I have a ruiken, almost a year old, and she needs some help! Her fins became somewhat tathered a few days ago but seem like they are starting to heal. for the past 2 or 3 days, i've noticed she hangs out at the top quite a bit, but today she has been very lethargic hanging out at the top. She hasn't been eating much and is now looking more bloated than usual and her scales are starting to stick out slightly. she's also been pooping white stringy poo. I've had other goldfish die several months ago with dropsey, and they didn't react to the Melafix antibacterial remedy, which actually turned the water green and took a month to cycle out. She survived through that and is now sick...1st thing in the morning i want to run to the pet store and get medicine, but i'm not sure if i should treat for bacterial or parasite. I hope the other symptoms listed will help diagnose! the water levels are good. i do also have a bubble strip and live plants in addition to the filter.

Ammonia Level? 0ppm
Nitrite Level? 0ppm
Nitrate level? 10 ppm
Ph Level 7.2
Ph Level out of the Tap? not sure
Tank size (How many Gals) and How long has it been running? 55 gals 11 months
What is the name and size of the filter/s? whisper 60
How often do you change the water and how much? 25% once a month
How many fish in the tank and their size? 6 fish (4 are 3 inches, 2 are 4 inches)
What kind of water additives or conditioners? Aqua safe
Any medications added to the tank? regularly aquarium salt
Add any new fish to the tank? no
What do you feed your fish? slow sinking pelets and/or flakes
Any unusual findings on the fish such as "grains of salt", no
bloody streaks, frayed fins or fungus? frayed fins
Any unusual behavior like staying at the bottom, not eating, ect..? eats less, hangs out at top, skims top

Hiya blueeyes and i'm sorry your fish is doing poorly

It sounds like a bad bacterial infection which could be brought on by 2 things. If she was stressed even a little, her immunity could have taken a bit of a beating. The only thing that stops real bacteria from invading is excellent water and while your readings are excellent, there's still the things we can't see or test for.

I think in a 55 gallon with 6 fish, it's important to have 10 x gph filtration (or more) and the whisper only filters 330 gph, plus you have a heavy load with 6 fish - even though your only slightly overstocked. So with only doing 25% waterchanges monthly, the bacterial count in your water will continue to build and the only way to keep this under control is with weekly waterchanges of at least 25%.

I think the best thing to do would be to separate her into a big tub (of about 10 gallons) with an airstone and see if you can get some Maracyn Two. It's excellent for gram negative bacteria and most pathogens are gram negative.. It will mean doing daily waterchanges or getting a product like Prime to detoxify any ammonia buildup but it should help her. I wouldn't get any melafix as it's an exterior antiseptic that won't unfortunately help with internal bacteria.

Hopefully this helps

double post

Edited by Ranchugirl

read the articles here on dropsy and do exactly as koko says. you may be able to save the fish. 'f1shface' date='Dec 20 2006, 07:48 AM' post='613888']

I just woke up and checked on her. she's a little more active, but she now has another problem and i think it's why she's more active! Her fins have small white fluffy spots. It doesn't look like ich b/c it's not grainy looking. I'm going to go to nnnnnn today and pick up the $20 10 gallon kit to quarantine her, and then to petstores to see if i can find her some medicines....will maracyn 2 treat just for bacterial?

Yes they can treat bacterial infections.
Not sure that is what you are seeing now, but I think quarentineing her is step one.

If you can keep her in perfect water conditions for a bit that may help as well.

Thank you everyone for your help. Unfortunatly, Nona passed away today before we could get her the medicine. I feel so bad b/c she was my husband's baby, and i didn't get a chance to save her. But i know we gave her a good life over the past 11 months, and now we will be taking precautions with the rest of our fish to make sure they aren't sick too.
I did forget to mention that the other fish are not goldfish...we have a habit of taking in fish from our military neighbors when they move and can't trasport the fish. We have 3 cory, 1 placastamus and 1 gouramy (sorry for spellings). The tank looks so empty now without nona!

I am sorry to hear that she didn't make it. If we can be of any other help let us know.

what's really weird about this is that my other fancy goldfish died of the same (dropsy) and the other fish (non-goldfish) have not had a single problem. Are the goldfish just more prone to these type of bacterial infections? As much as i love goldies, i may be switching to tropical in a month, once the tank is 100% safe again.

It is hard to say why the fish are getting sick.
See Dropsy is a condition not a disease itself. So there is an underlying problem. Whether it is water quality (which is possible) or something else, well it is hard to say at this point.

GF are very hardy fish and are easy to have once you have the water under control and keep it that way.
I am not an expert on tropicals so I can't say what would be best.
However I wish you luck with what decision you make.