Common Goldfish eating Fantail

[chucklechuck]

Hi,

Came back from a few days away, neighbour has been feeding the fish, to notice our fantail has lost most of its tails and scales, upon monitoring it seems our common goldfish is nibbling away at it.

They have lived in harmony for a few months, is there any way to save the fantail and restore the peace?

Thanks in advance

[annageckos]

How big are the two fish and what size tank are they in. You are going to want to do large waterchanges often to help your fantail heal. What are you parameters(ph, ammonia, nitrate, nitrite)

[chucklechuck]

Smaller one is about 30mm full length and the fantail body about 50mm. Tank is 450x250x300. Excuse my ignorance about the parameters but this is a tank we inherited from the old lady next door who no longer wanted to look after them and thought it would be a good 1st birthday present for my son. We do a full tank clean once a week with the advised levels of filter aid, anti finrot, anti white spot etc.

We have moved the smaller goldfish into his original bowl, as we have had him for a year.

[annageckos]

Smaller one is about 30mm full length and the fantail body about 50mm.
I am not very good with metric. When I converted the numbers I get the fish are only about 1 inch and the other is about1 1/2inches. Do you know what your fish are in centimeters or inches. Is the number I got right?
Tank is 450x250x300.
Is this cm or mm? In mm it is a very small tank, about 18x10x12Goldfish are very big and heavy bodied fish. They need a good amount of room and extreamly good filtration. What kind of filter do you have?
Excuse my ignorance about the parameters but this is a tank we inherited from the old lady next door who no longer wanted to look after them and thought it would be a good 1st birthday present for my son.
That is great you took the fish. But you need to know what the parameters are. PH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. You need to get a liqiud test kit. API or Tetra are good brands. Stay away from the strips. You need a liqiud master test kit.
We do a full tank clean once a week with the advised levels of filter aid, anti finrot, anti white spot etc.
You don't want to clean the tank. You need to do weekly partail water changes. Take out about 30-50% of the water. You also do not want to clean the filter. Just sqeeze the media out in a bucket of old tank water. When you totaly clean the tank and filter you are starting your cycle all over again and that is very bad for your fish. I am going to guess 'Filter Aid' says it has benefical bactria. Well, they are a waste. BB can not survive in a bottle with no food or oxygen. You also do not want to treat you tank for things you do not have. Only medicate IF you have a problem. You are making it harder to treat problems by constantly dosing meds. The bateria or parasite then become resistant to the meds.

We have moved the smaller goldfish into his original bowl, as we have had him for a year.
I would think that you goldfish is stunted and will not reach his full size or live his full lifespan. You need to get a bigger tank and stop cleaning it fully. PWC are all you need. Stop dosing the filter aid, anti finrot, anti white spot and any other meds you have been giving.

[chucklechuck]

Thanks for all of your advice and tips, we quite easily followed the next door neighbours instructions when she said " abit of this a bit of that and they'll be fine". ignorance again i guess.

I'm heading down to my local pets at home tomorrow with full details of what we have and what we need. Will do it properly from now on. Hopefully our fantail will make a full recovery.

[annageckos]

Be careful about the 'advice' most LFS employees will give you. Most just don't know and will try to sell you anything they can. Good luck with your fish.

[chucklechuck]

Will bear that in mind, thanks. Do you know if there is any reason for the goldfish attacking the other or anything that can be done to prevent it? Is it a case that we haven't been providing the right environment therefore has turned to this behaviour?

[annageckos]

Stress and illness would be two reasons. But did you see this happen? Maybe your neighbor didn't feed the fish? Your fantail may have something like fin rot. But like already stated, get a bigger tank, good filter and keep the water clean. Your fish should be fine.