Hi everyone I love your site! If I post a picture of my sick goldfish would it help? I have 4 average joe goldfish I won from the fair 11 years ago, they all live in a 50 gallon tank with to plecko's. My one goldfish that is now white has like a big tumor on her side, and the other long finned one has like a big white I guess like a booger thing on her fin towards her bum. I would like to help them but no one at petsmart seems to know much, and I ran into you guys, and you all seem to be very knowledgeable. Thanks in advance-Angela

I have no idea what your fish have but try this web site!!
I hope it helps.
http://tropical-fish.net/tropical_fish_diseases.htm

I don't know about the "large tumor" but the thing that looks like a booger could be carp pox. Not fatal to the fish or anything, just doesn't look so nice. Hard to tell without a picture though. Maybe you could do a search for carp pox on the web, and see if it looks like that's what your fish has.

Hope this helps a bit...

By the way, congrats on keeping your goldfish from the fair for 11 years! How big are they?

Maybe you can e-mail koko to post some pics, and someone can identify what your fish has.

Laura

How often are you doing water changes on this tank, and what kind of filtration do you have on there? A lot of times a simple water quality problem can cause weird things to happen. Older fish are especially susceptible to little changes in their environment, or less than perfect water conditions. I would suggest doing a partial water change (say 25% or so) and see if that helps to clear it up. Sometimes fish do get tumors as they get older and in that case there really isnt anything to do short of surgery (if you can afford it). If the fish seems to be considerably uncomfortable euthanasia is usually the kindest thing. But hopefully we wont have to get to that right now. Anyway try and get some pics and let us know about your water change/gravel vacuuming schedule and we'll try and help.