I Need A Goldfish Expert!!

[Christine]

About 3 weeks ago, my DD went to a carnival and won a goldfish. I could not bear to see the thing suffer and die so I went out and bought a 10 gallon tank, filter, and all the necessary supplies. I put the fish in and he was looking good.

My DH and DS go to Petco about a week later and buy two more goldfish. Actually one is true goldfish (gold) and the other is black, but they are the same "breed" of fish I guess and share the tank at Petco.

Well, after about 5 days after the new fish were added, the Petco goldfish, started developing black areas on his body and at the tips of his fins. He seemed healthy. We changed the water a bit hoping that would help. But it has gotten worse every day. The pH was tested and it is fine.

Yesterday, I noticed he was looking a little under the weather. I also noticed that the other Petco fish (which is solid black) had little white spots on him. And the carnival fish (who is kind of white anyway) had white dots on his tail.

So, I go up to Petco last night and found a fairly helpful fish guy. He was quite sure that the two fish with the white spots had "Ich" and gave me stuff for that.

As I described the other fish with the black spots, he was stumped. He showed me a bunch of pictures but nothing really resembled what I am seeing. He gave me some other types of treatments.

I used them all last night and, this morning I didn't really see any improvement.

I am an idiot when it comes to fish.

What do I do???

 

[Luckymommyx2]

Sorry I can't help. Could the black spots be a form of ich? When we had goldfish they got it and it's nasty stuff. Hopefully it clears up.

 

[HERSEY]

Sounds like you might have 2 things going on I would separate all 3 fish and treat them separately. The one with the black spots sounds like he has "black spot" a different kind of fungal disease. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?dept_id=&aid=4430

 

[mefordis]

Sorry I can't help you with the spots, but I can tell you that I discovered feeding my fish VERY LITTLE makes them live a LOT longer. I only feed mine 2x a week. I keep algae greens in the bowl for them to snack on. I change the water 1x every week or two and always keep SOME of the old water in there, about 1/4 to 1/2 a bowl full.

I have two fish in a 5 gallon tank. They are very happy. If I see they are having trouble swimming to the top, I give them the insides to two frozen (thawed) peas and that helps with their gas or digestion problem, cuz they swallow air and that can be harmful.

Hope I helped a little with the care of the fish.

 

[need_a_Disney_fix]

This reminds me of the time that I cleaned the tank and it was WAAAAAY past time. Well, I sucked just a wee bit too much on the syphon to get the dang thing started. OMG...have you ever tasted old aquarium water full of fish poo? Its not a good situation.

OP, sounds like you may need to get another med for the black stuff. Good luck.

 

[Aneille]

Also if you don't know about cycling a tank then look up the nitrogen cycle.

In short a tank needs nitrifying(sp) bacteria and enough bacteria to handle the # of fish you have in your tank. Your fish poops and its waste becomes ammonia then it changes to nitrite and finally becomes nitrate.

High Ammonia and nitrite will kill or get your fish sick. Nitrate in very high numbers is bad but is safer. To rid your tank of nitrate is why you do water changes.

So with one fish in a new tank you might have gone through a small cyle (ammonia/nirite/nitrate) and yout fish handled it fine but your tank only had enough nitrifying bacteria in the water to handle that one fish.

When you put in the other 2 fish your tank had more poop = more ammonia but didn't have the proper levels of bacteria to handle it. So you could have had a ammonia and nitrite spike which got your fish stressed which brought on the ich.

If you already knew all this, maybe it will inform someone else. There is some stuff you can put in your tank to make it cycle faster. I've never used it so I don't know the name of it.

Or they could have just been sick from the store.

Good luck.

 

[Christine]

Thanks so much, you all gave me good ideas.

Aneille--no I didn't really know what you told me, only that there could be a problem with the ammonia, nitrite, etc. The guy gave me the stuff to fix that, so hopefully that will help.

I'm most considered about the one with the big black spots. These look NOTHING like any pictures. I went to the link that another poster provided me and looked at "black spot" but those spots are too small. The spots are occuring on the sides of the fish body the base of the tail and tips of fins. On the body, the spot is probably as round as a pencil eraser (and this is a small fish).

I really don't know what else to do. I just wish I wasn't so darned sensitive.

 

[Aneille]

I haven't had freshwater fish in years. But there is a black ich found in Saltwater fish (what I have now).

I wonder if Freshwater fish can get it. I'll see what I can find.

 

[korbbec]

Feed a mashed pea instead of the fish food. Are you conditioning the new water- chlorine will hurt the fish so you have to treat it first. If the filter is creating a current it might be stressing the fish.

 

[Christine]

Feed a mashed pea instead of the fish food. Are you conditioning the new water- chlorine will hurt the fish so you have to treat it first. If the filter is creating a current it might be stressing the fish.

I did condition the water and have been doing so since I started with the tank.

The filter is creating a current.

 

[Aneille]

I've done a quick google and it seems like your fish has black spot disease as someone else suggested.

They are small black spots or specks on the fish.

I think Maracide will treat both ich and black spot. But do some research on the treatment and find out which is the safest.

I haven't had FW fish in years and to be honest I've only had 2 outbreaks of ick in 5 years. I've been really lucky.

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

First, I'd separate the one with the spots, just to be safe.

I've never heard of black spots... confusing! I did have a black goldfish turn orange, though, so maybe he's just changing color?

You might try some aquarium salt. It's sort of a "cure-all" in my book. I toss a little in anytime the fish look under the weather. Not sure exactly how it works, but most of my fish live 5-10 years!

 

[SillyMe]

Sorry I can't help you with the spots, but I can tell you that I discovered feeding my fish VERY LITTLE makes them live a LOT longer. I only feed mine 2x a week. I keep algae greens in the bowl for them to snack on. I change the water 1x every week or two and always keep SOME of the old water in there, about 1/4 to 1/2 a bowl full.

I have two fish in a 5 gallon tank. They are very happy. If I see they are having trouble swimming to the top, I give them the insides to two frozen (thawed) peas and that helps with their gas or digestion problem, cuz they swallow air and that can be harmful.

Hope I helped a little with the care of the fish.

I feed ours 2x per day! Well, she's been alive for 8 months, so I guess she's okay with it. She literally sits there and wags her tail like a dog whenever we come near her. She swims to the top waiting for the food.

 

[Handbag Lady]

How cute!

I'm also having fun with fish. We've had bettas over the years and such, but now I'm serious with this current tank. We have mollies.

The best advice was already given: tank salt (NOT table salt). But check first as there are some fishies that don't like it.

Also, when you treat your fishies, make sure you take out the carbon in the filter. It makes the medicine not work. And it takes about five days or so to cure whatever it is that is on your fish, it won't just go away overnight.

 

[Christine]

Well, I got home and the fish look a bit "perkier" this afternoon. Their bodies don't necessarily look better but they seem MUCH more active today. Of course, the carbon is out of the filter and the water is getting cloudy. I have removed a good portion of water and getting ready to replace more.

This "stuff" I bought says I need to use it daily until the fish are symptom free and each time I use it I have to remove 10-25% of the water (I guess the water will get too toxic).

So what is "tank" salt? How does it differ from table salt. Is it just non-iodized? If that's so, can't I just put some sea salt in? I won't, of course, unless you tell me I can!!

 

[Aneille]

You can get aquarium at the fish store but don't get marine salt because it has buffers to bring your Ph up higher than for freshwater fish.

I think you can also use table salt as long as its just salt (NaCl), with no additives. To be safe I would probably get the salt at the fish store.

Maybe someone will know if Goldfish can tolerate a little salt.

I know Mollies love it since they are more of a brackish fish anyway.

I've never kept a goldfish since I was kid!

My father always had goldfish and FW tropical fish growing up but it wasn't until 2003 that I got my first fish tank. Then I had to have planted freshwater fishtank and very quickly took it down and started saltwater reef tanks. It is very addicting. And I have learned so much chemistry/biology/electrical etc..its awesome. I've had a reef tank since 2004 just different ones.