Help! I brought my goldfish home over the school winter break, and they developed lots of bad symptoms! I Have six goldfish (a panda, a fantail/oranda mix, a pearlscale, and 3 ryunkins), and they all live in a 28gal tank. They were doing fine for almost a year, but then I brought them home. At home they didnt get the best conditions...they were split into two groups, one tank of 3gals, the other 4 gals, no filtration but with airstones. I did daily water changes, but unfortunately had to ccaatch them by hand because i had no net (prolly messed up the slime coat badly). They were fine then. But when I brought them back to their 28gal (had been filtering for two weeks with no fish) they suddently developed patches of white cottony fungus on their tails. They are not regular circle patches, but irregularily shaped patches of fungus, not trailing. The pearlscale started losing gigantic patches of scales (no fungus), and a split caudal fin. The fantail, who has the worst fungal infection is also losing scales all over his body. One of the ryunkins is developing pink skin/irritated skin, as well as the pearlscale. What medications can I do? Maracyn-2? Is it Bacterial Hemorrhagic Septicemia? We already cleaned out the entire tank, dumped out the old water, and are re-cycing the biowheel (all the fish now in small hospitals). They had been treated with maroxy and pimafix with a .2 salt fix, and iodine on the spots of fungus. The amonia is always treated with amquel, but the ph level is always around 6. Nitrite and nitrate 0. The filter is a marineland penguin 200. They are fed Hikari Ranchu baby gold (sinking). They all eat well and are very active...HELP! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi solangiana and 
, although I'm sorry to hear that your fish are ill. There will be a mod or helper on here soon to help you diagnose what is going on with your fish. The main thing I noticed with your post is that you are severely overstocked in your tank. The general rule of thumb here at Koko's is 10 gallons for each fancy goldfish and 20 gallons for each comet. For example, I have a 30 gallon with one fantail and one comet, and that is the maximum number of fish that I can safely keep in this tank. The only other thing I noticed was that your PH is somewhat low. From what I have learned here goldies prefer and thrive in a PH of 7 or above.
And is your tank cycled yet? 0 nitrates indicates that maybe your cycle isn't doing right, but I'm sure they'll advise you about that.
I understand that your fish have been doing fine in the smaller tank. Many of us first came here with the same problems, and fish that we thought were doing fine. The problem is that suddenly something happens and things start going downhill very quickly. It may have been the stress of taking them home for break, although it was great of you to care enough about them to take them home with you!
Like I said I'm sure someone will be on to help you soon, and good luck. You came to the right place for help and I'm sure your fish will be on the road back to health very soon.
One thing...while you're waiting for a mod or helper...you didn't mention how often you're doing water changes right now, but for the moment I'd concentrate on keeping those up to keep them in pristine water. That will help them a lot for now.
, although I'm sorry to hear that your fish are ill. There will be a mod or helper on here soon to help you diagnose what is going on with your fish. The main thing I noticed with your post is that you are severely overstocked in your tank. The general rule of thumb here at Koko's is 10 gallons for each fancy goldfish and 20 gallons for each comet. For example, I have a 30 gallon with one fantail and one comet, and that is the maximum number of fish that I can safely keep in this tank. The only other thing I noticed was that your PH is somewhat low. From what I have learned here goldies prefer and thrive in a PH of 7 or above. And is your tank cycled yet? 0 nitrates indicates that maybe your cycle isn't doing right, but I'm sure they'll advise you about that.
I understand that your fish have been doing fine in the smaller tank. Many of us first came here with the same problems, and fish that we thought were doing fine. The problem is that suddenly something happens and things start going downhill very quickly. It may have been the stress of taking them home for break, although it was great of you to care enough about them to take them home with you!
Like I said I'm sure someone will be on to help you soon, and good luck. You came to the right place for help and I'm sure your fish will be on the road back to health very soon.
One thing...while you're waiting for a mod or helper...you didn't mention how often you're doing water changes right now, but for the moment I'd concentrate on keeping those up to keep them in pristine water. That will help them a lot for now.
Welcome to the board, Solangiana - sorry your fish are in such a bad way. Let's see if we can help you out.
First of all, your initial problem has been overcrowding. You've had 6 fish crammed into space for only 3. Gfish have an enormously high waste output which is why we recommend at least 10 gals per fancy in addition to a strong filter turning the over at a rate of 10x the tank capacity p/hr. The filter not only removes solid waste and debris, but more importantly grows a colony of beneficial bacteria which convert the fishes waste (ammonia) into relatively harmless nitrates.
By having so many in a tank, the level of organic waste will have risen above healthy levels causing their immune systems to become weakened.
So then came the second problem; you removed them for the holidays to even smaller tanks with no filtration. This meant that that there was nothing to process their ammonia, which in such a tiny space will have become extremely toxic in no time. (Don't worry too much about hand-catching them - this is much better than using a net.) And then, by the time your returned them to the 29g tank the bacterial colony would have died through the absence of ammonia to feed it. So toxic water all over again. Yikes! If after all that you add medicine to toxic water you really start to get into trouble.
So, the first thing to do is a massive water change. Try to match the temperature as best you can. This will relieve the fish of huge levels of ammonia and nitrite in addition to a very acidic PH which they cannot tolerate. These conditions will be wreaking havoc with their skin and gills.
Next - please read the 2 links below my signature so that you better understand the basics, in terms of their needs and how the water chemistry works.
Do you have a test kit for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate? If not you would do well to get hold of one ASAP so that you can keep on top of their water while you re-cycle the filter. Ammonia and nitrite must be kept below 1ppm.
Beyond these initial emergency measures you will be needing to aquire another 30 gals of space in order that they can have the room they need. Harmful bacteria quickly builds up in an overcrowded and underfiltered tank which will lead to disease.
As far as treating the fish goes, we need to get the water pristine before any diagnoses can be accurately made - treatments should not be run in toxic water. Often, many symptoms will disappear once the water is right.
Please post back with your water readings as soon as you can and we can try to help you turn the fish around.
Don't be put off by what must sound like an awful assessment - many of us arrived here as a result of very simillar circumstances and have gone on to become very good fishkeepers.
Let us know how you're doing. OK?
First of all, your initial problem has been overcrowding. You've had 6 fish crammed into space for only 3. Gfish have an enormously high waste output which is why we recommend at least 10 gals per fancy in addition to a strong filter turning the over at a rate of 10x the tank capacity p/hr. The filter not only removes solid waste and debris, but more importantly grows a colony of beneficial bacteria which convert the fishes waste (ammonia) into relatively harmless nitrates.
By having so many in a tank, the level of organic waste will have risen above healthy levels causing their immune systems to become weakened.
So then came the second problem; you removed them for the holidays to even smaller tanks with no filtration. This meant that that there was nothing to process their ammonia, which in such a tiny space will have become extremely toxic in no time. (Don't worry too much about hand-catching them - this is much better than using a net.) And then, by the time your returned them to the 29g tank the bacterial colony would have died through the absence of ammonia to feed it. So toxic water all over again. Yikes! If after all that you add medicine to toxic water you really start to get into trouble.
So, the first thing to do is a massive water change. Try to match the temperature as best you can. This will relieve the fish of huge levels of ammonia and nitrite in addition to a very acidic PH which they cannot tolerate. These conditions will be wreaking havoc with their skin and gills.
Next - please read the 2 links below my signature so that you better understand the basics, in terms of their needs and how the water chemistry works.
Do you have a test kit for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate? If not you would do well to get hold of one ASAP so that you can keep on top of their water while you re-cycle the filter. Ammonia and nitrite must be kept below 1ppm.
Beyond these initial emergency measures you will be needing to aquire another 30 gals of space in order that they can have the room they need. Harmful bacteria quickly builds up in an overcrowded and underfiltered tank which will lead to disease.
As far as treating the fish goes, we need to get the water pristine before any diagnoses can be accurately made - treatments should not be run in toxic water. Often, many symptoms will disappear once the water is right.
Please post back with your water readings as soon as you can and we can try to help you turn the fish around.
Don't be put off by what must sound like an awful assessment - many of us arrived here as a result of very simillar circumstances and have gone on to become very good fishkeepers.
Let us know how you're doing. OK?
Solangiana, anything new about your fish? Are they doing better?
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