I have an oranda gold fish that has just developed what looks like a blood blister on its head and redish gills.

sorry for the bad quality of images. I cant get a good one of the blister face on....

red gills

blister

profile.

the blister is about the same size as its eye, which is a white skin bubble (just like you get with rubbing shoes) with blood pool underneath,

the tank it a 30 l biorb, with the filterand water changed 3 weeks ago. due for new filter and water change in a week ( i do this every 4 weeks)

The water quality is - ph 6.8 nitrate 30 ppm (mg/L) ammonia 0.5 ppm (mg/L)

The tanks been running since november,

I have had the oranda for 6 weeks, i also have a perlscale and a fantail.

no medications added to the tank.

i feed them floating goldfish sticks with treats of blood worm and brine shrimps.

behaviour is absolutly normal, hes a bit calmer than the other two, bit always has been.

I don't have a spare tank to isolate, but can buy one tomorrow it its nessesery, or is ok treat in the same tank as others?

Any ideas?

Thank you
catieblink

(specks are flash on dust on out side of tank, not in the tank)

Hi and welcome to the site.

Sorry to hear your fish isn't doing well. I can start off first with the bad news. An orb tank is not big enough or correctly built to handle gf. I know they advertise them with it, but in truth they are death traps for goldies.
GF need 10-20 gals of water each. This is to handle their waste and toxins they produce. Exactly how many gals is the orb?

Also I can tell that the water quality is bad. There should be no ammonia in that tank. And I don't see a nitrite reading. This is as important as the ammonia.
ONe of the problems with the orbs is the filter system. Changing it all the time is bad, hurts the biological cycle of the tank.

ARe you able to upgrade their tank?

While you get back to us I can recommend a 50% water change. AT this point meds aren't going to help until the water issue is taking care of. Post back soon.

its a 30 litre tank with 3 fish. the oranda and pearl scale are about 3 inches long and the fantail is a bit smaller)

the nitrate level is nitrate 30 ppm (mg/L)

Im was getting a cayman 80 tank ontuesday anyway, Holds 120 Litres, but this wil take a couple of days to set up.

I wil do a water change. is there anything else i should do till the new tank is set up?

(what would you recomend keeping in a 30 gal biorb?)

thanks
catieblink

done water change. ..

does anyone know what this blister thing actually is or seen one before. I cant find anything similar on the web?

catieblink

Ok your 120 litre tank is about 31 US gallons. So that will be fine for the fish. What I would recommend is to use the water from the orb to kick start the new tank. Then put the fish in. Hopefully this is seed the tank with some new bacteria to help with the tank's cycle.

With this new tank you are going to have to test the levels everyday to make sure they are staying ok for the fish, since the tank will cycle.
Are you familar with cycling a tank? If not I suggest reading up on it, for it can seem overwhelming.

The blister could be a symptom of bad water. We won't really know until the water gets good and stays that way.

Biorbs are good for a few tropical fish, such as guppys or tetras.

How are things?

after the water change i added some 'bacteria control' from 'king british'

The blood in the blister has completely gone and the blister size is reducing, the gills are still a bit red bit a bit better. Tomorrow it says to do another water change and add another dose.

The other tank is almost set up, but i thought its best to leave it set up and funning for a few weeks before transering the fish, especially since he seems to be on the mend.

Any other tips?

There is no point in running a tank for a few weeks unless you are cycling it, are you cycling it or just leaving it to run? A fishless cycle requires a source of ammonia to kick start the filter.

sorry im a real nube to all of this.....

i have the 30 gal tank set up, with a bluewave 05 filter.
Its got 2 airstones. (is 2 too many?)
and im adding plants tomorrow.

Should i put the fish straight in with some of their water? or if not what do i add to start it?


Fish looking a lot better, almost all the red has gone. Ive done 2nd half-water change and re added meds. and water qaulity now fine. No amonia.


Can you keep any goldfish in a 30L biorb. Biorb say you can keep 3 goldfish in there. But if this is too small is ok for say, one and 6 minows? or are they really only ok for tropical small fish? I would have to buy a heater for it.

thanks for all your help!

Catieblink

You could try 4 white cloud minnows in the biorb.

2 airstones are fine and you need to cycle the tank before adding any fish. Add some flake food to the intake each day on the filter and pretty soon you should see an ammonia reading. Keep a log of the date and ammonia tested and keep feeding a pinch of flake to the filter until you get a nitrite reading. Lessen the amount of flake and feed the intake every two days now and once the ammonia level goes away and the nitrites start to go down you can add one goldfish. Once the goldie has been in a few days and you dont get an ammonia spike then add the other fish slowly over the following days and keep an eye out for any changes in the ammonia and nitrites. When the nitrate level starts to climb do a 25% water change.

thanks for the help sandy, i wil do that!