Hypoxia and Medicine

Please help me! My goldfish is acting really weird!?

My goldfish keeps almost gasping for air and darting around the bowl. I changed the bowls water twice within the last hour and I even tried an impromptu salt bath. I tried feeding the fish and adding slightly cooler water. At first I thought it was Anoxia but I tried EVERYTHING and he still isnt getting better. Please help me I dont want to loose my goldfish. He has calmed down a bit. I have no plants or anything besides base rock because its just a small single fish bowl. I changed the water gradually. I have well water not tap so the lady at the store said I did not need any treatments for the water.

Public Comments

1. Goldfish are meant to have a short life. I'm sorry for your loss. Also, doesn't changing their water so often cause stress? I'd think so.
2. He's gonna DIE!
3. maybe its lonley...hmmm...
4. i heard somewhere tht frying gold fishes in olive oil is really good to eat.............its one of the tastiest food ever made by man..u can also just bake the fish nd eat itttttttttt
5. you should never do a complete water chanhe. it seems like hes gasping , it may be the fact theres too little oxygen in the water. do you have oxygenating plants in there? do you have an air pump to force air into the water? changing the water twice like that may of upset his condition even more. i hope you treated the water first.
6. you should treat your fish with API Stress Coat it will help your fish 100% you can buy this at any petstore!
7. Have you put any fish safe stuff in? Well if you havent and dont know what it is then i can help you by saying it is because fish can not live in just tap water and its like poison to them! If you have added the stuff in then you fish is dieing wait till its dead and flussh it down the toilet
8. CPR!!!
9. How old is he? There's so many things that could be going wrong here, but I fear there is a problem with the water. I know you may not have all these tests on hand, but if you do.. 1) Test the pH of the water! 2) Is it tap water? 3) Do you have any pond water to test with to see if the fish accepts that? If you have water that is very soft below pH of 5, I'd be concerned for your goldfish, it would shorten his lifespan dramatically. If possible and you don't have a pH meter on hand, call your water company and ask them if they can provide stats over the phone, such as the latest pH report. If he is swimming upside down and gasping for air, I'm afraid he may be coming to an end of his life, or there is a problem of lack of oxygen being accessible in the water. Oh and someone who said goldfish don't live very long, that's wrong, most goldfish live for decades, and longer if looked after properly.
10. Get a 20 gallon tank with a filter because keeping goldfish in bowls is very cruel
11. frist off stop leave the water alone the more u mess the more u fish stress stop giving salt baths thats only for parasitic conditions how much are u feeding him. do you have airpumps only change his water 3 times a week try to keep the water at consecutive temperature only feed once a day just 3 flakes per inch.Good luck hope u get this in time. go a local fish store and ask them for a eloadea plant with meance snails they like that stuff
12. Like others have said, there are so many possibilities, but here's where I would start if I were you. First of all, yes, your goldfish needs a MUCH bigger environment, so work up to that, but right now that obviously doesn't help. If you hadn't done the water changes I would have suggested ammonia or nitrite poisoning, but since you have, I guess I'll just ask if you use a water conditioner? I didn't use to know about it when I first started, so I thought I'd ask. If you don't use one, I'm almost positive that that's what the problem is - chlorine or chloramines in your water. If you do use one, maybe your fish is just still having affects from ammonia or nitrite poisoning from such a small bowl. Sorry, other than the water conditioner, that's all I can think of. If it's too late to go to a pet store, rush to Walmart and get Tetra Aqua Safe conditioner or Stress Coat if they sell it. Good luck!
13. Gold fish are not meant for small bowls!!! gold fish produce much more mess and need much more oxygen then many other tank mates! it is unwise and cruel to keep them in bowls with such low content of water, the bigger the aquarium, the better it is, because water chemistry is much more stable there. with enough air, filtration and weekly water changes it works fine. but in bowls, the amount of ammonia produced by goldfish leads to nitrates at toxic levels, further the air content of bowl's water is too low!! my suggestion - at once go for a bigger aquarium with size decent enough to suit your goldfish!!!
14. well maybe if hes gasping for air hes not getting enough oxygen. if hes in a bowl get a tank because he will die in a bowl. i once had a goldfish in a bowl once and it died within 3 days. Please get a tank for him so that you can get him a Friend or something. If he has a Friend they can sometimes bring out the personalities in each other. And about the well water the lady at the store is right you don't need any treatments for that. I also have well water and the only thing you have to make sure of is that its the same temperature. hope this helps. Good luck with your fish!!!