I wrote in a few months ago about my baby goldfish. I have about 50, 2 1/2 month old fish in a 35 gallon pond. I know its small but they are just to little to move into my big pond, plus they are sick. I am not sure what is wrong with them, different ones have different problems. I hope someone can help me. First, the amonia level is 0, its fine. The ph is 6.8 which I know should be a little higher. The salt level is perfect. I first started noticing what looked like ick on a couple of them and twitching tails. I treated for ick with Quick Cure, a two day cure is what the bottle says. It would go away then a few days come back so treated again. Some still have a white bump on the tail or body, Then I noticed one fish with what looked like white fuzz on his lips,if fish have lips, and it seems he can't open his mouth, he swims up to food flakes and doesen't eat it. One fish has what looks like a fuzzy area on its back near its dorsal fin which is eroded. All of the other fishes fins are ok except for a white bump on a few, but no eroding or fraying and the fins are NOT clamped. So now I am treating with Mela Fix, antibacterial Remedy. I have used it for 4 days, it says to use for 7 days. I am worried that this is not working either because another fish seems to not be able to open it's mouth. And the weirdest thing is the tips of their gill plates are curving outward. I am very worried and need some help, I raised these babies from eggs and love them dearly. Should I put the sickest ones in a 10 gal. tank to treat them and to keep them away from the others? There are about 6 that have some sort of symptom. Please help.

Gosh, I'm sorry! It sounds like your little ones might have columnaris and/or fungus following the ich. Also, I don't remember what temperature your pond is? Ich has a three day life cycle in warm water, but it slows down a lot in colder temps, so two days might not have been enough to eradicate it completely. It can take up to three weeks to get rid of it completely, I think.

The melafix will do no harm, but you might need a stronger antibacterial/antifungal med. I like the Mardel products (maracyn and maracyn 2), which are, I think, fairly gentle. Kanacyn is harsher (it trashed my cycle) but more effective. If your little ones can tolerate it - most goldies can - salting the water to 0.3 percent helped my fish a lot with the ich. Happygoldfish told me how to do it; you add 3 tablespoons of salt for every five gallons of water, adding one-third at a time over about 36 hours. That's often all you need to do to get rid of ich, and it will slow down the fungus, too. What do you mean when you say your salt levels are perfect? Are you already at 0.3 percent? If you are, just add in the appropriate amount of salt with your water changes and treat with the antibiotic/antifungal.

Heaven knows, I'm no expert - I just have one goldie who seems to get everything coming down the pike - so I'm hoping others will chime in here. Good luck (BTW, my guy is very sensitive to sudden temp. changes. I think that could be a factor in an outdoor pond - he gets ich every time)

Mary,

Thank you for the help. The salt level is .10% which is recommended on the chart for ponds with plants. I think I will slowly raise the level to .20 and increase the ph. Please bring on the ideas, I have some Furan-2 and some clout. Does anyone recommend any of these treatments?

Thanks,
Kim

Have you checked your nitrite and nitrate levels? If not then you should as soon as you can. Problems such as these are often associated with water quality. Once you have the readings post them here and we can see if that is what the problem is.

Sorry, I meant to say too that I would increase the salt concentration to 1 tablespoon per gallon. This might be a bit hard on your plants but anything less than that probably wont have much effect.

I have never tested nitrate levels, do I get a kit for testing that? Where?

hi there - i think i read in another post that if the gill plates are curling back then this is a sign of nitrite poisoning (someone PLEASE correct me if i'm wrong), so i'd say you should get hold of a kit for that too. pet stores / fish shops / aquatics centres should sell individual kits seeing as you already have pH and ammonia kits. i'm sure you can order them online too if you can't find a regular shop that sells them...good luck with your probs - wish i was more experienced in these things, but i'm only a beginner

Hi - as to the meds you have, please don't use the clout unless you're sure the salt isn't helping the parasite problem. It can be very harsh on fish, and in any case isn't what you need for the fungus. I don't know about furan-2, but I think others have had luck with it. It is an antibiotic/antifungal, and a pretty strong one, I believe.

Were you able to get the test results? Nitrate isn't *generally* the most important of the tests, but you should never let it go above 20 or so, especially with young fish. You want to change your water often enough to keep levels low. Nitrite can do a lot of damage; the salt will help the fish survive it, but it's dangerous! If you do have nitrite, you'll need to keep doing water changes until your cycle has caught up. HTH!

Thanks everyone!!

I took out half of the water last night and put back a forth then put in the last forth this morning. I lost 2 fish last night before I changed the water and one is sitting on the bottom. My husband bought test strips to test for nitrate and nitrite, I tested it tonight and they were safe levels, nitrate "0" nitrite "0". Of course this was after a 50% water change, so the levels probably were higher, I just couldn't wait to get a kit before I did something. So thats why I changed the water last night. The babies seem energetic tonight. In the morning I will look them over and add salt again. I know they still have ick, should I do the Quick cure for 7 days? Should I keep using Melafix?
It's just so frustrating and sad to watch them get sick when I have raised them from little eggs. Every time I loose one I think well, survival of the fittest and all that, but it's still hard.

Thanks,
Kim

If your nitrates are at 0 then it means that your tank isn't cycled yet. You will need to keep a careful eye on your ammonia and nitrite as they will probably start spiking soon. During this time you will need to perform daily water changes of about 30% to dilute the toxicity. Your tnak is only cycled when your ammonia and nitrites are 0 and your nitrates are above 0 but preferably under 30 (20 is better).
If you've upped the salt concentration to 0.3% (1 tbsp per gallon) as I suggested earlier then this will cure the ich. If not then either do this or treat with an ich med.

Ok,
I am slowly upping the salt level, and checking the ph and amonia everyday. I just came home at 6:30 pm and found another one dead. I have lost 6 so far. It's weird that the ones that are dying are not the ones with spots or fungas.
I hope this die off stops soon.
kim

So sorry that your litte ones are having such a tough time !

I'm sorry, too, and I really hope some of them will pull through. You do need to use an antibacterial for the fungus from the sound of it. Yes, keep using the melafix as well, and it's good you're adding in the salt. It should cure the ich in about a week at these temperatures, if you get the concentration high enough. If the columnaris/fungus doesn't seem to be spreading, I might just use salt and melafix for a week, and only do the stronger antibiotic when you have some nitrates and the fish are stronger. I do hope they make it, and wish I could help more.