Unfortunate Death Of My New Goldfish

About a week and a half ago I purchased a calico Oranda and some amano shrimp for my aquarium from LiveAquaria. Before they arrived I did a deep clean of my aquarium by vacuuming the gravel, cleaning the filter, water changes a few days prior to their arrival. When they arrived the calico was half the size of my oranda. But he and my bigger goldfish got along well and I made sure that both got fed properly. The water parameters were clean and good because I did 2 water 40% changes a week because I know how messy goldfish can get. Yesterday I noticed my new goldie was at the top of the water "gasping" for air as it looked. My filter creates a very strong current at the top of the water, the temps are 73-76 F, I have no lid covering the tank, and more importantly my other oranda was completely fine and swimming around happy. I followed the proper acclimation procedures with the shrimp and the goldfish to minimize the stress as much as possible when I got them. I use SeaChem Prime with my water changes even though my well water is very clean and free of chemicals. The only culprit I can see might be the Flourish Excel I was using. I used some to treat my anubias in a bucket to kill off the alage and I put the recommended dose in the tank afterwards every few days. The shrimp I got went straight for my large cave decoration and have been in there ever since. I thought they might be hiding but now I think they too might be gone. Does anyone know what happened? Could it be what I was putting in the tank?

 

It could be that the tank wasn't properly cycled. Did you test your water before putting the fish in there?

 

It could be that the tank wasn't properly cycled. Did you test your water before putting the fish in there?

This tank has been established for years.

 

This tank has been established for years.

Did you test the water before putting fish in there? And did you retest when the fish started showing signs of illness?

 

How big tank and what type of filter?

 

Did you test the water before putting fish in there? And did you retest when the fish started showing signs of illness?

The day the fish was coming I didn't test the water but I did a 40% water change. The fish seemed normal for most of the time. He started not eating food and was a bit sluggish which I noticed. The next day he was at the top of the water "gasping" for air so I did a 20% water change to see if that worked. The next day I tested the water and amonia, nitrites, and nitrates were close to 0. But the next morning he died.

How big tank and what type of filter?

I have an AquaClear 110 with an ATI Filter Max 3 prefilter, the biomedia is 2 pounds of well established BioHome Plus and a pound of the inbox biomedia for the filter.

 

were they sent next day shipping?

could have been shipping stress, or maybe internal infection or parasite.

i've had a few fish that died 2 -3 weeks after purchase. water was 0,0, <20, all the fish were fine.

since your old oranda is fine, its probably just the new fish/shrimp were stress or had internal problems.

 

It's always important to keep track of what your water parameters are, especially with high polluters like goldfish and especially when adding new fish to a tank. "Close to zero" is not good enough when referring to ammonia or nitrites. If you are seeing ammonia or nitrites at all in your tank you might want to hold off getting any more fish until your tanks biological cycle rebalances or is corrected.

 

Gasping at the top is also an early sign of ich or severe gill flukes affecting the ability of the fish to obtain oxygen. I would never ever ever ever ever add new goldfish to my tank without quarantining. They're grown in ways that just scream parasites and they're usually harboring all sorts of stuff when they arrive. Also if the fish was in the bag for a long time it may have suffered ammonia poisoning prior to being acclimated that made it succumb. Also, you probably had your shrimp disappear into your other goldfish's gut, since goldfish love shrimp snacks. Well, all snacks really.

 

Thanks for helping. I'll monitor my current Oranda to see if any diseases show up.