Dear Sir/Madamme,

I am writing this email as I would like to find out what is wrong with my goldfish.

I have a RYUKIN in a 90 LITRE tank, living with just MINNOWS. It has full wet/dry filter and plenty of hiding places and plants.

He has no visible signs of illness at all, and is very bright and collourful in fact, however he is seeming to become more larthargic, everynow and then hanging round the sides of the tank half in the middle of the water level. Then he will start swimming about quite fine and looks happy with his dorsal fin fully erect (though sometimes this will be close to his body on occasions) before going back to resting about 5 minutes later.

He is feeding fine and passing OK, however I think he may be a little constipated at times as his feseas takes a while to pass 5-10mins. Though I'm just feeding him bloodworms every other day to combat this hopefully which seems to be helping.

I would appreciate your advice as I want this fish to be well and to be in the best interests of the fish.

Kind Regards

Sometimes goldfish can develop different types of infections that causes this wasting away behavior.
There are medications to treat the symptoms that you could try such as
Mardel Tetracycline.
Sometimes unfortunately no amount of medication treatments are successful, so don't be hard on yourself if this is the case.
I believe little is known about all the illness aquarium fish get.

For any constipation issues you can feed a few thawed frozen peas a few times a week. Thaw the peas in a cup of hot water, peal the outer skin off the pea, break into small pieces or slightly mash the pea and drop it in the water for your fish to eat. It's a treat with fiber benefits and will push out any gas and/or blockages your fish might have.

Thank you for your kind advice AKerTrue, I have tried a general medication by tetra fin that they tell you to use if your fish is showing no visible signs of illness but if they are being to change their behaviour. This medication is said to cover a wide range of illness's. As I thought it could be flukes I thought this would be a good medication to take, however it seems that this is also not the case as his is not picking up.

The only upside is that he continues to come out to feed, so hopefully maybe the minnows are bullying him! I have seen one nip at his tail a little, and he is medically fine as he is a beautiful fish.

I will also try the pea trick, I will do some for him tonight and see what he is like in the morning.

Thank you again for your advice. It seems that you could be correct in terms of nobody knows all about aquarium illness's. As I have virtually tried everything!

You're very welcome.
I doubt the minnows are causing this.
The medication treatment you used is in the same category as the one I mentioned. I was afraid your fish wouldn't perk up.
I have a goldfish that started acting this way 2 years ago.
He always perks up to eat and then will go back to resting.
None of the other fish are affected by what ever this fish has, and I have tried every medication out there but nothing works.
He lives on though, 2 years from when this first started, maybe yours will also.

I am sorry, I do wish I knew what it was.
Good luck

Lived on for 2 years? Credit to you. Everyday seems like a struggle doesn't it? I read on some website whilst trying to research the problem with my Goldfish is that some Goldfish are lazy and just sleep a lot, so maybe this could be all that's wrong.

But to give an update he has perked up in past few days, he seems to be not hiding much recently and now he is again bossing the minnows about now he is a lot stronger. At one point I had thought he died as he literally give up and had to take him out the tank and into a litre measuring beaker overnight for fear of being eaten alive by the minnows. In the morning he had perk up a lot and has been like that since he returned to the tank. Hopefully he remains like this.

So what size tank do you have, and how many goldfish do you have?

I currently have a 90 litre tank and yesterday have bought a black moor and a ventail to keep my ryukin company! Im quite new to fish keeping and have only been keeping goldfish for around a year

I bet the laziness and the sleepiness is a symptom to an illness only because my lazy goldfish fish is approximately 7 years old and it wasn't always like that.
And I can't blame it on age because the other ones I have are just as old and one is older... and they don't act like that...

Mine never perked up after a medication treatment. So that's great news!!
Maybe he did have something curable after all. Good job!
I really like the new ones you got and the moors are really cute.

I have a 30 gallon goldfish tank (113 liters I think) 1 shubunkin and 3 veiltail.

Good luck with your new fish and hope the other continues to feel better.