Why is my goldfish tail bent (Nitrate poison)

Goldfish are the most adorable fish that most people love to keep. But what happened if your goldfish tail is bent?

The goldfish’s tail bent to one side due to nitrate poisoning. If the goldfish have been infected with any nitrate poisons, then the fishtail or tail part will start bending. Nitrate poison was very dangerous to the fish.

So, In this post, we will walk through different sections such as signs of nitrate poison, causes of nitrate poison, and the way to treat the infected fish.

Why does my fishtail look bent?

The goldfish tail may be bent due to nitrate poisoning. It was the main reason for all the fish bending. 

The nitrate poison is very harmful to the fish and if you spot any sign of nitrate poison in the fish, Change the water as soon as possible and separate the infected fish into another tank.

Proper caring is important for the infected fish, otherwise, the fish may die.  The nitrate poison comes from the dumped waste on the bottom.

So you need to reduce the feeding quantity of fish to avoid nitrate poisoning and ammonia spread in the tank.

What is nitrate poisoning?

Nitrate poisoning occurs when the nitrate level in the aquarium starts raising over a period of time. It happened when regular maintenance is not performed in the aquarium.  If the nitrate level is more than 20 ppm in the water, the fish start showing intoxication.

The sudden changes in the nitrate level will affect the health of fish and nitrate was increased due to overstocking and overfeeding. 

Some of the fish species are very sensitive to water parameters. So sudden changes in the nitrate level will make the fish stressed or unhealthy. The fishes are otocinclus, stingrays and angel fish, etc.

So you need to clean the water once every week and reduce the feeding if there is so much waste in the tank.

What are the signs of Nitrate poisoning in fish?

These are the main signs of nitrate poisoning in fish. If you see a sudden change in the fish behavior and show these signs, you can get confirmation that the aquarium water has nitrate poisoning.

• Loss of appetite
• Rapid gill Movement 
• Acting dazed
• Curling head to tail
• Laying on the bottom of the tank

What are the causes of Nitrate Poisoning in fish?

Here are the main causes of nitrate poisoning the fish. If the nitrate level increases the fish start showing some erratic movements and signs. 

So let’s know more about the causes of nitrate poisoning in the tank. 

Overfeeding

The main cause of nitrate poisoning is due to goldfish overfeeding. When you feed the fish and balance food become decays and produces more nitrate and ammonia in the tank. So you need to reduce the quantity of feeding.

If the feeding becomes stable, you can analyze the decrease in the nitrate level in the tank. So it’s very important to reduce the feeding quantity and provide them with healthy feeds only.

Overstocking

Overstocking is another cause of nitrate poisoning. When you add more fish to the tank, the waste from digestion will increase the ammonia and nitrate in the tank.

So more fish= more waste= more nitrate.

So these are the main causes of nitrate in the fish tank. So you need to carefully feed the fish and separate the fish into another tank for reducing nitrate poisoning.

How to reduce and prevent nitrate poisoning from the tank.

These are the 7 ways to reduce and prevent the fish from nitrate poisoning. You need to do these things to eliminate nitrate poisoning.

Provide good-quality water

Make sure that your fish tank water quality is good. The main problem of the fast spreading of nitrate and ammonia is due to low-quality or dirty water in the tank.

Sudden changes in the water parameters will affect the health of every fish. Big fish may sustain in low-quality water, but if the fish is too small, they will start struggling to breathe.

So it’s very important to make the water conditioned and provide them with good filters to clean the tank. 

Good water quality in the tank will increase the health and respiration of the fish. Not only that, but to prevent the fish from nitrate poisoning, you need to use quality water.

Feed Less

Another meaningful way for reducing nitrate poisoning is through reducing feeding. If you see the feed waste in the water surface or bottom of the tank, then you are overfeeding the fish.

Overfeeding will make the water dirty and reduce the oxygen level in the tank. So the waste feeds will start to dissolve in the water and produce nitrate and ammonia spreading in the tank.

Reduce stress

Nitrate poisoning will make the fish stressed because when the water becomes dirty the fish struggles to breathe at the bottom.

So their health becomes weaker and nitrate will reach them faster. So you need to keep the fish happy every time and check the water parameters are correct.

To reduce stress, you can use an aquarium air pump, aquarium filtration, clean the water, and provide caves or live plants for hiding.

Add live plants

You can add live plants to the tank as a preventive measure. Live plants will utilize the nitrate and remove them from the water. So you can add live plants for suppressing the nitrate level in the tank.

The live plants will also provide oxygenation into the tank and stable the nitrate level. So it’s important to add live plants in the tank.

Keep the tank clean

To reduce the nitrate and prevent the fish from nitrate poisoning, you need to keep the tank clean. If the goldfish tank cloudy the fish may have health issues and stress due to sudden changes in the water parameters

Cleaning the water will remove the nitrate spreading in the water and refill the freshwater in the tank. Cleaning the water is pretty simple, you need to drain 80% of the water from the tank and refill the tank with fresh water.

Also, you need to clean the tank once every month to splitting out the waste and algae from the tank.

Proper filter maintenance

Proper filter maintenance is important for fish tanks. If you don’t clean the fish tank filter once every two weeks, The filter will start stocking the waste and release only a small amount of filtered water to the tank.

So filtration becomes very hard to function by removing the waste from the tank.

Use nitrate-removing filters

When you analyze the nitrate level increasing in the tank, you can use nitrate removing the filter for filtering the water.

So it will prevent the fish from nitrate spreading in the water.

What is the fast way to remove nitrates from fish tanks?

The fastest way for reducing the nitrate from fish is by cleaning the water. You need to drain 80% of the water from the tank and refill it with fresh water.

If your fish was affected, separate the fish into another tank and treat them well.