This blog isn’t about fish but I need to share this story for anyone with a clamped goldfish.
Clamping is when a fish stays at the bottom of the tank and doesn’t move much. The fish may also be ‘breathing’ more quickly than usual.
About three weeks ago, Zoomer, the fish on the left, clamped.
Zoomer has clamped before when I waited too long to clean the tank. Shimmer, the fish on the right, has never clamped.
Failed Cures for Clamped Goldfish
The first thing I did was clean the water and filter. The water was dirty and overdue for a change.
One word of caution is to not change the water in the tank all at once. Change it a little at a time. If you change the water quickly it stresses fish out. I’ll let blogs on fish care handle the details of that.
Over the course of 4 to 5 days, I removed a little water, and debris, from the tank until it was clear. The water turned a milky color a few days after changing. I knew something wasn’t right.
After cleaning I tried a product by API called PIMAFIX for fungal infections.
After 3 days I stopped using the PIMAFIX. I didn’t want to make the poor fish’s life any harder. I wasn’t sure the fish even had a fungal infection. I was grasping at straws.
It was a case of me overdoing the quick remedies and possibly hurting rather than helping the poor fish.
Next, I visited YouTube and watched a video about feeding fish the inside of a pea to cure constipation which can cause problems with their swim bladders. I stopped feeding the fish for three days and then gave them the inside of peas for about three days.
The fish weren’t impressed with the peas though they did eat them. Unfortunately, Zoomer was still clamped.
I thought it was the end for poor Zoomer.
Cure for Clamped Goldfish
This morning, after over three weeks of lingering on the bottom of the tank, Zoomer has buoyancy again. I’m so happy!
I can’t say if the peas helped or not but there was a large piece of fish waste floating on top of the water this morning.
In my research I read that if a fish is clamped for over two weeks it probably won’t heal. Don’t give up too quickly!
What was the cure?
Clean water and time, over three weeks time.
If your goldfish is clamped be sure the water is clean and give the fish time to heal. Sometimes that’s all it takes.
Comments
4 responses to “Clamped Goldfish Cure | Zoomer is Swimming Again!”
Wow, I am so relieved that Zoomer is ok. I have several fish stories, one about a bloated fish that had to swim upside down, I tried massage and I can’t remember what else; I never flush my fish they got a proper burial. Then I had a beautiful gold fan tail that lived so long he turned white, out grew his 5 gallon tank, then something went wrong with the bubbler, and well I wasn’t sure mouth to mouth would help because of the gills and everything. He was about 7 inches long so I put him in the freezer with the intentions of having him mounted, but never did follow through on that thought. Then my turtle, Borg, but that’s a story for another day.
I do enjoy your blogs.
The fish that swam upside down may have been a swim bladder thing as well. Clean water, time and peas may have done the trick. I’m no expert on fish but researching Zoomers issue has made me more knowledgeable. We kept the goldfish in a 1 g fish bowl when we first got them. They’re now in a 29 g tank and ready for a 50 or 60 g tank. I’ve heard stories of goldfish living 8 years….
Just watched the video, my poor little bloated fish was clamped. This happened long before there was You Tube, or even computers. Now I would have gone to my best friend, Google. Never to late to learn, just too late for my fish.
I try to take good care of Shimmer and Zoomer to make up for all the Shimmer and Zoomers who didn’t make it. The internet is an amazing thing for sure!