Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate:
Ph: 7.2
Ph Out of Tap: 7.0

Tank: 55 gal, running a couple of months.
Filtration: TopFin 60, Emperor 400 - Ordered another Emperor 400 to replace the Top Fin. <waits impatiently>

Waterchanges: Wednesdays and Saturdays. However long it takes me to vacuum the gravel.. between 30% and 50%.

Additives: Prime, no medications

There are three fantails, two ryukins, and a couple of dojo loaches. The ryukins are the biggest at about 2" without tail. No new fish.

Diet: Gel food, flakes, oranges, peas, carrots, spirulina flakes, daphnia, tubifex worms. Just ordered some Progold for the first time. <again, waits impatiently for her lil boxes of goodies>

Findings and behavior: This morning when I woke up I noticed one of my Ryukins was opening his mouth a lot more then the other fish. I thought he was choking on something, but he wasn't. So I was looking him over and I noticed a itty bitty white pimple on his gill cover. He has stopped opening and closing his mouth so much, but I've been paranoid about the pimple thingy. Its barely even noticeable but I need to put my mind at ease. Last week both my Ryukins had some slime coat coming off, and I was told on that post that it was normal occassionaly, but to watch out for parasites and the like, just in case. Am I freaking out again for no reason?

I forgot to put in my nitrates. I was waiting for the test to finish and I was gonna go back but I forgot. They're 20.

Is it just one pimple or are there a bunch of them? Just on his gill covers? How old is he? Could it be breeding stars?

~ Jessica

Its just the one. I got him from the LFS a couple of months ago. He's about 2 and a half inches. Would there be more of them if they were breeding stars? I thought there would be. And I thought they had to be older. And he hasn't been chasing anyone.

Sandy, does it look like this?
http://www.kokosgoldfish.invisionzone.com/...pe=post&id=6091

Sandy it is hard to say at this point.
I know my blue oranda has tons of "stars" on his fins, but only gets 1-3 on his gill plates.
Since the fish is little it could be he is just starting to mature.

What color is he/she? I would at this time just watch and see what develops.

He's red and white. It looks smaller this morning though. <sniffles, wipes a tear from her eye> Maybe my baby's becoming a man? Its the only one I see. And its right on the white coloring of his gill, so the only way I can see it is if I look at it from the side and I can see a little protrusion.

Okay, I wait and I watch. <twitches nervously>

I know it is difficult to just wait, but really most people over "medicate" now a days and it just isn't nesassary.
Now in a day or 2 passes and or you see new symptoms appear than by all means jump on treating what you think it to be.
But from this one bump and him acting ok, I think it will be fine.

Sandy, Sandy, Sandy........ tsk, tsk.........


Your goldies are sooooo lovin it with you. I honestly don't think that you could take better care of them than you already are. Well, short of putting in a 10,000 gallon pond out back for them........

Seriously though, it sounds like it truly could be a breeding star peeping out a little early. I noticed a few stars in my moor a while back when he was only 2 inches in body length too. Sometimes they get them pretty early, this doesnt necessarily mean that they are sexually mature though. When they do come in, they never stay in the same place and even fade a little here and there from time to time. If he is a boy, just you wait til you see how they seem to grow on top of each other on their pectoral fins.


Paul

Well if they do that then I'm gonna think they have ich!

I swear I stared at that lil white dot on his gill plate for hours, trying to convince myself it was probably just a breeding star. But then I kept thinking how I thought yawning was normal and cute and it turned out to be bad, and how I thought they had some weird fungal thing cause of their slime coat melting off but that was normal and I never know whats going on! *Some one really needs to make a smilie ripping out its hair for me, please* So I fought off posting about this for a few hours, but then I was sitting around trying to keep my mind off of it and it wasn't working so I decided to just post about it to make myself better despite that it just makes me feel retarded. <stares> That and how he was opening and closing his mouth much more and faster then the other fishys just scared me, but he had just gotten an algae wafer stuck in his throat not too long ago so maybe he's still recovering from that incident but I'm not sure. I think I might need help.

Hmmm, well, along the lines of yawning, they do that to clear their gills of debris. Debris could be food, poo, and whatever else they suck up into their mouths. Or it could be parasites. But, I never, ever consider yawning to be anything to worry about unless their are other symptoms or its overly excessive. If you see any of them scratch on anything in the tank more then once in a great while , then I would begin to worry.(you'll know it when you see it, they dive at whatever it is they're trying to scratch on)

Otherwise, they sound like they are in great hands.