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How To Treat Ulcer Disease On Goldfish

By Jamie Boyle

Ulcer disease on goldfish is something all goldfish and aquarium owners will come across some day and you will need to learn how to treat ulcers effectively. I just recently made two posts and talked about How Ulcers Begin On Goldfish and Ulcers On Goldfish – Red Sores Blotches which talks more about this subject. The best thing people can do as mentioned is to treat ulcers right away as it’s easier to correct the problem at the start and you will have much better luck in the treatment of ulcers.

What you need to learn now is how to treat ulcer disease on goldfish and there are several ways you can do so. Ulcer DiseaseOne of the ways in which I use is Potassium Permanganate which works very well but you need to be cautious using this as it is a severely strong medication and treatment method for ulcers and should only be used by experienced people in the hobby. I won’t talk much on this as I have just learned just recently that Potassium permanganate is now illegal in Canada. I will update you more on this news later to let you know why.

Another method of treatment for ulcers is by using Melafix. Melafix treats ulcers and open wounds on goldfish healing them quickly and restoring damaged tissue. I know for Pond Care Melafix you use one teaspoon for every 50 gallons of water for minor injuries, wounds and fin damage you can use this dosage. For more serious and advanced injuries in goldfish double the dosage to two teaspoons for every 50 gallons. Melafix works very well in the treatment of ulcers on goldfish and is a all natural medication. When treating your goldfish for ulcers just remember to remove the activated carbon from your filter and turn off your UV sterilizers if you have one. Now with the Pond Care Medication this is a stronger concentration of medication, there is one that you can buy at local pet stores which is a lower concentration meant for aquarium use. See your local pet store for more details and follow the recommended dosage on the box.

Another method of treating ulcers is by by feeding your goldfish Debride Medicated Food for bacterial infections in combination with Debride Medicated Ointment. When you do these both it has an excellent result in the treatment of ulcers. Simply feed the medicated food to your goldfish for a full 14 days while applying a small bit of ointment onto the affected area on your goldfish body and you will see great results when you combine both uses.

Another way I treat ulcers on goldfish is by using the Kutsuri Wound Kit. This kit is meant for the treatment of wounds such as ulcers. All you do is put your goldfish to sleep using an anesthetic, use the sterilization solution, clean the wound, apply red solution which is iodine to the area, apply a medicated powder directly on to the ulcer, and then apply your water sealer to keep the medicated powder from being washed off when you introduce your goldfish back to your aquarium or pond. I personally like this method as you know for sure that the infected area is being treated for sure. I know I had a koi with an ulcer bigger then a loonie before and deep and this cured it good and fast.

These are several ways you can treat ulcer disease on goldfish. Some are easier then others and I suggest going with the one your more comfortable with. If your uneasy on putting your goldfish or koi to sleep to treat the ulcers then I suggest going with the Melafix which is a medication you simply add to the water. Quick, easy and efficient. Choose the right form of goldfish ulcer disease treatment for you.

Sincerely,

Jamie Boyle
The Goldfish Guy

Other related posts-

How Ulcers Begin On Goldfish
Ulcers On Goldfish – Red Sores Blotches
Melafix Bacterial and Fungus Fish Medication Treatment For Ulcers

21 replies on “How To Treat Ulcer Disease On Goldfish”

Hi, Thanks for visiting my blog. I visited your blog as well, and is amazed at the quantity and quality of useful information for readers.

Keep up the excellent work!

Eugene
Aquarium Lore

Hi Eugene,

Your very welcome! You have a very nice aquarium and goldfish blog. I loved all the photos that you shared.

I’m glad that you liked my goldfish blog. My aim is to help everyone with their goldfish as it will come a day when their goldfish get sick and I would like to be the one to help them out. So far I have had some good traffic coming in with all kinds of great goldfish questions. I’ve helped out many people and glad that I could be of some help.

Thank your for your kind comments. The quality and quantity of your blog is very impressive as well.

Thanks for visiting my blog as well.

Sincerely,

Jamie Boyle
The Goldfish Guy
http://www.GoldfishCareInformation.com

Hi Jamie,
I was online looking around for how to cure my sick goldfish and stumbled upon your site. I could really use some help. We have 2 goldfish. One we have had for 6 years, the other my son won at a fair about 2 weeks ago. We did not quarantine the fish (big mistake) and it got our big fish sick. It has red blotches all over it. I thought it was sepiticemia so I gave him antibiotics and it is not helping… actually looks worse.
Today we changed 75% of their water using a gravel cleaner and then added 2 tablespoons of canning salt (uniodized). I also noticed today that the small fish has white hairs coming out of it’s sides. What do you think I should do?

Thanks for your help.
Lynn

Hi Lynn,

Sorry to hear about your sick goldfish.

Yeah the need to quarrantine new arrivals and introducing new goldfish to a pond or aquarium is an absolute necessity. If you don’t goldfish diseases may happen like this one you had occur.

For treatment of ulcer such as red blotches or small circular sores on the body can be treated with gldfish medication such as Melafix, Potassium Permanganate, Debride Medicated Ointment and Debride Medicated Food. These will fix that problem caused by excessive aeromonas and pseudomonas present in the water.

As far as the small white hairs hanging off the goldfish sounds like anchor worm to me. This is a parasite that is feeding on your goldfish tissue and will cause secondary bacterial infections to set in if left untreated.

For further information on anchor worm please visit:

What is anchorm worms?
How To Treat anchor worms on goldfish?

If you need anymore help please feel free to comment on my goldfish blog again.

Sincerely,

Jamie Boyle
The Goldfish Guy

Hi, my sister has 3 goldfish for a little while now and one of them has these red sore-like things on his underbelly, and they seem to have a whitish layer on them. His fins and some scales also have reddish spots. One of the other gold fish also has some red color on his tail and fins. Recently we went on vacation for a week and used some vacation food for them. A white shell shaped thing that dissolved and thus provided some food kernels. But we think that the dissolving of the food made that tank sort of murky. I dont know if that has any connection to the sores but I thought it might. We’re really hoping that you could give us some advice to heal the fish. I already looked at your page on how to treat ulcers and I’m curious if that is what we should do. Thanks a lot! By the way you have a really great site for helping people with problems with their pet goldfish!
Marina

Hi Marina,

Thank you for the wonderful comment and I’m glad that you find my goldfish blog useful in helping you and others with their pet goldfish problems and sickness.

Thanks I like hearing feedback from my readers.

Your sisters goldfish does seem to have a goldfish ulcer. The only thing that you mentioned is that it has a whitish layer on it. What happens when a goldfish begins to heal it will form a white layer or coating which is actually the healing process in goldfish. It is rejuvenating it’s skin or tissue. It’s almost like us when we get a cut when it begins to heal it forms a scab and the then the scab falls off sometimes leaving a scar. Well what it seems to be doing is healing and will eventually heal right over the red sore or ulcer.It sounds to me that this is what’s going on. In other cases it may be body fungus but you never described it as fuzzy or hanging off the body of the goldfish so I beleive it’s healing.

Also you mentioned red sores or marks on the goldfish tail and body. What this is, is poor water quality. With poor water quality goldfish get hemmoraging causing red streaks in its fins and tail. I suspect by using the vacation food has fouled up your water chemistry and caused your water to go bad. I bet if you checked your ammonia or nitrite it would be slightly up or even off the chart. Vacation food is good but as all aquarium owners know that if you leave uneaten food in the water it will cause your tank to go cloudy and foul up the water. I know it slowly releases food to your goldfish but I think getting others to feed your goldfish every 2 days is better. But if you have no choice then by all means use it.

What I would do to fix this and get your goldfish health back to normal is perform a water change. Sometimes just by doing this can have an impact of the healing process of fish. Then you can always add aquarium salt to the water to treat your fish. Salt has great healing properties much like salt water at a beach for us for cuts. Salt is used to treat ick as well.

Try using this technique and let me know how your goldfish is doing. Then if it doesn’t seem to be getting any better then try using Melafix for treatment of ulcers and tissue and fin damage as it repairs and restores tissue and is a all natural medication. This will work in the healing process of your sisters ulcer on her goldfish.

If you need anymore help with ulcers or other goldfish problems, diseases or parasites, please send me a quick note. I’m more then happy to help 🙂

Sincerely,

Jamie Boyle
The Goldfish Guy
Water Garden Pond Information

Hi, I am Balaji living in Abu Dhabi, recently i bought a pair of Goldfish, from the first day onwards i am seeing some white layers on their head i went to aquarium owner and asked about it and he says its becoz of fungus, i don’t want to see them dying(I am changing water regularly and tank is having only two fishes) help me, how to over come from this..

Hi Balaji,

Yes the two goldfish you have does have body fungus by the sounds of things. What you will need to do is treat your goldfish for body fungus. You can use fungus control medication such as Melafix, Melachite Green and there are many other types of medications on the market today. The one I suggest for you is to use Melafix, which is an all natural medication used to treat fungus found on goldfish. Melafix is an antibacterial remedy for the treatment of koi and goldfish diseases manufactured by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals. This is what I would use for the fungus disease symptoms your goldfish are having. Just check with any of your local pet stores for any body fungus medication used for the treatment of this goldfish disease.

If you should have any questions or concerns please feel free to leave another comment on my goldfish blog so I can help.

Sincerely,

Jamie Boyle
The Goldfish Guy
A.K.A Fish Doctor

Hi,

After changing the water at regular intervals white layer(Presented on their head) is disappearing slowly they are doing good now, and for one the fish i am seeing 5-6 white spots on the body, suggest me few ideas to overcome from this problem

Hi Balaji,

I’m happy that your goldfish is recovering from the white patchy layer on its head as mentioned.

As for the 5-6 white spots, it seems as if your goldfish has ich. Ick is very common in goldfish and is very easy to treat when caught early.

To learn more about ich and how to treat ick please visit Treatment For Ich Or White Spot Disease In Goldfish to learn more and how to begin treatment right away.

Ich appears on the body of goldfish as grains of salt and this parasite reproduces very quickly. You need to treat ick tight away to reduce stress on your goldfish.

Check out the above blog post on ich and how to treat it. If you need anymore help please place another comment and I’ll help you and your goldfish.

Sincerely,

Jamie Boyle
The Goldfish Guy
Need Information on Water Lilies, Pond Plants and Fish?
Water Garden Pond Informaion

Hi,
We have a goldfish that we have had for about two weeks at first it seemed to be doing fine. But then we noticed some white filmy stuf on his back. It has gone away but he has spent a lot of time on the bottom resting uprite on the gravel. He is also thin. There are two other things wich I dont know if matter or not but I thought I woud mention them anyway he used to have his fins up and beautifull but now he has them clamped down. Also the other fish in the tank is bigger and seems to be a bully,I havnt seen any fites yet but she has chased him around some and I think he might be scared. Thank you for your help.
Animal lover

Dear Animal Lover,

The white filmy stuff you noticed before on the back of your goldfish is known as body fungus.

Did you treat your goldfish for body fungus or did it go away on it’s own?

What could have happened resulting in the body fungus before is due to the fact that your goldfish was being chased, it could have injured itself causing fungus to happen. You mentioned your other goldfish are bigger. How much bigger are the goldfish? You see what happens is when goldfish get stressed out they have clamped fins. This may be the issue here.

The other thing I would mention is to check your water quality. Stress due to poor water quality can cause clamped fins and lazy fish.

Check that and see, other then that maybe seperate your goldfish from the bigger ones.

How big of a tank do you have and how many goldfish do you have in your aquarium?

Sincerely,

Jamie Boyle
The Goldfish Guy

I cleared my ick problem recently but one of my fish had some white fungus right above his lip. It went a way in a day or two but now his skin around his mouth has started to rot and disappear. I noticed you recommend I buy Melafix. This is the 3rd day of rotting. Do you think my fish will live or should I euthanize him. If he lives, do you think his skin will grow back? Thanks, Steven

Hi Steven,

Glad your rid your goldfish of ich. Ick can very very annoying but at least it’s treatable.

So how did you treat ick on your goldfish? What medication did you use?

As far as the mouth fungus is concerned, Melafix is excellent as it rapidly repairs damaged tissue. This will fix your goldfish problem that you are having. I’ve had many goldfish and koi who suffered from mouth rot and ulcers before and this will work. You mentioned 3 days of rotting, I can’t imagine that it is too bad already. I’ve had some very bad situations before and they healed. There is no reason you would have to consider to euthanize your goldfish, this is treatable. On severe situations I tend to put my goldfish and koi to sleep using clove oil and then directly treat the infected area. This is time consuming but cures the area quickly. I actually just did this today to 3 large koi we have as they had ulcers and I will update these photos on my goldfish blog and my koi blog as well for people to see. They were pretty bad as I was unaware of their condition till just lately. I will show people there progress soon.

For your situation, I would suggest go to your local pet store and buy some Melafix or even online. Treat your goldfish with Melafix and your fish will heal soon. Melafix is a great antibacterial remedy for the treatment of koi and goldfish diseases.

Need anymore help Steven, please drop by again.

Sincerely,

Jamie Boyle
The Goldfish Guy

Hi Steven,

One more thing, yes your goldfish tissue or skin should grow back if it’s not too bad. The mouth is one of those spots that can be bad if not treated fairly soon after you notice it. It can cause permanent deformities in the mouth if allowed to eat away for long period of time.

Use Melafix right away just to be on the safe side.

Sincerely,

Jamie Boyle
The Goldfish Guy

Hi,
I have two goldfishes and they got in a fight. I got on here to see if I could find something that would help me know what happened. There is two millimeters missing on his gills. And he won’t leave his side. I seperated them. Was that the right thing to do?

Hi Jamie,

Thank God for the information you provide, especially for people like me, who may not know a lot about goldfish. You see, I moved about 4 months ago, and the people who lived there previously left me several tanks and some fish, of which I was almost totally ignorant. In fact, there was a homemade 120 gallon tank in the garage, which had all the fish in it, and several tanks that were empty–except for the dead animal carcasses, where it looked like they had starved them to death. The lady said the stuff had all belonged to her son, who was apparently no longer in residence.

I took over the best I could, making plenty of mistakes along the way, and have lost a few fish. When it began to get cold, I started setting up a couple of other tanks, 20 and 35 gallon, as there were tropical fish mixed in with the goldfish and I had no way to heat the garage or the tank enough. I had to use what materials I had available, mostly as we live on my husband’s disability.

My greatest concern right now is one of the goldfish in the 35 gallon tank has developed red sores on its body, which I discovered last night. I took pictures this morning, which I will try to send with this. I found your site, and sent my son to buy Melafix, which I added right away (3 and 1/2 tsp. as prescribed on bottle).

I’ve been doing 25% water changes, using AquaSafe, although we are on a well, but my PH consistently tests high, along with hardness, nitrates, and alkalinity. I’ve also used Cycle (which I started out with and haven’t used lately), Nitraban (which I have been using lately), and even a little Freshwater Aquarium Salt (which I added last night). Oh, and recently added some Slime Coat (with the last water change).

I’m using a double-sided AquaTech filter and I also recently added an air pump and air stone, when I noticed the fish sort of gasping at the surface a lot. I’ve also seen them yawn a couple of times.

I am afraid I have been feeding them too much–2 or 3 times a day, although no more than they will eat in a couple of minutes, alternating between flakes and pellets.

The tank holds 5 goldfish, 4 to 6 inches; an algae eater, about 6 inches; and a striped cichlid that I can’t think of its name. I know they need more room, but I just don’t have it right now.

Can you please tell me what else I need to do, or what I need to do differently, and especially how I can best try to save this fish? Thank you so very much for your wonderful site! P.S. I don’t know how to add the pics, I guess.

Your very welcome! I’m glad the information you found on my goldfish blog was helpful.

With anything in life, is a learning lesson. I know when I first began with goldfish I know I too made mistakes but it’s these mistakes that we learn by.

As far as everything you are soing your doing good. I am glad to see you got an air stone and air pump going as oxygen for fish helps towards their health greatly. The only thing I see is that your 30 gallon aquarium is overcrowded. You already know this but this is something you already know you need to fix later on. In the meantime you will need to perform more frequent water changes to compensate for the amount of fish you have. Also you could add extra filtration as well. The ulcer that happened on your goldfish was a result of too much aeromonas and pseudomonas present in the water, bascically a bacteria. At certain levels it may be tolerable to some fish and may cause some goldfish to get sick. Water quality can cause this problem to occur.

In the meantime use Melafix as your doing to treat the ulcer on your fish. Keep up with water quality and make sure you test it often with so many large fish. Also tropcial fish shouldn’t really be mixed with coldwater fish.

See Melafix Ulcer Medication for more information.

Need anymore help please feel free to contact me anytime.

Sincerely,

Jamie Boyle

Thankyou for having this blog would like some advice please

Bought a new goldfish to add to aquarium its is a large comet when we tried to release him into the water he got stuck in the bag and needed help getting out. in doing this i believe he may have been damaged as he has what i think is an ulcer on the side of his head. after looking up ulcers im keeping an eye on it to see if it looks infected at the moment it is just a white mark that is raised on the goldfish. i am currently changing quarter of the water daily and topping it up with aquarium salt. should i be using melafix as well? any advice you can give me would be much appreciated

Hi Jaime.
I recently lost a Goldfish that i had for 2.5 years. I really tried all i could to keep this guy alive and well. I even called in an aquarium specialist that helped me when he was sick. I had a 29 gallon tank for him and a smaller goldfish. Water readings were good no ammonia and 7.2ph was the last reading i took. I added stress coat and aquarium salt with every water change. Chemi pure carbon and those white pebbles in filter ( good bacteria, i guess). He was doing great! then i noticed little red spots just under belly and he was sitting a lot on bottom with fins back. I ran out of stress coat so i used another water conditioner which should have not been a big deal. It all started after this and weather was changing to cold. He looked like he wanted to come up for food so i thought he would be fine until i got home to do an early water change. He didnt make it. Within an hour or so he was on his side and" curled" not flat. How do i post a photo for you to look at his under belly. The aquarium guy had no answer and said he might have had a stroke.

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