Just curious... what's the most commonly seen goldie disease in pet store goldfish (while at the store)?

I have been going to lots of pet stores lately and have been seeing a good amount of Ich. Also seeing whatever it is that gives fish black eyes. :-(

What should I look for if I'm trying to scope out a REALLY healthy goldie from a pet store?

FTB

FTB, a good thing to do when choosing a gf from a store is to hang around the tank and watch them. I often spend an hour just watching, really "inspecting" the fish and it's tank mates.
Watching a fish for a while will tell you alot about it. Any swimming issues, parasite problems, sores even defects that you would normally miss on a quick look.

I have seem alot of ich, parasites, bacterial infections and SBD on many fish so to say there is one higher than another I think just depends on alot of factors.

I've seen TONS of ich and fin rot...usually both at the same time I've seen a few anchor worms and I've seen dropsy once. Most of the time the fish are sick from some unapparent illness

Ick/Fin Rot, is probably the fastest/most spotted illness's in fish.Just the fact that fish are shipped is enough to bring it out with the stress and water quality involved.People always want to blame the Pet Stores right off the bat,not realizing that most times fish do come in that way.

I've seen anchor worm, cotton mouth, dropsy, fish lice, ich and various fungal infections at different times in different stores. Yeah fin rot & SBD too.

I know there is a certain amount of dead/dying fish at the lps - but I like to see that they remove them regularly & not leave them to be eatern/infect other fish

I usually ask if they have a central filtration unit or if the tanks are each on their own (or which ones share) if I see something in one tank that looks nasty.

In my local pet stores it is usually the worst after a new shipment. There are a couple of suppliers that really are terrible & I know those fish will be sick. Also I see more ich when the weather is changing (like winter to spring).

I've bought fish with ich (not terrible cases) (as I have been pretty successful treating it & I have a QT tank) but I pretty much draw the line at anything else.

I agree with Laurie - watch the fish carefully.

Sorry to interrupt but i dont think the goldfishes having black eyes is an ailment is it?i have a healtyhy calico fantail that had that since i bought him and he seems to see just fine..i kind of just thought it was his pigmentation?

Calico fish often have black eyes and their gills look redder too through the transparent membrane of the skin. I'm not sure what FTB meant about the black eyes though.

I've seen: fish lice, anchorworm, columnaris, sbd, fin rot, ulcers, dropsy [I see this one in alarming numbers], mouth rot, ich [not as often as you'd think, but a lot], and some diseases that aren't usually seen in goldies. I've seen Oscars with massive cases of hole-in-the-head.


Rai