# sleepy goldfish??



## Stellafish (Sep 23, 2009)

Hi all, I am new and have a question about my goldfish. I have one calico ryukin and one red ryukin. They are both very small - about one inch maybe - and are in a 5 gallon aquarium. (I know this is too small for the future and hopefully I can get a bigger one in the next year!) I've had these fish for about two weeks now. I was told to let the aquarium run for about a week before getting them - now learning this might have been inadequate, but they are already in. In any case, for the first week they seemed happy and energetic. But now, they have started sleeping constantly. One of them wedges itself near the top of the tank behind the filter; the other sleeps under the bridge decoration at the bottom of the tank. I know goldfish sleep normally, but they sleep most of the day, even when the tank lights are on. This isn't normal, right? Whenever I go over to them they "wake up" and swim around, and they still go crazy over food.

I have checked the water but I'm a little confused by the results. pH, hardness, alkalinity, and ammonia are all at normal levels according to the tests. But the nitrate/nitrite tests are weird... according to the test kit, the strip should be white/very light if the water is good, and dark pink if very bad. But my test strips keep turning out dark gray, which is not even on the kit color thing. I've tried 3 test strips, with the same results. Does this sound like a problem with the test strips, or could my nitrite/nitrate levels be so bad that they are beyond pink??

In any case, I am trying to figure out why my goldfish might be sleeping so much. Thanks for any advice!


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

one problem is that you are using strips.strips are junk.test kits using liquid reagents are better and more accurate...but best accuracy is achieved when you use deionized water to clean all of the equipment..(test tubes etc.)..and make sure that your fingers never touch the liquid you are testing...
as for the sleeping.......get them an alarm clock....start doing a 1 gallon water change every other day..see if that helps.


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

An alarm clock? Or was that supposed to be a joke?

As loha pointed out, test strips are bad and ultimately more expensive. Buy a Master Test Kit by API from any pet store. It will be a bunch of bottles and test tubes. You test the water by putting a set amount of water in the tubes and a set number of drops of testing liquid and waiting like 5 min. It's a bit more work, but well worth the accurate results.


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

bmlbytes said:


> An alarm clock? Or was that supposed to be a joke?
> 
> As loha pointed out, test strips are bad and ultimately more expensive. Buy a Master Test Kit by API from any pet store. It will be a bunch of bottles and test tubes. You test the water by putting a set amount of water in the tubes and a set number of drops of testing liquid and waiting like 5 min. It's a bit more work, but well worth the accurate results.


I just buy an ammonia indicator and that's it. If a tank is cycled properly you know that ammonia will go from 0 ppm to somewhere between 5-20 and then it will drop back down to 0. When it drops back to 0 you know the tank is cycled and that the other water parameters are correct. It has worked for me for years and it saves some money too.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

you need to get a better sense of humor bml...yes ; it was a joke....

i don't even own a test kit...haven't for more than 25 years...


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## betta0fish (Feb 16, 2009)

i don't use a kit and i dont test the water... but my fish are all fine so is there a problem with that??


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