# Goldfish bleeding gills



## saaam

I have 2 goldfish in a 5 gallon tank. The other one started to have signs of distress such as clamped fins, reduced activity level (usually staying at the bottom corner of the tank throughout the day), and decreased appetite since last week. I also noticed one brown horizontal line running from his gill through his scales and some instances of uncontrolled swimming and staying still at 45 degrees (like this \ with the head on the ground).

This morning when I woke up he was staying at the bottom corner of the tank near the plants with bleeding spots near his gills. The bleeding seems to come from the inside. I attached some pictures here



















please help me :sad: thank you very much


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## Fishyfins

How old i the tank? what is the filter like? how do you clean the filter (if you do)? and do you have any recent test readings for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?

The one thing i shall say right now is that 5 gallons is far far too small for goldfish. A single fancy goldfish such as yours need an absolute minimum of around 22 gallons, with your two needing about 32 gallons minimum! From the looks of it, your fish are suffering from ulcers, which are usually caused by poor water quality. The fact you have 2 goldfish in such a small tank is likely to be the ultimate cause of the problems.

though from the photos, the "brown line" you see is actually the lateral line system, which is how the fish sense things in the water and is perfectly normal. The bleeding ulcer however, isnt.


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## Phoenix24

It is most likely the goldfish is suffering from ammonia/nitrite poisoning and/or chlorine poisoning. 

Let me ask you some questions:

Do you know what cycling is, and did you do it before you bought your fish?
Do you use a tap water conditioner?
Do you have a filter?

And, most importantly:

Did you know that your tank is way too small for goldfish?

You see the most important thing about any aquarium is getting the water chemistry right for the fish, and the two major aspects of that are controlling and breaking down the fishes wastes using bacteria in a biological filter, and eliminating other substances in tap water that are toxic both for the fish and the essential bacteria.

Fish produce ammonia as their nitrogenous waste (equivelent to human urine) which is highly toxic. Bacteria break down this ammonia into nitrite (also toxic), and then other bacteria break it down into nitrate (only toxic at very high levels, good for plants to grow though!). This is the nitrogen cycle. The point of the filter is to provide a place for the bacteria to grow and circulate the water via them so they can break down the wastes.

Growing the bacteria takes time, and if you allow the cycling (the time where the bacteria are growing) to progress with fish in the tank then the fish are going to be exposed to toxic levels of ammonia and nitrite which, if it doesn't kill them then, will have long term consequences for the fishes' health.

Most fishkeepers now use 'fishless' cycling, whereby the bacteria are grown by using bottled ammonia, and once the ammonia and nitrite levels are zero (ie the bacteria are breaking them down in less than 24 hours) THEN the tank is ready for fish.

The other thing I mentioned is about tap water. Tap water is treated with chlorine and chloramine to kill off harmful bacteria, and therefore also kill off filter bacteria (not to mention being harmful to the fish). It is necessary to always treat tap water with a suitable conditioner (e.g. Prime, tap safe etc) BEFORE ever allowing it anywhere near the tank. And cleaning out the filter - or indeed anything from inside the tank - must always be done in either aquarium water, or pre-conditioned new water, and NEVER raw tap water.

So back to your problem. I suspect you may not have pre-treated your tap water, as a symptom of chlorine poisoning is gill damage (bleeding gills) amongst other things. If this is the case, you will have also killed off any good bacteria in the tank/filter, and if you don't have a filter then you are probably seeing the result of ammonia/nitrite poisoning (also called 'new tank syndrome'), which basically burn the fish as well as poison them. Symptoms include signs of distress, laboured breathing/rapid gill movements, blackened fins, bleached scales, hanging at the surface (gasping for air).

And to the tank size. Pet stores (especially pets at home!) are notorious for giving really terrible advice to new fish keepers, particularly if they really want a sale. Many will happily sell goldfish to someone who not only has one of those awful 'starter tanks' of 20L or less, but will conveniently forget to mention that they should cycle the tank first (often they will say leave the tank with the filter on for 3 days before adding fish - believe me this does diddly squat for growing bacteria). They also seem to gloss over the simple fact that a single goldfish needs a tank of around 200L in order to grow to full size (about 10 inches or more) and live its full lifespan (15 or more years). Extra goldfish need 50L per additional fish. A round-bodied fancy goldfish needs even more space. And that's not to mention the filter.

Goldfish are extremely 'messy' fish - ie they produce a lot of ammonia for their size. You need a filter rated twice that of the tank, so for a 200L tank you need a filter for a 400L tank. Without adequate filtration you can end up with an ammonia crisis which can kill them.

Keeping goldfish in a tank that is too small long term will cause stunting and a premature death. Basically the fishes' insides try to grow but their bodies can't because the tank is too small. This causes problems with the intestines bunching up/twisting/blocking up, which in turn causes problems with the swim bladder. What you see is fish sitting at the bottom of the tank, or stuck at the top unable to swim down, or fish swimming in circles or listing to one side. Fancy, round bodied goldfish are particularly susceptible to this problem.

I suspect your goldfish is also suffering from this from what you describe.

If you want your fish to live this is what you need to do:

Either re-home the fish to someone with a more suitable set-up (as your fish are fancies this means a very big aquarium with a very good filter) permanently (or temporarily)

OR.

Buy yourself a 100L plastic box (the kind from the likes of staples will do), some tap water conditioner (Seachem Prime is the best for reasons I will explain later), a suitable sized filter if you don't already have one, a water test kit (API master test kit is the best) and some aquilibrium salt. 

Treat the tap water with prime, put filter in and transfer any substrate or decor from the tank into the box. Add goldfish. This is an emergency set up only. You will need to test the water daily for ammonia and nitrite, but using the Prime plus a dose of salt (instructions on packet) will help reduce toxicity. You will have to do a 50% water change every day as well until the cycle has run its course. If you can possibly get hold of some mature filter media for the filter this will save you and the fish a lot of effort and the probable heartache of a fish-in cycle.

Long term you will need to buy yourself a 300L aquarium and 600L filter and perform a fishless cycle (either whilst the goldfish are temporarily re-homed or in the emergency set up) and once the water chemistry is all good then put the goldfish in and hope they haven't suffered too much long term damage.

I personally would opt for re-homing rather than a fish-in cycle. We on here will be happy to help you with anything you need to know about a fishless cycle.

A water test will be the first thing you do to confirm ammonia/nitrite poisoning. Adding Seachem Prime right now may save the fishes life whilst you sort the rest out (Prime detoxifies ammonia and nitrite as well as chlorine and chloramine and heavy metals). The aqualibrium salt is also a life saver.


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