Sick goldfish and sick goldfish video from one of my readers:
Hi,
I am not sure you can help us but we were looking for information as to what is wrong with our goldfish and came across your Blog and noticed you have a lot of information there and know a great deal more about goldfish than we do :). Please take a look at the small video clip we made of our fish attached.
2 weeks ago we went to the pet store and read some of the many products there to help and have been treating the water with Disease safe which apparently treats against, cloudy eye, white spot, ragged or bloody streaked fins cotton wool like growths, slimy white skin or fins and unusual swimming.
We have had both of our goldfish for 8 years and have never seen any of them get as sick as this. before treatment he was sitting down the bottom of the tank hardly moving not eating etc and after the first week of treatment he seemed to perk up and was swimming up mid to top tank again. Although the redness did not leave his back. we are now on the second week of treatment going by the instructions which are 7day treatment. He seems to be back down the bottom of the tank again and the redness looks worse than it did before.
As I said we have had them for 8 years now and would hate to lose either of them and would like to know if you can help us if you know what is wrong with him from the small clip? Perhaps we are treating him for the wrong disease. Any info you may be able to give would be greatly appreciated
Regards,
Helen & Brian
4 comments:
Hi Helen & Brian,
First off thanks for emailing me your question about your sick goldfish and showing me this small clip of your fish. This will help not only yourself but any of my readers see first hand some of the signs and symptoms goldfish can develop.
What it appears that your goldfish has is bacterial infection that is setting in. What is going to happen by the shape of the redness on your goldfish is an ulcer will begin to occur. You see ulcers appear in small circular red areas seen on goldfish. What causes this is too much aeromonas and pseudomonas present in the water. Water quality is the number one reason that goldfish become sick and develop sores or diseases.
There are two things you can do in this case. One is make sure your water quality is perfect. Water quality can cause red streaks to appear on the fins and tail. It can also cause hemmoraging to occur and cause red streaks on the body itself as well. Make sure water quality is A-1.
The next thing you can do is treat with aquarium salt. By treating with aquarium salt it can cause less stress to happen to your goldfish. When the goldfish goes through more stress the disease can also get more severe. So salt is a good safe way to treat your fish. It also has no impact on your filter which is good and doesn't destroy your beneficial bacteria colonies.
Another thing if your performing too many water changes there may not be enough beneficial bacteria in your water. Make sure you always add some after any water change as this can cause redness to appear on goldfish as well.
What I suspect is going to happen is an ulcer is going to begin. To eliminate and keep aeromoans and pseudomonas to proper levels try adding koizyme to your water it starves this bacteria responsible for forming ulcers on fish. Another thing you can do is feed your goldfish Debride Medicated foos which treats against ulcers. This will help against any bacterial related problems on golfish koi and other types of fish.
To learn more about ulcers please read my other posts at
Goldfish Ulcers
How Ulcers Begin On Goldfish
Ulcers On Goldfish Red Sores Blotches
How To Treat Ulcer Disease On Goldfish
I hope this helps answer your question and give you more information related to the redness that is appearing on your goldfish. If you have anymore questions or concerns please comment and I will help you out further.
Sincerely,
Jamie Boyle
The Goldfish Guy
Need Information On Water Gardening, Ponds, Fish and Water Plants?
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HI,
We have had our aquarium since Aug 2008. About 3 weeks ago we bought a couple of new fish and did not quarantine them before adding them to the aquarium-we now know to quarantine for at least 2 weeks-anyway we have been losing fish since then. At first they developed I think tail/fin rot. Their tails just started shredding. Then they developed Ick. I treated with Melafix for awhile and then did some research and purchased Maracyn and Maracyn - Two as well as Ick cure and have used this for 5 days. Is this the proper treatment. Some fish seem better, others just sitting on bottom with clamped fins. I plan to do another 5 day treatment like the box says to do, but the Ick seems worse. We have tested the water quality regularly and everything is in normal limits. Can you help?
Hey your not the only one that this happened too. Many people often purchase new goldfish for their aquarium only to find out that they brought more then fish home, they brought sick fish home. Quarrantining new fish should be at least 2-4 weeks to make sure all is okay. The 2 weeks would be the bare minimum.
As far as for treating fin and tail rot Melafix would work just fine. The only thing is that Melafix does not treat against ich. It only treats bacterial infections, ulcers and fungal infections. The ich cure should have worked for treating your goldfish ONLY if you treat it for like up to 7-10 days. It's kind of funny actually I just had this comment on another post I did yesterday. Ich can only be killed during the free swimming stage. Meaning the white spots you see on your fish can only be killed once they fall off, hatch and try and find a host.
To learn more on treating ich and white spot disease please read the following posts I've made:
Goldfish Disease- White Spot Disease- Ich (Ichtyopthirius)
Breeding Tubercles Not White Spot Disease Ich
Goldfish Medication Treatments For Illnesses, Diseases and Parasites Including Ich Medication
These will tell you all about ich and how it reproduces and how to treat it. The last link I've provided will show you various fish medications that will treat various illnesses, diseases and parasites.
The ich medication that I recommend is liquid form containing melachite green. Kordon Aquarium Rid Ich Preventative. Read the comment I made to Mary who had exactly the same situation as you here Treatment For Ich and White Spot Disease In Goldfish
You can try and do another treatment with ich cure but I would get another ich treatment medication. Medications that claim they can treat ich in 24 hours doesn't sound legit. As mentioned ich can only be killed in the free swimming stage and this is widely known all across the internet.
What you can do is try raising the temperature in the aquarium as long as you have plenty of oxygen. Make sure your air pump is working very good. During any treatment on fish maximum aeration is needed. Some medications take the oxygen out of the water causing stress on fish. The clamped fins is a sign of stress. If you raise the temperature in your aquarium you can speed up the life cycle of ich causing the eggs to hatch where the medication can take effect and kill them. This is an option for you and keep using the same medication, other then that try a new medication that I recommended.
Another tip is always perform a water change when and replace activated carbon to remove any medication in the water before using another. Mixing chemicals can further stress goldfish or even kill them.
I hope I was able to help give you some more advice on what to do. Be sure as well to replace beneficial bacteria with every water change you do to keep nitrogen cycle working properly.
If you need anymore help or advice write me a comment on one of the pages that deal directly with the topic surrounding ich.
Are they still showing lots of white spots on them?
Sincerely,
Jamie Boyle
The Goldfish Guy
I hope you can help. We had 2 goldfish for a couple of years in a tank with a plecostomus. Then we added a snail. All seemed to be well until we added more snails. The goldfish started swimming weird (upside down and on side) and they developed red splotches on their bodies. Then the pleco started swimming at the top. All of them are now dead. Also the replacement pleco and goldfish. Same symptoms. What should we do.
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