I think my Goldfish is choking to death??

[dzap79]

Sometime this afternoon I noticed that my small goldfish was choking. It looks like he is gasping for air and his mouth keeps going in and out. He will not eat and is staying towards the back of the tank. I thought he might have a small pebble stuck in his mouth so I caught him with a net and tried to open his mouth with some small tweezers. Unfortunately I could not see anything and too make things worse, a lot of his scales rubbed off.

I am completely panicking here and have no idea what to do. Please help me. I love this little guy, he has such a personality.

[lindsayanng]

the gasping can mean a number of things, but generally it means that there is either no oxygen in the water (do you have a bubbler or high flow filter?) OR the water quality is poor..

I would run to the store and get a water test kit and a bubbler if you dont already have one.

Just know that fish do NOT breath water, they breath oxygen like you and i, they just can filter the oxygen out of the water unlike us. BUT in order ot get oxygen in your water you either need a bubbler where the bubbles give off oxygen into the water as they rise to the surface, or a high flow filter that actually breaks the water tension at the surface, this also causes the air in the room to be dissolved into the water.. but the bubbler is the best way to do it