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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!daemon!kathyv
From: kathyv@daemon.UUCP (Kathy Vineyard)
Newsgroups: net.pets
Subject: Re: Constipated Bubble Eye Goldfish
Message-ID: <731@daemon.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 2-May-85 20:12:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: daemon.731
Posted: Thu May  2 20:12:54 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 4-May-85 01:36:37 EDT
References: <303@philabs.UUCP>
Reply-To: kathyv@daemon.UUCP (Kathy Vineyard)
Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR
Lines: 33
Summary: 

In article <303@philabs.UUCP> vmy@philabs.UUCP (Vivian Ching) writes:
>The bubble-eyes have been exhibiting the following symptoms since last week:
>
>- gulping for air
>- swim awkwardly after eating (sideways and upside down)
>- excretions are transparent and black, sometimes with air bubbles
>- spend a lot of time floating at the top side by side
>
>The ph is around 7, we keep the temp. at 68 and I clean out the bottom
>of the tank once a week.
>
>What's wrong?
>Do bubble-eyes have to eat live food only?  

I have a 35 gallon fresh-water tank, with various angels, etc.  I don't
seem to be having the same or similar problems as you, but I've had alot
of sick fish and several die.  After many trips to the local fish store,
and hundreds of questions, I finally got some advice which seemed 
backwards to me at first, but makes sense when you think about it.
I was cleaning the bottom of the tank once a week, thinking that the
cleaner the better.  This turned out to be a problem, I was cleaning it
TOO much!  Apparently, the ammonia level in the water is disturbed when
vacuuming the rocks.  Cleaning it once a week never let the ammonia
balance in the tank level off to a satisfactory level, and it was actually
making my fish sick instead of helping them.  I don't have an ammonia
tester for my tank, so I'm not real sure of how much the level was being
disturbed.  I do know that, once I stopped cleaning the tank, my fish
were healthier!  I'm now back to vacuuming once a month.  It gets real
dirty inbetween, but cleaning the filter, and changing about 1/4 of the
water (without disturbing the bacteria in the rocks) once a week seems to
help that.

Kathyv