My goldfish have been acting sick for over a week now and I’ve run out of solutions…can anyone please help?
ByIt started last week, my globe shaped goldfish (Pedro) was sitting at the bottom for a couple days. Now that’s not too unusual, since he does this once in a while when he eats a little too much or is constipated. But then I noticed his dorsal fin was laying more flat on his body, than usual. And he was not gasping for air, but he was opening his mouth more than usual. So I figured I would hit the supermarket the next day so I could get some bottles of spring water to do a 50% change, even though I had just cleaned the bottom, cleaned the filter and did a 50% change the week before. Before I went to bed that night, I went to check up on them and found the larger, older one, that is always healthy and never has any problems on the bottom too, with very light, minimal red streaking in his back fins (nitrates in water said it was safe)…and not just hovering over or near Pedro, like he usually does when the smaller one is not feeling 100%. He also began darting about from time to time acting freaked out for a couple seconds at a time. I’ve had both of them for 3+ yrs, so you start to know their habits. And little Pedro is a hog, but neither of them would eat. So instead of going to bed, i ran out in my pj’s and got them water (even though all of my water levels and nitrates were fine). I gave Pedro a 2 min salt dip. i did a 100% complete change, cleaned everything real good and when I took my filter out to change it, I saw these tiny black worms crawling on it. I took a photo of some of them. There were 2 different types, mostly long worm like ones, but then there was one that was shorter and more thick. Here are the photos:
So the next morning, still neither one perked up. So I ran to the closest aquatic store and took the filter to show the manager. He was said he couldn’t tell me anything because I didn’t bring a water sample in. So he suggested KanaPlex. I did that and they seemed to get a bit better, but after a day or two, Pedro was doing the same thing, laying on the bottom and not coming up for food. So I started putting the flakes in and with a long wood bamboo stick I would spear the flakes and put it near his mouth and he eats everytime I do it. So he has an appetite, but just has problems coming to the top. Now in the past 2 days he has 3 small black lines getting larger on 3 different places on the tips of his fins. Not large, but noticeable. When I got him 3 years ago, he was half black and half orange and as he began to grow and get older, the black began to grow out. It’s like it’s reversing or something! And the other healthy one has been laying at the bottom too a bit more, but I think it may have to do more with him knowing Pedro is not feeling well. (About 3 years ago, Fishy, the bigger one, wouldn’t eat for 3 weeks and sat at the bottom, moping about. I had just lost his/her partner fish, not sure why it died and I thought he was sick too. As a last resort I bought him a new friend, Pedro and he never laid at the bottom since…guess he was just lonely! Just bringing this into the convo because like I had said before, he lays with the smaller one, when he’s not feeling well.)
Since the KanaPlex (treats fungal and bacteria) didn’t work, I talked to someone and they said he might have ick, since when he does any kind of swimming, he breathes really heavy and his gills really move in and out more than normal. So 2 days ago I did IckAway, but it doesn’t seem to have worked.
I’m out of ideas at this point. I don’t want to over medicate. They show no signs of real improvement (the slight red streaking is gone in tail) and I have changed water constantly whether 100% change, like in the beginning, to partial changes after treatments at least 4 times in the past 10 days (gotten the bottled spring water at 3 different locations, so it’s not that). Temp of tank is about 70 degrees +/- they are in a 10 gallon tank with carbon filter aeration. I know the goldfish Nazi’s are going to tell me that’s not nearly enough gallons per fish. But that is not the cause of this. So anyone have any idea?
Here’s a photo of the black lines on Pedro:
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e358/badkittykatnj/4-3.jpg
ok….just for the record, the larger goldfish (Fishy) who is always healthy, was the one with the red streaks in his fins…he NEVER got a salt dip. i also noticed a fly looking thing on the filter, thought nothing of it when i flicked him off, until i had put the old filter in a ziplock baggy and 2 days later, i noticed another fly looking creature, same as the one before. are these larva of some kind maybe?
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4 Comments
August 20th, 2010 at 5:32 pm
The black line can be from ammonia burns. Black is a sign of healing. As for the lethargy, I suspect worms. Have your fish ever been Prazi’d?
Praziquantel will get rid of worms and flukes. Darting about is a sign that they might have worms/flukes. I Prazi my fish whether they need it or not twice a year. In the spring and the Fall. Flukes is one of the biggest killers of fish.
You can get the liquid variety or the Powder kind.
Most fish store will have this variety:
For the powder kind, I get it online.
The Kanaplex is for gram negative bacterial infections.
I hope you are using a dechlorinator for your water. Aquarium fish cannot live in water that not conditioned.
Carbon filter isn’t great. A good filter provides a three step filtration.
Mechanical – Sponge or screen
Chemical – Carbon
Biological – Bio ball, ceramic bio media, bio rings
Bump up the temperature a bit. Goldfish like temps in the mid 70s. A higher temperature stimulates their metabolism.
August 20th, 2010 at 6:02 pm
ok you have a few things going on here. The black worms although hard to see look like either black worms or leeches. You said you treated the tank for ich, but only for 2 days. Ich treatments can take up to 14 days to fully eliminate parasites from the tank. Two days has done nothing and the filter media needs removed. The red streaks are septacemia more than likely from the salt treatments, water changes and meds combined. The black is not healing from ammonia burns they look like the worms under the skin.
You need to take a step back here.
The max amount of time for a salt dip is 15-30 seconds depending on the type of fish it is. No more 100% water changes either this isn’t helping but hurting. No more chemicals in the tank either. You should never just try fixes when you don’t know what the problem is.
Treating with KanaPlex to kill parasites?
Ok you need to go back to doing only 25% water changes once per week and be sure to vac the bottom gravel. Your temperature is fine where it is. Your fish don’t have ich so no more ich treatments, however there is a benefit for treating them and that is the worms. Most should be able to be sucked out with the gravel siphone. Is there a reason you don’t like using your tap water? A good dechlor goes along way here and it isn’t such a stress on you with the running around. Goldfish cannot go without eating for 3 weeks. Chances are they are eating algae or your worms when you did not realize it. stop feeding your fish what ever it is you are feeding them now and switch them to an all veggie diet. If your fish are laying on the bottom of the tank, they have a sever swimbladder problem. ONLY green veggies like lettuce, spinach, peas, green beans, zucchini. This will cure the swimbladder. You should see an improvement in a day or two.
I would also get a new testing kit. Nitrates are not waht you need to test for. Ammonia and Nitrites are. Nitrates can actually be over 60 with no ill effects on your goldies.
once you get your goldies up and swimming then deal with the worms. Your ich meds can be used to get rid of them but you will have to follow the directions and treat for the alloted time.
Remember no more 100% water changes, get a test kit for ammonia and nitrites. Stick to the weekly 25% water change. Feed only green veggies.
August 20th, 2010 at 6:06 pm
Ok you are going about this all wrong. The worms that you have definitely appear to be leaches. This would explain any erratic swimming behavior. I suggest that you treat your tank with Clout. I recommend this medication a lot, but there is a reason for that. It works for just about any external parasite and also helps with secondary fungal infections. The red streaks on your fish are most likely from your salt dips. You are definitely leaving them in the salt solution for to long, and since you didn’t state the strength of the solution it is possible that it is too strong as well. The red marks are burns from the salt. Danielle is right about your water changes. You have got to stop with the 100 % water changes! It is very rare when you would want to do a water change of that magnitude. 20-25% is fine. I don’t buy her advice about feeding your fish purely vegetable diet to cure a swim bladder problem though. In the first place I don’t think that they have swim bladder disease. It isn’t generally characterized by sitting on the bottom. Instead it is evident because the fish can’t maintain equilibrium in the water column. They list to the side, go head over heals (so to speak) and generally just have no control of position. I would say your fish are laying on the bottom because they are severely stressed. In part by their ailment and in part by the massive water changes your are doing. Frankly you should stop with the water changes during your treatmen regimen. By doing so you are throwing out the medication, and diluting what is left which makes it less effective. You need to learn some patience, give your medications time to work. Two days isn’t long enough for you to know if they are working. Also you need to remove the carbon from your filter. It is only serving to remove your medication from the water and render it ineffective.
You had an anwer that mentioned Praziquantel. This is a treatment for internal parasites such as tape worms, and also works for flukes. It is possible that you have internal parasites but I think you are dealing with leaches and or flukes. I would treat with the Clout and see where that gets you.
August 20th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
Eeeeww!! Those worms are planaria. You can google pictures of these. I had them in my tank too!! I found out the only time you see a lot of them is when there’s too much gunk building up in the gravel. The fly is probably because of that too!! Lots of flies lay eggs in the water, then you get these little wormy-catterpillary-looking things in the tank and on your filter that eat the gunk. They’re skinnier than the planaria so you can tell them apart. Neither one is going to hurt your fish by themselves though.
The brown lines are from something in the water that bothers their skin. This sort of think is from high ammonia or some other chemical in the tank. Do you have any medication in there right now? Did you try doing the tests again just to make sure your first readings were right?? I’d try that first, and maybe do another water change using a siphon to clean down in the gravel and use dechlorinated tap water instead of bottled water. Really, there isn’t much difference and using bottled water is SO expensive!!!
If you used medicine to kill bacteria, your tank SHOULD be cycling, so you SHOULD be getting levels for ammonia, nitrIte, or nitrAte. If you keep adding and changing medicine without knowing exactly what the problem is, or giving anything time to work but hoping something will is only going to make things worse. From what I can see, your fish DON’T have ich. I don’t know who told you that, but if it was someone on here, Ich is about the only answer some people even give. They will say Ich even if Ich doesn’t fit the symptoms, which would be white spots about the size of salt grains and scratching their sides against things in the tank. You didn’t ever say your fish were doing that. Combining different chemicals and killing the tank bacteria is what’s really hurting your fish, so don’t add any more medication.
And your fish DO need a bigger tank!!! You’ve had 3 goldfish in a 10 gallon for 3 years???? It’s a wonder any of them are still alive!!! My biggest, 9 inches long, grew to about half his size in the first year I had him. My red-cap oranda grew over 3 inches her first year. And these fish were one to one and a half inches when I got them!!!
If you have three in that tank, there’s bound to be plenty of poop in the gravel, and the worms eat that and the leftover food. And without the good bacteria to break down the poop, the chemicals it releases can’t go through the nitrogen cycle right and will poison your fish.
I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but if you care about your fish, PLEASE get them into a larger tank, at least 30-40 gallons for now, for their own wellbeing!!!