is ammonia burns only on the scales or does it show up on fins too? I noticed later on today that pato's finds have a little black on them. Doesn't look like burns. more like he's changing colors. But do ryukins turn a little black??? Pinto, my oranda doesn't show any signs of ammonia burning anywhere. But I took him out anyways. Is the black markings that are now showing up on his fins ammonia burn or him changing colors??? And how do I stop it. I checked my ammonia reading and it's on he lowest color which it says ideal. Plus, he's not acting any different. Please help!

Usually when fish change color,they don't normally change to black.My guess would be that he suffered some ammonia burn.The thing about the black color is that it shows up after the burn begins to heal,which is why your reading would make more sense. Maybe he's lucky and it's just the tips of his fins that got a bit of burn.It usually takes a couple weeks and then he should be back to normal.Sometimes it happens faster,it really depends on how bad it was. So.....As long as your params are now kept pristene,he shouldn't have that problem anymore.

So then he's healing from it right now? Cause the book I have don't mention anything about ammonia burn. Don't really go into detail about illnesses. But my params never read bad. That's the weird thing. Now will he loose that black color then after he's healed up? Will his fins be damaged? And it wasn't the tips of his fins, it was either in the middle or close to his body. Also on his gill covering now.

I need a goldfish hotline. lol You know how they have a homework hotline sometimes or a gay hotline. lol.

AARRGGHHH.. he keeps getting more and more blackness. I did a water change last night I forgot to mention and I did one again a few minutes ago. But from last night to now he's had a lot more blackness added to him. I'm worried. He's not acting strange. He's acting completely normal and moving around and eating and very alert. I just don't know why it won't stop coming. The filter I have on there is for a 20 gallon and he's in a 10 gallon. I took the oranda out so why does it keep showing up?

I don't know what else to do. I tried to call petsmart where I got him but they don't know what to do. They've never even heard of ammonia burn. I just don't want him to die. I don't think he would cause he acts like nothing's wrong. But I don't want him to get damaged even more.

i guess nobody knows the answer

Patch the first thing you need to do is get drop tests that give an acutal number for ammonia. I assume the readings of "ideal" you get are from tests that don't give actual information. Those can be very misleading and when "safe or ideal" is the result you will often find traces of ammonia in the water.
So that is where to start. Drop tests are recommended for all chemistries not just ammonia.

Now I would also suggest that you provide the rest of the information asked above in the box. See it is hard to diagnos things without this information. It is like a puzzle, can't put it together with some pieces missing. So get back to us asap and we can help you more.

For now I would suggest doing a 30% water change. Make sure that the water is the same temp. And I ask that you know the ph as well. Doing water changes can often be more of a problem if you don't know the ph.
Lastly (until we know more) I would hold off feeding them. Fasting a fish for a couple days is ok. Less food, less waste which is best if you are having water quality issues.

Hang in there, we are here but you do have to be patient....ok?

When suffering from Ammonia burn,a fish just doesn't turn black completely= immediately As I said,when the problem is fixed,and the fish begins to heal,is when the black starts to appear.It may take a few days to all show up.Every black spot that you see appear is where ammonia has burned him. Once the black shows up,it will then start to go away. You must keep your water params perfect.
You say that your params never read bad,but at some point,they must have,whether it was a spike,or you missed a water change.As Laurie said though,we do need to know all your number's to see what you need to do,to keep this from happening again.
The more info that you provide from the top questions that we have above,the more help that we can give you.Your fish turning black was pretty easy to diagnose,but if you would have had any other problems,we wouldn't have been able to help you with the amount of information that you've given. The more we know,the better we can help your fish.