Goldfish suddenly super lethargic.

Hi,
So, I woke up, fed my goldfish, gave him his ick and worm meds (he has both). He was acting normal. I left to eat for 10-15 minute. When I got back he was laying on the ground contantly opening and closing his mouth. I picked him up and he didn’t struggle. I put him back and he kept sitting there. I had to leave. I will get an update on him from my family in a few hours? Could he just have fallen asleep? Whats wrong? Is this because of the ick or worms?
-side note: test strips haven’t arrived so I can’t test the water!

 

What meds are you using? Stress and lethargy can definitely be from the meds. Seeing as the fish was pretty unresponsive and you don’t know the levels of ammonia, nitrite or nitrate I think it’s best to do a big 50%-75% water change ASAP.

 

What meds are you using? Stress and lethargy can definitely be from the meds. Seeing as the fish was pretty unresponsive and you don’t know the levels of ammonia, nitrite or nitrate I think it’s best to do a big 50%-75% water change ASAP.

Meds are PraziPro and MicroLift ick Cure. I did a 50% yesterday, before starting treatment, and I’m worried doing a wc might disrupt the meds.
After some research, I believe this is just a reaction to the meds.

 

It will disrupt the med treatment but it should make the fish feel better. It’s not a good idea to mix treatments for two different things. Prazipro is a very gentle treatment but ick is not, it’s hard on the fish when we throw multiple meds at them. I’d treat just the ick first and when that’s done, wait a week so the fish can recover and then treat for worms.

As for water changes, if you have ammonia and/or nitrite present you should do a water change no matter what. I suppose you can try getting by with Prime to neutralize things but that is only a temporary fix. You must get the tank cycled, and there’s no way of knowing if/when it is cycled until you can test the water. Better safe than sorry, when in doubt do a water change.

 

It will disrupt the med treatment but it should make the fish feel better. It’s not a good idea to mix treatments for two different things. Prazipro is a very gentle treatment but ick is not, it’s hard on the fish when we throw multiple meds at them. I’d treat just the ick first and when that’s done, wait a week so the fish can recover and then treat for worms.

As for water changes, if you have ammonia and/or nitrite present you should do a water change no matter what. I suppose you can try getting by with Prime to neutralize things but that is only a temporary fix. You must get the tank cycled, and there’s no way of knowing if/when it is cycled until you can test the water. Better safe than sorry, when in doubt do a water change.

Thank you! The good news is, worms and ick are gone. I am doing a 75% water change as soon as I get home to remove most meds from the water! The tank is a 9g QT tank and doesn’t have a filter so I was doing 50% daily.

 

Demeter
I cannot thank you enough! I did a 90% wc and he was back to his old self in 5m!