Recently I was feeding my Oranda goldfish and I didn’t realize the lid was on loose and nearly half my container of fish food fell into the tank. I tried taking the net and scooping all the food out that I could see hoping that would be good enough. It wasn’t. It left the tank very cloudy and a couple days later, my oranda just hovering at the bottom not moving very much. The only time it would move was if I tapped on the glass and it would slowly move to the top knowing I was going to feed her. I figured that the only other option was to clean the tank completely. So now that I’ve cleaned the tank and replaced the filter & treated & tested the water as usual, the water looks really good but my fish still won’t move. I have had this fish for a long time and this has never happened before. Not sure what else to do for it now…
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What size tank?
All the food in the tank becomes ammonia which causes poisoning and tissue burns on fish. They become lethargic, you may see red streaks in the lighter areas of the body and fins, or black markings that were not there before.
It would have been a good idea to do a 50% partial water change immediately after spilling the food…waiting until the fish felt the affects, and then shocking him further with a complete water change…
Beneficial bacteria was in that filter media, the gravel, and somewhat in the water, and now it’s gone since the complete water change. The bacteria is responsible for breaking down ammonia. (The bacteria was not accustomed to breaking down ammonia on a large scale, so it spiked after the spill) Now the tank is going through “new tank syndrome,” which basically means that your fish is experiencing even more ammonia poisoning, and that the tank may become cloudy in the next couple of days.
The best thing to do would be to invest in a test kit and track the ammonia and nitrite spikes, and perform partial water changes as necessary. If a test kit is not an option (remember pet stores often test for free) then daily partial water changes would be a good idea. I would perform 25-50% partials daily.