Fancy Goldfish Moving Weakly And Possible Fungus. Please Help!

[Cichlid4life]

The white spots along the side of the body and head look like head and lateral line disease (aka: hole in the head disease), but I have never heard of it affecting goldfish. But that doesn't mean to say it hasn't.

It is normally caused by Hexamita and you can sometimes treat it with Metronidazole.

If you can mix the medication with food it works better, otherwise just add it to the tank.

To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.
When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "How To Tips" at the top of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating or it will absorb the medication and stop it working.

Wipe the inside of the glass down, do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean. And clean the filter before treating. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

it hough about HITH, but fin rot can also cause body rot and it creates small white stuff on the body like that sometimes, so it could be one or the other or both.

 

[Colin_T]

It's not fin rot. The small white bits run along the lateral line and around the skull. Fin rot doesn't do that and usually has red lines in the fins.

 

[Cichlid4life]

i don't see red lines on the finss, but i see that the fins are being eaten at by finrot.

 

[GoggleHat]

The white spots along the side of the body and head look like head and lateral line disease (aka: hole in the head disease), but I have never heard of it affecting goldfish. But that doesn't mean to say it hasn't.

It is normally caused by Hexamita and you can sometimes treat it with Metronidazole.

If you can mix the medication with food it works better, otherwise just add it to the tank.

To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.
When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "How To Tips" at the top of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating or it will absorb the medication and stop it working.

Wipe the inside of the glass down, do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean. And clean the filter before treating. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Are you sure? The fungus doesn't seem to be digging into the skin. I feel like changing that much could be a real problem as it could upset the cycle and cause even more irritation.

 

[GoggleHat]

i don't see red lines on the finss, but i see that the fins are being eaten at by finrot.

Are you sure it could be finrot? I thought it might be, earlier. He definitely has some white fuzz on his head, but his fins don't appear to have fungus.

 

[GoggleHat]

It's not fin rot. The small white bits run along the lateral line and around the skull. Fin rot doesn't do that and usually has red lines in the fins.

Right, they are along the lateral line... Should I just get an anti-fungus cure?

 

[Colin_T]

The fins might be fraying a bit but that is not a major issue as long as the water is clean and free of ammonia, nitrite and has a low nitrate. If the fins had white fluffy edges and red lines in them, then it would need treating but early stage fin rot is easily treated with water changes and cleaning up the environment.

The white bits sticking out along the lateral line on the fish are not fungus. Anti-fungus treatments will not fix them.
If it's head and lateral line disease, and it looks like it to me, then you need Metronidazole. However, this medication will wipe out filter bacteria so you need to monitor the ammonia and nitrite levels during and after using it.

Big water changes won't affect filter bacteria as long as the new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

 

[GoggleHat]

The fins might be fraying a bit but that is not a major issue as long as the water is clean and free of ammonia, nitrite and has a low nitrate. If the fins had white fluffy edges and red lines in them, then it would need treating but early stage fin rot is easily treated with water changes and cleaning up the environment.

The white bits sticking out along the lateral line on the fish are not fungus. Anti-fungus treatments will not fix them.
If it's head and lateral line disease, and it looks like it to me, then you need Metronidazole. However, this medication will wipe out filter bacteria so you need to monitor the ammonia and nitrite levels during and after using it.

Big water changes won't affect filter bacteria as long as the new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

So would lateral line disease expose the lateral line even more and cause the fuzzy white bits? I think that might be the issue... Where could I get that medication? I've heard of people treating this condition with vitamin supplements.

 

[GoggleHat]

should I continue the General Cure as I have been? That has 500 mg Metronidazole and 150 mg Praziquantel per teaspoon.

 

[FishGuest5123]

In goldfish, white edging to the tail and fins is just about always caused by water quality. The white bits coming off his head are probably excess mucous too.

It's unlikely to be a protozoan infection because you haven't introduced any new fish or plants in the last few weeks, (in your case 6 months). And the fish not rubbing on objects would also suggest no protozoan parasites.

You do have an ammonia reading and that will stress the fish and cause this type of issue.

Chemicals can sometimes get into well water and cause this type of problem.

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How much water do you normally change when you do the water changes?
Do you gravel clean the substrate each time you do a water change?

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Do you aerate the well water before using it?
Ground water (well or bore water) has normally had all the dissolved gases removed from it and it is a good idea to aerate the water for at least 30 minutes (preferably 24 hours) before using it in an aquarium. This allows the water to absorb oxygen, carbon dioxide & nitrogen gases that are required by the fish.

You should also test the well water for anything you can (ammonia, nitrite, pH, salinity, etc) before using it. Chemicals can leech into the ground water and cause problems to fish. A quick test for ground water is to fill a glass with water and sniff it. It should not have any smells. If you hold the glass up to the light it should be clear. These are 2 things you can do but it's still a good idea to check the ground water for ammonia and pH at least once a month or if the fish ever has any issues.

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I would stop using medications and do water changes.

IMO, General Cure is a good bacterial and fungal med and won’t hurt to finish treatment. Go ahead and use it. Then do you water changes

 

[Colin_T]

Yes the lateral line can appear more noticeable if it has head & lateral line disease. There is some inflammation involved in the disease and that combined with the white pussy looking bubbles that draws your eye to the fish's lateral line making things more noticeable.

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If you are using a medication that contains Metronidazole (General Cure), then keep using it. Metronidazole treats internal problems and has been used on this disease. Praziquantel (the second ingredient) treats tapeworms and gill flukes.

If possible, crush up some of the medication and add it to the food 3 times a day and that will normally help fix the issue faster. otherwise just keep adding it to the tank.

Make sure you don't have carbon in the filter because it will absorb the medication and prevent it working.

-------------------------
Adding vitamin supplements and feeding a varied diet can help boost an animal or fish's immune system and help them fight off diseases. As long as the supplement is in a dose that is suitable for the organism it might help and should not harm the fish. Cleaning up tank conditions (big water changes, gravel cleaning, cleaning the filter) also helps.

 

[GoggleHat]

Yes the lateral line can appear more noticeable if it has head & lateral line disease. There is some inflammation involved in the disease and that combined with the white pussy looking bubbles that draws your eye to the fish's lateral line making things more noticeable.

-------------------------
If you are using a medication that contains Metronidazole (General Cure), then keep using it. Metronidazole treats internal problems and has been used on this disease. Praziquantel (the second ingredient) treats tapeworms and gill flukes.

If possible, crush up some of the medication and add it to the food 3 times a day and that will normally help fix the issue faster. otherwise just keep adding it to the tank.

Make sure you don't have carbon in the filter because it will absorb the medication and prevent it working.

-------------------------
Adding vitamin supplements and feeding a varied diet can help boost an animal or fish's immune system and help them fight off diseases. As long as the supplement is in a dose that is suitable for the organism it might help and should not harm the fish. Cleaning up tank conditions (big water changes, gravel cleaning, cleaning the filter) also helps.

I did a large water change today and vacuumed most of the gravel. I also removed the plants for now. Things look very clean. I added some more General cure and was sure to remove the carbon from my filter cartridge. Do you give your fish any supplements? If so, what do you recommend?

 

[Colin_T]

Some pet shops sell fish vitamin supplements. If you can't get them use a bird or reptile vitamin supplement. Try to get one in a dry powder form and sprinkle it over some frozen (but defrosted) food like bloodworms and feed that to the fish once a day. Give vitamins 6 days a week and none on the 7th day unless it's a fish specific vitamin supplement.

You can cut up soft leaf aquatic plants like Ambulia and feed that to fish, algae is also useful and you can scrape it off the glass and feed it to the fish. Duckweed can be grown on the surface of the tank and when it is grown under coverglass, it develops a soft leaf and can be cut up and fed to fish.

Feeding the fish a varied diet including dry, frozen (but defrosted), and live foods gives them the best chance of getting all the nutrients they need.

 

[Cichlid4life]

Are you sure it could be finrot? I thought it might be, earlier. He definitely has some white fuzz on his head, but his fins don't appear to have fungus.

the fins are completely torn up, that has to be a fin rot of some sort that is not easily visable to the naked eye.

 

[GoggleHat]

the fins are completely torn up, that has to be a fin rot of some sort that is not easily visable to the naked eye.

They could just be deteriorating due to the same issue that's exposing the skin by the lateral line.