I had this in discussion, but no one answered, so I moved it here:

Test Results for the Following:
Ammonia Level? 0
Nitrite Level? 0
Nitrate level? 40
Ph Level, (If possible,KH and GH and chloramines)? approx. 7.2
Tank size (How many Gals) and How long has it been running? 5 gall...around 3 months or a little longer (i know it's too small)
What is the name and size of the filter/s? aqua-tech 5 gall
How often do you change the water and how much? 60% every other day now
How many fish in the tank and their size? 2 1inch goldfish, and one pleco
What kind of water additives or conditioners? just hartz all-in-one dechlorinator
Any medications added to the tank? not at the moment
Add any new fish to the tank? no
What do you feed your fish? flakes

After I had a black moore die the other day, all of the sudden this fish has one cloudy eye, and his fins are frayed a little, bent on one side, and the tail appears to be shredding in one spot. He's acting completely healthy and still eating. What can I do to cure this other than water changes? Also, the other goldfish's tail appears to be fraying a tad as well.

I cleaned the tank REALLY good the day before yesterday when it started. I'll clean it today, too, but I have to work until 8pm, so I can't do it until then.

You can see the cloudy eye in these a bit and the bend is right where the tail meets the body. It wasn't like that before. Also, in the last picture, you can kinda see the little brown thing sticking up from the tale. That's a little shred of tail sticking up where that part of the tail is dying due to being off of the rest of the tail. It kinda looks like he has some scales missing also.

http://photobucket.com/albums/v454/iloveru...nt=PC040180.jpg

http://photobucket.com/albums/v454/iloveru...nt=PC040175.jpg

http://photobucket.com/albums/v454/iloveru...nt=PC040178.jpg

aww i'm sure everyone's been a little bit busy this week, getting back to daily routine after a lazy thanksgiving, and i'm sure you'll get some good help soon.

i'm thinking water changes are the best thing since the tank is overstocked, and what kind of pleco do you have by the way? the pH is also a little bit on the low side.

i'm sure someone else will come along and give you some better advice soon, and you might wanna look into doing daily water changes since the tank is small.

I've got bullseye 7.0, but I was told that stresses the fish, so I haven't used it. Any other way to get the pH right?

And how do I tell what kind of pleco I have? He's a small one. He's not out much. Always under the stone thingy in the tank.

mm i don't know about bullseye. i've never tried it, but you can start by testing the pH in your tap water, and comparing it to the pH in your tank. i know some people on this forum know about how to safely increase you pH by using certain things like crushed coral and stuff (but i don't know anything about it.) hopefully someone will come along with the experience you need.

and can you describe the pleco, what color it is? or find a picture online of what it looks like? i know that common plecos are a kind of dark brown color with tan-ish spots. chinese algae eaters (commonly mistaken for a type of pleco) are white with mm i think some black stripes... but those are the only two i've ever owned. so it would be best if you could find a picture or take a picture of yours. most plecos are not compatible with goldfish.. which is why i mentioned it.

The people at Petco said he was compatible. He never bothers the goldfish. You can kind of see him in this picture... http://photobucket.com/albums/v454/iloveru...nt=PC040175.jpg

hmm it says "photo not found"?

one thing i've learned from this forum is that petstore people aren't always right. heh.. most of them will sell you a goldfish even if you don't have a minimum of 10 gal. to keep it in. which is why a lot of people end up here looking for answers to why their goldfish are sick.

but yeah... perhaps try re-uploading the photo?

It's the middle photo from above. Those links seem to be working.

hmm it still takes me to a page not found, click to redirect page. did you copy and paste the entire url link? perhaps it's because it does the first part of the URL, then ... then the end part and not the whole thing on the link. =)

http://photobucket.com/albums/v454/iloveru...nt=PC040175.jpg

Picture of fish with pleco in background

Yeah, I copied and pasted the whole thing. It just shows up like that. Oh, the other fish that just has a little bit of a frayed tail just had poop that was half green and half black....don't know if that means anything or not.

OH, and I put a tbsp of aquarium salt in the tank just to see.

i believe that is a common pleco. from what i've read from this forum, they are relatively docile until they grow to be 5-6 inches+ then they begin to suck on the goldfish slime coat, sometimes removing it to the point where the goldies will be very suceptible to disease...

i'm sure you've already read this, but it's recommended to have a minimum of 10 gal. per goldfish, and 10-20 for the common pleco. (they get to be VERY big)... i have one back home in arizona that we bought as a small maybe 3 inch and is now maybe 5-6 inches maybe more... it outgrew the decoration thing we bought for it to hide in.

good call on adding the aquarium salt. it's usually 1 tbsp/ 10 gallons for a 0.1% solution, so yours is 0.2%. keep an eye on your fishies to make sure they are dealing with the new salinity well. (and keep an eye on the pleco). hehe. other than that, i think the only thing i can recommend is maybe getting a bigger tank.

oh and i know melafix helps to repair damaged fins. i don't know about the missing scales though and if it's even a good idea since your running a 5 gallon. but if you do decide to use it, you'll need to remove the carbon from your filter... i'd wait till someone else gives you some advice before medicating... haha i'm relatively new at this too!

My box says 1 tbsp for 5 gallons, so that's what I added. So far I haven't noticed him even bothering the goldfish, but I'm not awake all night when he's actually up and running. But, I don't think he's the problem anyway. Maybe fungus or bacteria. I'm not sure what to treat for, and I hope someone has a good answer for me as to what they might have and what I should do.

Fish still the same...anyone know what I can do???

Hi there iloverusti

Frayed fins can be caused by a few different things ie.

- Fin nipping
- Parasites
- Deteriorating water quality, poor filtration, or high bacterial counts
OR
- Poor nutrition

I have a couple of questions for you:

- how long have you had your fish?
- any new plant additions?
- is there any improvement since adding the aquarium salt?
- do they spit out their food?
- any flashing etc? (based on scale loss)
- how does their poop look? Thick and brownish in colour? or long, white and stringy?

Cloudy eye, if not caused by trauma, is usually due to flexobacterial infection which can also explain the frayed fins.

There's a couple of suggestion I'd like to make here which should hopefully show some improvement and they're:

- up the salt to 0.3%. So youve already added the first 0.1%(1tbs per 5 gall).. so using sea, rock or aquarium salt, add another tablespoon per 5 gallons, then 12 hours later, the last tablespoon per 5 gallons. Doing regular waterchanges will be tricky but if you can measure out water removal by the gallon, you can calculate how much salt will need to be replaced (ie. 1 teaspoon per gallon)

- Are you able to get any medicated food? Medigold is an excellent treatment and can be purchased online through www.goldfishconnection.com. It treats most bacterial infections as it's readily ingested therefore treats internally...

- Is there any way you can get your hands on a bigger tub? They really are overcrowded as you know which puts burden on their ability to fight off illness. I used the tub below when I needed to house some of my fish temporarily and rigged up a couple of filters and airstone. It holds roughly 20 gallons of water

Perhaps you can set up something temporarily? Especially while they're a bit stressed?



Please post back soon

I just realised you've already posted about this in another thread ... so has their condition deteriorated badly since you last posted?

I pretty much said the same thing in this thread that I said in the other....

Just one more question - was there no improvement once you added the fizzy tablet? What are the meds you used?

No, they haven't been spitting out their food. They're actually quite active and normal acting, BUT their appearance is terrible, so they obviously can't be healthy. No new plants. What is flashing? The poop was brown, but one time when I looked, it was half greenish and half blackish. Wouldn't the medigold take too long to get here?

I just used to fizzy tablet for one day instead of 3. No improvement for the one day. They haven't gotten better or worse since yesterday, but the cloudy eye is still there and the fins still look pretty bad on the one. I have only put 1 tbsp of salt in so far, but after I change the water today, I will add some more. So far the salt hasn't seemed to help. If I do the .3%, should that help with the cloudy eye and fins?

Just changed water and added more salt to .2%. The other goldfish in the tank's tail is starting to deteriorate more, and his dorsal fin has a split in it.

I hope all this salt isn't bad for the pleco....

Fishies acting lethargic and just hanging around at the bottom now that I added more salt.

Ever since I added the salt to 0.2% today, the goldfish have been just staying at the bottom of the tank? Do they normally do this when extra salt is added or are they just getting worse? What else should I be doing to get them better?

Salt shouldn't hurt them so it may be due to an internal bacterial infection and salt won't cure this. It will help keep the bacterial count in your tank down but you'll need to try to get your hands on some meds.

Medigold from goldfishconnection.com only takes a couple of days to deliver (if you're in the States) so i'd would try to purchase some asap then start feeding straight away.

They're acting normal again starting last night and this morning...sheesh. Still look terrible, though.

What about Maracyn 2...would that work, also?

M2 works well as a broad spectrum antibiotic. I'm just not sure how it can affect your pleco tho - it should be ok but hopefully someone else can advise on this.

Iloverustl, how are your fish doing these days? Looking better?