable as usual and this morning he had black lines on his gills. I got home this arvo to find him lying on the gravel with his eyes wide open and not moving. I went to the lfs and on recomendation bought a ph tester and para-cide (trichlorfon 20mg). the ph was very low around 6.5 so i did two 30 % water changes (the fresh water is 7.5ish) half an hour apart, this did not make a visible change to the ph, but i also put in a shell shaped ph neutralizer, maybe this will take longer to work?. There is a 0 reading of ammonia. The other goldy is fine. I cant identify if he has fluke or fish lice from internet pics. should i dose the para-cide in case even though i've read it is vey poisonous? i dont want to weaken him anymore.. :(
If any one knows or has any ideas I'd really appreciate some help asap
Thanks, elise
PS he eats Ultra goldfish flakes, dried shrimp and peas (once a week followed by a fast for a night) [/b]

[cocoa_pleco]

the PH neutrilizer may be just bugging him more, PH wont make him lethargic like that.

is he swimming at all? does it look like bloat?

[shalafi04]

ph shouldn't bother him as long as it remains constant or only goes through changes of .2 per day. Your ammonia was fine, but what were your nitrite readings?

[elilk]

He died last night.
No cocoa he only moved a little when he got disturbed, (he looked like he was in a lot of pain) then late last night he rolled onto his side. He must have died shortly after that. I didn't want to put him to sleep in case he got better.. I don't think it was bloat, his shape didn't change at all. Shala, I change the water every 7-10 days, 30% and check it for ammonia which hasn't shown a reading ever since they've been in the tank about 3 months, but I moved them over from a smaller tank and kept the same water and gravel plants etc. so if theres no ammonia spike then the nitrites wouldn't spike either would they?
also my other goldfish seems healthy

[elilk]

oh and i did dose the para-cide after posting the first message

[shalafi04]

i am sorry for your loss. Its never easy to watch a pet suffer. But you did what you could. RIP little goldie.

[elilk]

R.I.P Wilfred

[Fishguy2727]

Now that you are cycled nitrate concentration needs to be monitored. You may want to increase the water change schedule. I am now doing 50% twice a week.

Can you buy New Life Spectrum? Even if you can only get it online it is worth getting. It really is the best fish food out there. You can read about my experience with it in my blog, and see my fish that are fed it exclusively in my Photobucket page.

A pH that low can be stressful for goldfish, especially if it is usually 7.4. That may indicate high nitrate concentration be converted to nitric acid.

Most likely more water changes will be the biggest help.