clamped fins

[eric111]

I wonder if anyone can help me?
I have a a 75 litre tank with undergravel filtration and a powerhead. The tank contains two small common goldfish, one is tens years old, the other is under a year old (I aquired him in March). On Friday, I noticed the young one was rather quiet and seemed to be clamping his fins a bit. I monitored his behaviour through Saturday and Sunday and he was spending virtually all the time on the floor of the tank, not moving, with his fins clamped. The last time this happened was when I had a different fish last year with the ten year old and it turned into an outbreak of whitespot (which was successfully treated). I decided to treat with an anti whitespot remedy as a precaution on Sunday night, but by Tuesday evening, there was no improvement and the fish was starting to spit out his food.

All the while, my other fish has been right as rain. Although I was confident it was not a water quality problem, I tested the water anyway - ammonia and nitrite levels are fine. I did a 70% water change last night in order to remove as much of the anti whitespot remedy as I could, topped up with conditioned and temp-equilibrated tapwater and treated with an anti parasite remedy (active against flukes, costia etc.). This morning, no improvement.

The problem I have is that there are no symptoms other than clamped fins and lethargy. The only thing that has recently changed is the water conditioner - Tetra Aquasafe for Goldfish. However, I doubt this could be causing any problems, as the other fish is still very well.
I've wondered if something might be stuck down his throat - gravel, a piece of plastic from the 'plants'? If so, there's not much I can do.
I've kept golfdish for 20 years, but I'm really stumped.
Anyone got any ideas?

[RobbieG]

I don't know what other medications you used already - I would double check my water and make sure that I had used the correct dosing/time period/removal instructions on those before I did anything else. If all of those are OK/done then I would quarantine the sick fish for treatment if possible.

The different meds could wind up stressing out the healthy fish.

You might try Melafix - the clamping and lethargy may be related to some kind of bacterial infection.

[cocoa_pleco]

that tanks too small for goldfish. they need 20g each and 10g each thereafter. sounds like you have a 18g.

boost your filtration to a canister filter or good HOB and add melafix and pimafix

[rollie]

I don't know what other medications you used already - I would double check my water and make sure that I had used the correct dosing/time period/removal instructions on those before I did anything else. If all of those are OK/done then I would quarantine the sick fish for treatment if possible.

The different meds could wind up stressing out the healthy fish.

You might try Melafix - the clamping and lethargy may be related to some kind of bacterial infection.


i agree.
by using to many different kinds of meds, you could be stressing him out.

stick with one or 2 kinds of meds.

and that tank is to small for those goldfish. you need a bigger tank.

[eric111]

Thank you to all those who have offered advice. I'm pretty convinced now that it is a foreign body somewhere behind the pharyngeal teeth. Water is fine and I'm not going to try any other treatments for a few days, if at all. There has been not deterioration in physical condition - basically nothing to see at all. He wants to eat, chews the food, then ends up spitting it out and goes back to sitting on the aquarium floor with clamped fins. He does sometimes look like he's trying to cough something up. I've examined the mouth and gills and can find nothing abnormal.

I was very surprised by the comments about the tank being too small. The guidelines here in the UK for goldfish stocking are 24 square inches of surface area for every inch of fish body (excluding tail). Going by that, I could comfortably accommodate another couple of fish of similar size. Also, in all the years I have kept fish, I have never had a water quality problem. Where do your guidelines come from?