Ph is a lil over 7.6
nitrite is between 0-.25
Ammoina 2.0
10 gal tank w/2 golfish
had the tank for 16 days now
feed them colorfin sinking granuels and peas once every other day. they are fed twice a day.
did a 50% water change monday and tuesday. After the one i did on tuesday it dropped to 1.0 and is back up to 2.0 again.
i have not fed them since yesterday morning and will not until i know what to do.

I have 2 fish Dega and Dude. Dega has been having a floating problem. He was passing air through his poop. I saw 1 poop with air yesterday. he has not been floating for the past 2 days and seems just fine. i only mention this is case this has anything to do with my new problem...

Dude is bloated from his gills back and some of his scales are lifting and some appear to be turning white. I have seen him pass some white stringy poo but i have seen him pass normally as well. Also, on tuesday i saw a salt like spec of who the heck knows on his tail fin. it was not there long, a few hours at most. his scales were not lifted yesterday, i saw them this morning. Is this dropsy? if so, what can i do?

other than that both fish seem fine, very active and i know they are hungry. everytime i come up to the tank they come to me. should i do another 50% water change? what else can i do? I am new to goldfish, please help.

Chris

This is a problem that needs immediate, if not sooner, attention.

A bloated fish, with raised scales is suffering from "dropsy". This is an internal infection - but is commonly caused by poor water conditions. With an ammonia level of 2, you need to lower that immediately. I would do a 50% change and then another 50% change - which should bring the ammonia down to .5.

I am going to move this to 911 Disease section and find you some more info on Dropsy for you to read.

Here it is:

http://www.kokosgoldfish.invisionzone.com/...showtopic=12658

Thanks Daryl!

I read the article and i dont have the money to buy another tank right now. I will do a 50% change now. should i do another one tononight? when i add new water i usually let it sit a few hours to ensure temp. since this change should be immediate, do i make sure temp is ok by touch? i dont have a thermometer.

Had a feeling it was Dropsy

You don't necessarily have to get a new TANK, you can use a rubbermaid tub from your local Walmart, Target, hardware store, etc.

Find out what your current params are, and if your ammo is still high, perform another 50% water change. Try to get it down as low as you can. You didn't list your nitrAte reading; do you have a test for that?

Since it seems your fish is already stressed by something, I would try to get your water to be temp matched pretty good. If you don't have a thermometer, and you find that leaving your water out for a while to reach room temp works, then continue with that. Using your hands can give you a somewhat accurate temp difference - something like within 5 degrees. But, like I mentioned earlier, if the fish are trying to heal, the less stress added the better.


Keep us posted!

i went to the store and bought maracyn 2 and aquarium salt. i am going to do a 50% water change now and add the salt and medicine. anything else i should do? should i fast my fish???

how do u know if your fish is stressed?

The visual aspects of your fish, which you defined in your original post, would suggest your fish is stressed. Any abnormal occurence would stress the fish out.

I wouldn't fast your fish. Just don't feed them a lot.

Do you happen to know what your nitrAtes are at? The reason I ask is, I'm trying to determine where you could be in your cycle.

no i dont have a test for nitrates. lady at the pet store told me it wasnt important, but i can see that it is. ill head back to the pet store tonight. it will be my 3rd trip today, but i dont care!!! i did a 50% water change, add 1/4 tbsp of salt and two maracyn 2 tablets. i am testing the water now, will post results. have i done everything i can for my lil guy? he doesnt "act" sick, just looks it. i also noticed the left side next to his mouth is swollen. is that a symptom of dropsy also?

since my other fish had the floating problem and air in his poop would the maracyn 2 benefit him as well?

Sorry for all the questions, i am new at this...i just want the best quality of life for my fish as i can possibly give them.

is it absolutely necessary i put my sick fish in Q?

Thanks again for all the help!!!

I'm a newbie to goldfish keeping as well- but I just did a Marcyn treatment and I wanted to remind you that if you have carbon in your filter you need to take it out while treating w/ Maracyn-

The people on this board are incredible and have helped me a lot-

Good Luck!

The lady at the pet store advised me of that. I took it out before i did the water change and medicated the tank.

Everyone on here has been wonderful!

ph 7.6
nitrites 0
ammonia 1.0
water temp 73 degrees

I did a 50 % water change, removed carbon from the filter, medicated and added 1/4 tbsp of aquarium salt. should i continue to do a 50 % water change to keep my ammonia level down? and if so, how would this effect the medication? i see no change in my lil sick guy. (was not expecting improvement yet) are there any other signs i should be looking for? is there anything else i can do for him? should i be feeding them peas or anything special as opposed to regular food? i feel so bad forhim, i just want him to get better...

First, I want to be sure that you are KEEPING the carbon out. As far as the QT tank, I am not sure it is absolutely necessary right now. But then again, I am not an expert on treating dropsy. If you are really worried, and if you can, go out and get one of those rubbermaid tubs I mentioned earlier. Quite inexpensive and very very valuable.

Secondly, there is no harm in feeding your little ones peas. You can give them reg food in the morn and peas in the evening if you'd like. Just don't overfeed.

Third, I am not 100% sure on what the effects of water changes are in relation to medicinal treatment. Are there any specific instrux on the med box? Hopefully someone else better equipt w/this type of info can help you. But, it would be wise to perform a change if you see your params getting higher.

Finally, right now no change is good! At least you aren't seeing it get worse.

Thanks Laura for your input!

I removed all the carbon out of the filter yesterday before i did a water change and added meds.

As far as the QT, I am not going to do it seeing how my other fish was floating from digesting air from eating floating food. That happened shortly after i first got my fish and had no idea that you should always soak their food to completely to remove all air. As i understand it, if a fish has air in their system, they run a risk of infection so the meds may be a benefit to him right now as well. if i am running more of a risk to my other fish, someone please let me know.

Ph 7.6
nitrites 0
ammonia 1.0

I am completely guessing but i think that my fish may have developed dropsy from the high ammonia level in the tank. the first few days it was 4.0. i didnt have any test kits because i had no idea how involved their care is. for several more days to this it has been 2.0 with one exception of 1.0 reading 3-4 days ago. Therefore, I am going to do another 50% water change this evening. i already medicated the water today...when i do another water change should i put a half pill in seeing how i will be removing half the meds? if i need to do another water change i willdo so before i medicate...that was stupid on my part to medicate first.

i see 2 white dots on the very edge of my sick fishs' fintail. they appear to be about the size of the point of a pin. is this something i should be concerned with?
a few days ago i saw what appeared to be the same thing, on the other side but a little larger. it was only there for a few hours and then it was gone.

the instructions tell me that any sudden change in conditions may be hazardous. what exactally does that mean??? it also says do a 25% water change after full course of treatment. i am afraid to wait that long seeing how my ammonia level is high. and i was adivised to keep my water conditions right now as perfect as i can.

i will wait to do anything until i get some feedback. if anyone feels that i dont have proper information...please let me know. i have received so much info over the past few weeks i feel like a mushroom.......thanks to all who have so kindly helped!

Chris

I see this stuff on the side of my tank, opposite the filter, same end of the tank. I assume it is algae. Should this be forming? Can anyone give me some inisght as to ,my post above... i would appreciate it

Chris

hey there I do not know if i can help but i wil try..

removing carbon for meds was the right thing to do

when your amonia hit 4.0, this is VERY high so yes I think your right in asuming the water was a problem.
What is the amonia now??????
If you have amonia still then yes do waterchanges to get it down...as for the meds..they wont work in bad water.
So do the changes, get the fish in great water and then you need to replace the Meds that the waterchange took out.

As for the suden changes....that normally implies a change in temp or PH
so when you do a watercahange make sure the temp is the same and the PH is the same when you add the new water.

As for waiting........NO if the amonia is high do not wait, do the waterchange then replace the meds.

When I teated Fred I had to do alot of waterchanges so I also had to replace meds, its expensive, but its better then letting the fish swim in toxic water in which the meds wont work anyway.

As for the white dots...... lets just do the water first and observe, good water may fix this too...if not then we can look into it further.

Hello!

The white dots could either be breeding stars (commonly found on the gills) or it could be ich. Is the area around them fuzzy looking at all or clear?

Also, when I am treating for dropsy, I always use epsom salt to aid in the swelling. The dosage is: 1/8 of a teaspoon to 5 gallons of water. I am really not sure if the epsom salt should be used in conjunction with the aquarium salt so maybe someone else could confirm before you go ahead and try that.

That is correct you do not want both in the tank at the same time.

I use salt for tonic or parasites and many treatments..its a wonder drug!!!

I use Epsom for dropsy

Dont put both in the tank at the same time

See, I never use aquarium salt, so I do not know much about it. But, I did figure that they should not be used together. Thanks.

Have an update on your fish, Goldfish Rookie?

The fish that had dropsy died about a week ago. Seemed like everything i did wasnt enough.

Thank you for asking!

Oh, I am so sorry to hear that - dropsy can be such a tricky thing to get a handle on! I hope your other fish are doing okay....