Goldfish getting stuck to filter

Tank
What is the water volume of the tank? 50 gallons
How long has the tank been running? Six years
Does it have a filter? Yes, two
Does it have a heater? Yes
What is the water temperature? 76-77 F
What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.) Two goldfish, two bristlenose plecos, and two nerite snails

Maintenance
How often do you change the water? Weekly
How much of the water do you change? 70+ percent.
What do you use to treat your water? Seachem Prime.
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? I vacuum the substrate.

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? IDK.
What do you use to test the water? API Freshwater master test kit
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 5-10 ppm
pH: 7.6

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? Every few days. (
How much do you feed your fish? I try for a few pellets a fish, but the smaller goldfish usually gets more than his share.
What brand of food do you feed your fish? Omega One
Do you feed frozen or freeze-dried foods? Not much, but when I do it’s freeze-dried.

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? Nearly six years
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? Maybe a week; getting stuck to the filter is new.
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? I noticed that this fish (Grumpy, for easy reference) has been growing somewhat listless recently. He’s been losing his balance and swimming around less.
Have you started any treatment for the illness? I’ve added an air stone and covered the filter intake tubes with mesh. He doesn’t seem to be getting stuck now.
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? No
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? He looks pretty much the same. He’s less active than he was before, and he’s been losing his balance.

Explain your emergency situation in detail. (Please give a clear explanation of what is going on, include details from the beginning of the illness leading up to now)
Grumpy has been less active in the last week or so, and I’ve seen him flip over several times. Today he’s started getting stuck to filter intake tubes by his tail fin. I put an air stone in the tank and covered the intake tubes. He hasn’t gotten stuck since I did that (a little under an hour ago), but he’s still mostly drifting.

 

Look up swim bladder issues and see if the symptoms match. He may be developing a problem.

 

Thank you for the quick response!
I just looked it up. He’s not floating abnormally or at an angle. When he stops swimming he stays more or less at the same level. The flipping over usually just happens when he gets caught in a filter current. Still, that’s not something that’s happened to him before. He’s never gotten stuck to the filter before either.

 

Thank you for the quick response!
I just looked it up. He’s not floating abnormally or at an angle. When he stops swimming he stays more or less at the same level. The flipping over usually just happens when he gets caught in a filter current. Still, that’s not something that’s happened to him before. He’s never gotten stuck to the filter before either.

How old is he? Is it possible he's just getting weaker with age? You could also look into adding a baffle to the filter to spread out the flow until you figure out what the issue is.

 

How old is he? Is it possible he's just getting weaker with age? You could also look into adding a baffle to the filter to spread out the flow until you figure out what the issue is.

Sorry about the late response! He’s about six years old.
He’s doing worse today. I just found him stuck to the filter again, upside down this time. He got off and swam around a little when I unplugged the filter, but now he’s laying on the ground.

What’s a baffle? I’ve never heard of one of those.

 

Oh no

I believe you need sponge filters as it sounds like he's getting attached to the intake not caught in the current. I believe a baffle is for high current issues, I have them on 2 of my tanks (just a water bottle cut up to act as a buffer for water flow) .
On a side note, he's obviously sick bit I'm not sure why. He shouldn't be laying on the ground like that, IMO.

 

Oh no

I believe you need sponge filters as it sounds like he's getting attached to the intake not caught in the current. I believe a baffle is for high current issues, I have them on 2 of my tanks (just a water bottle cut up to act as a buffer for water flow) .
On a side note, he's obviously sick bit I'm not sure why. He shouldn't be laying on the ground like that, IMO.

He was getting caught in the current a bit initially (getting pulled over near the output) but yeah, getting stuck to the intake is more prevalent now.
Both goldfish fairly frequently “mope” when I do water changes, but I’ve never seen him on his side like that.
He has less of an appetite as well. He would only take one or two bites of brine shrimp, even though all of my fish adore that. He wouldn’t touch his pellets.
Should I put him in one of my quarantine tanks so the other goldfish doesn’t catch whatever he has?

 

He was getting caught in the current a bit initially (getting pulled over near the output) but yeah, getting stuck to the intake is more prevalent now.
Both goldfish fairly frequently “mope” when I do water changes, but I’ve never seen him on his side like that.
He has less of an appetite as well. He would only take one or two bites of brine shrimp, even though all of my fish adore that. He wouldn’t touch his pellets.
Should I put him in one of my quarantine tanks so the other goldfish doesn’t catch whatever he has?

I don't think he's sick in that way, I think he's just not responding well to the water change. I'm wondering if adding a bit of aquarium salt might help with the adjustments to changes. Is your pH normally 7.6? It's not high but I wonder if he prefers lower ph. Otherwise your parameters look fine. His scales are fine?
Also, did you condition your water? Sorry not sure if someone asked that.

 

I don't think he's sick in that way, I think he's just not responding well to the water change. I'm wondering if adding a bit of aquarium salt might help with the adjustments to changes. Is your pH normally 7.6? It's not high but I wonder if he prefers lower ph. Otherwise your parameters look fine. His scales are fine?
Also, did you condition your water? Sorry not sure if someone asked that.

All my tanks are always at 7.6 . I use Seachem Prime.
I just noticed his scales are sticking out a little. I think they were when I found him stuck today as well.

 

Update:
He’s getting stuck to the filter more frequently and laying on the ground/drifting around more. He also has a small wound on his side now.




I can’t get a really good picture of it, but here’s a few attempts.
I’ll pick up aquarium salt while I’m out today.
TL;DR He’s getting worse, and I don’t know what to do for him.

I don't think he's sick in that way, I think he's just not responding well to the water change. I'm wondering if adding a bit of aquarium salt might help with the adjustment to changes.

To clarify, he was acting this way before I did my water change yesterday; things have just gotten worse over the last couple days.

 

Another update:
He got worse while I working (and picking up the aquarium salt). According to my family, he got stuck to the filter again and one of the bristlenoses started sucking on him. I moved him to quarantine for his safety.
He’s been on his side (drifting or laying on the ground) since I got home. If he wasn’t breathing he’d look dead.


I’m really worried about him. The last time I had a fish that looked this bad, she died.

 

Most likely swim bladder
If you think he might pass away then you could kill him humanely

 

Most likely swim bladder
If you think he might pass away then you could kill him humanely

What do you think happened to cause it? I know the usual causes are over-feeding and bad water quality, and I don’t have either of those problems.

 

Hmm I can't think of anything
You should repost this so people will pay attention

 

Tank
What is the water volume of the tank? 50 gallons
How long has the tank been running? Six years
Does it have a filter? Yes, two
Does it have a heater? Yes
What is the water temperature? 76-77 F
What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.) Two goldfish, two bristlenose plecos, and two nerite snails

Maintenance
How often do you change the water? Weekly
How much of the water do you change? 70+ percent.
What do you use to treat your water? Seachem Prime.
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? I vacuum the substrate.

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? IDK.
What do you use to test the water? API Freshwater master test kit
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 5-10 ppm
pH: 7.6

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? Every few days. (
How much do you feed your fish? I try for a few pellets a fish, but the smaller goldfish usually gets more than that.
What brand of food do you feed your fish? Omega One
Do you feed frozen or freeze-dried foods? Not much, but when I do it’s freeze-dried.

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? Nearly six years
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? A little over a week; getting stuck to the filter has only been happening for the last few days.
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? I noticed that this fish (Grumpy, for easy reference) has been growing somewhat listless recently. He’s been losing his balance and swimming around less. Then he started getting stuck to the filter intakes. Yesterday he started laying on the ground a lot (on his side or stomach). Today he’s developed a small wound on his side.
Have you started any treatment for the illness? I added an air stone and covered the filter intake tubes with mesh. That helped at first, but within a day or two he was getting stuck again. Today I moved him to a QT tank and (from a suggestion on my previous thread) added some aquarium salt.
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? No
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? He’s less active than he was before, and he’s been losing his balance. Today he’s been floating/laying on his side. His scales are sticking out a bit in some places, and he has a wound on his side. His head-growth seems to have grown noticeably, if that’s relevant.

Explain your emergency situation in detail. (Please give a clear explanation of what is going on, include details from the beginning of the illness leading up to now)
Grumpy has been less active in the last week or so, and I’ve seen him flip over several times. A few days ago he started getting stuck to filter intake tubes by his tail fin. I put an air stone in the tank and covered the intake tubes. That helped a little, but he kept drifting. A day or two later he started getting stuck again (not just by the fins). Today he’s been getting stuck more, and a small wound has appeared on his side. Since I got home from work today he’s just been floating/laying on his side.
I don’t have a whole lot of hope for him at this point, but any suggestions about the cause of the problem and/or potential treatments would be greatly appreciated.