Hello all!

First of all, I have a confession to make. I haven't been a very good goldfish owner up to this point. But, I'm trying to change my ways.

I am a teacher, and about 3 years ago a student teacher of mine showed up with 7 goldfish in a 1-gallon tank. By the time her term was over, 6 of them had died, and she didn't take the one remaining fish with her. Well, I wasn't going to kill the fish, so I took care of it. Well, I know (now) that they generally don't do well in such a small tank, but this fish seemed to thrive. I changed the water completely about once every 2-4 weeks, and fed it daily, but that was about it. It turned white but other than that seemed fine.

About a year ago, something happened to that tank, so I upgraded to a 2.5 gallon tank. The fish still did fine- this is one tough goldfish! Last week, I made the mistake of adding a second fish. A week later, one of my students noticed that the older fish was just sitting on the bottom and not really moving. I took a look at it and noticed white spots, at that point just on its tail. The other fish still looked fine, maybe a few white spots, but not nearly as many.

I couldn't get any fish medications that day (this was last Friday), because I work kinda out in the sticks, and nobody near there had even heard of fish medicine. So, I changed half of the water and took in some medicine the next day.

I got some aquarium salt and some "tank buddies" ick clear dissolving tablets (the stuff that turns the water purple), and yesterday I changed half the water, then added 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 tablet of the ick clear (one tablet does 10 gallons).

I do use water conditioner, I got some kind in a yellow bottle because it gives directions in "drops per gallon" which works well. I don't have containers to leave water sitting out for 24 hours (plus this has been an emergency so I've needed the new water NOW), but I go add the conditioner and try to match the temperature.

The fish looked about the same yesterday, except the new little one looked sicker. I also noticed that both now have tail rot, I don't think either did on Friday.

Well, last night I discovered this site and was reading about fish care. I realized that I had an old 10 gallon tank in my classroom closet that I usually use when we hatch butterflies. Today I went in and set it up. The old fish looks about the same, but I think the new fish died in the old tank while I was setting up the new one.

So now I guess I have one goldfish in a 10 gallon tank, like I'm supposed to have. I put the water bubbler from the small tank in, and am holding it down to the bottom with a carved rock from the old tank. I didn't move the gravel over from the old tank. There's not nearly enough, and I figure that it has ick in it. I filled the tank, then added the water conditioner, then put one of the ick cure tablets in, then the fish. I didn't add any water from the old tank but I tried to match temperatures.

I haven't put any salt in, because it sounds like the salt and the tablets might not interact well. I figured that I'd use the medication for a couple of days, then salt the water for a few weeks until the fish is completely better (if it gets completely better).

My question is- do you think it's too late for my surviving fish? It pretty much just hangs out at the bottom, and its tail is about half gone (the "bones" are longer though) and the tail also has red streaks. But, it does swim around when there's stuff happening, and it will go up and eat.

Also, in the new tank, what should I go from here on out to help it get better? Should I keep changing out 50% of the water every day? Should I stop using the tablets and start salting? If so, how much salt should I use?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Hi Zelanie and

I think the best way to cure your fish of ich is by adding 1 teaspoon of sea, rock or aquarium salt per gallon - taking you to 0.1%. Then 12 hours later - add the same again taking you to 0.2% and 12 hours after that - the same again taking you to 0.3% (predissolve the salt first).

A salinity level of 0.3% will destroy ich and once you reach this level, try to keep it there for a good 2 weeks.

Just on the new tank - kudos for setting up the 10 gallon Is there any way you can add a decent filter? The reason being it's essential to water maintenance to have something to convert harmful ammonia and setting up good filtration does this. It cycles in roughly 6-8 weeks reducing the need to do massive daily waterchanges. Once the filter houses enough beneficial bacteria, it converts both harmful ammonia and nitrites into less harmful nitrates which are kept at safe levels by weekly waterchanges.

Stress is the biggest contributor to an infestation of ich - but it needs to be present in the water for this to happen and water quality is the biggest stressor to fish, even with a hint of ammonia in the water. As fish release ammonia via the gills and waste - it's an ever present factor in a tank but is easily converted with fully cycled filtration.

So for now, I would go with the salt and excellent water. Another important thing to fish health is test kits for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and ph. This way you would know when it's necessary to change the water - especially in the first 8 weeks of setting up filtration. Without filtration, the the water quality will be an ever present issue - especially when it needs to be changed daily for continued good health.

Hopefully this helps

Thanks for the reply. The fishie is still hanging in there, but he still doesn't look too good. His dorsal fin was up for the first time since Thursday, BUT, he didn't eat anything today (he's been eating fine until now).

I added the first dose of (dissolved) salt this morning to 0.1%, plus did a 50% water change midday (adding back in the removed salt). This evening I added enough salt to go to 0.2%. Tomorrow I'll add the last batch of salt, plus continue the daily water changes, replacing the salt that's been taken out with the water. Hopefully that's enough to do the trick.

I will look into getting a filter and a test kit when I can.

I am a bit concerned about the water at my school, now that I think about it. The fish had lived on school water all year last year (very old school and pipes), but had been home all summer until last week. We are not on the same municipal water source as the school. I took out about 75% of the home water to transport the fish, and since then its been school water. Maybe it was good enough under non-streessful conditions, but I suppose there could be an issue when combined with all the other changes that are going on.

I'll try to look into it, but in the mean time, it's lots of water changes and salt.

Unfortunately, the fishie was dead when I came in this morning. I wish that I would have looked up the information about how to care for him before he got sick instead of afterwards.

RIP Angel/Dori (the kids rename him every year or so). Our classroom is definitely a much lonelier place now.

Oh no I'm so sorry