# black moor help



## Baby British (Jan 24, 2010)

I recently got 3 gold fish for my children. The black moor seems a bit lethargic and spends quite a lot of time floating on the top of the tank. He does have intervals of energy but he seems to swim towards the bottom of the tank only to float back up again  His appetite seems healthy enough and the other two fish in the tank are lively as any thing?

Is this a common trait with black moors or could it be a swim bladder problem (I've been reading up on fish diseases!) If his behaviour isn't the norm can anyone suggest a treatment that might help him? The water in the aquarium is fully treated, has a filter plus I use oxyenating tablets. All toxin levels are within a safe limit.

Thanks!


----------



## Fishyfins (Feb 28, 2009)

hey there

when you say toxin levels, what exactly do you mean? do you test the water yourself? or do you take it to a shop? and do you know the exact values? goldfish are very messy fish, and produce an aweful lot of waste. a high level of toxins such as ammonia and nitrite will lead to serious problems, and certainly cannot be ruled out from the symptoms you describe.

secondly, what size tank do you have? a very common mistake with first time goldfish owners is to put them in far too small a tank. goldfish are potentially very large fish nd even the smallest goldfish (such as black moors) require about 50L per fish. so if you have 3 of them, they should be in no less than 150L of aquarium water. anything less and it can cause serious health issues, symptoms of which you describe above.

thirdly, what types of goldfish are the other two? standard goldies (such as shubunkins and comets), or fancies (moors, oranda and the like). the two types cannot safely be mixed together. if they are, then the standards, being very vigorous, fast fish, tend to scare the fancies, and take all their food. again, this situation would lead to the symptoms described above.

hopwfully, if we know some of the info above, we will be able to narrow down the cause of the problem, and with any luck, help solve the problem


----------



## Guest (Oct 8, 2010)

As FF has said, you need to be more specific where the terms 'toxin levels' are concerned, as 'toxin' is a generic term for several metabolic waste substances including ammonia and nitrite.

Problems with the swimbladder are common amongst fancy goldfish, due to the arrangement of their internal organs within a compact body frame. Excess gas can become trapped inside the thorax for several reasons, including bloat which results from feeding too much dry food or taking in too much air from the surface whilst feeding. However, without a set of water test results, it isn't safe to assume what the problem could be. There are other possible causes and some are unfortunately untreatable.

I would suggest slinging the oxygen tablets, as they have little to no effect inside an aquarium. Surface agitation provided by the filter should put enough dissolved oxygen (DO) into the water. Pointing the filter outlet nozzle in an upward direction to the surface will increase this effect.


----------



## Baby British (Jan 24, 2010)

it's a 21 litre aquarium  The water was tested in a shop. Could salt tablets be beneficial? I'm not sure of exact types but all of them are fancy gold fish


----------



## holly1 (Aug 10, 2010)

I dont bother with salt at all.
Saw on Tv about swim bladder.Stop feeding for about 3 days.It was on QI,so must be true!
The tank is too small,even for 1.


----------

