Bit Of An Inconvenient Situation

[kat and james]

ok, so james's mum's goldfish has developed some kind of weird lump on its side (so i'm told by his sister, who is temporarily looking after the fish, while james's parents are away) i haven't seen it, so i can't give too much information. i have been told that it is a lump, just under it's gills, i'm pretty sure that she said that it was a little red underneath, but couldnt' say for sure.

anyway, apparently today, this lump popped and leaked some kind of pus out

she said the other fish aren't looking too happy either.

there are two goldfish, 4 dwarf gouramis, and a few tetras (glolites and neons), it is about 12 gal (i think)

a 25% water change was done on tuesday, and the fish are being fed flake everyday. the water params are all fine, ph of 7, no ammonia, no nitrites but the nitrates are a little high at about 40ppm, although the info i can find says that there is no evidence to suggest that nitrates really affect the fish.

need help.. although not too sure what i can do to help, other than advise james's sis.. who won't can't get to a fish shop at the moment.. and i do'nt live nearby!!

sorry it is all a little vague!

 

[Fella]

ok, so james's mum's goldfish has developed some kind of weird lump on its side (so i'm told by his sister, who is temporarily looking after the fish, while james's parents are away) i haven't seen it, so i can't give too much information. i have been told that it is a lump, just under it's gills, i'm pretty sure that she said that it was a little red underneath, but couldnt' say for sure.

anyway, apparently today, this lump popped and leaked some kind of pus out

she said the other fish aren't looking too happy either.

there are two goldfish, 4 dwarf gouramis, and a few tetras (glolites and neons), it is about 12 gal (i think)

a 25% water change was done on tuesday, and the fish are being fed flake everyday. the water params are all fine, ph of 7, no ammonia, no nitrites but the nitrates are a little high at about 40ppm, although the info i can find says that there is no evidence to suggest that nitrates really affect the fish.

need help.. although not too sure what i can do to help, other than advise james's sis.. who won't can't get to a fish shop at the moment.. and i do'nt live nearby!!

sorry it is all a little vague!

I doubt you'd be suprised that that tank is overstocked. If they are common goldfish, they really need 20 gallons each to thrive, and if they're fancies at least 10 gallons each. Adding together the other fish in there, and the fact they are coldwater fish, not tropical like the ones they are kept with, you can see how this is hardly an ideal situation for them

I've seen a lot of people posting on goldfish forums about spots on goldfish that burst, so it's not unheard of. What most people recommend is that the tank they are in is treated with melafix, the fishy equivalent of germolene, to help stop infection on the area where the pimple has burst. The infection IME is more dangerous than the actual spot.

 

[kat and james]

look, this isn't my tank.. i know all this stuff.. i'm just trying to help them out..!!

ok so i'll tell them that they need to get some melafix.. thanks for your help!! believe me if this was my tank i wouldn't have goldies in with gourmais and tetras.. it is a little bit of a touchy subject between all of us!!

thanks again!

 

[black angel]

Its an infection, usually bacterial and can be caused by either columnaris or aeromonas. Either way the fish needs to be quarantined into clean fresh cooler water.
The bacteria probably took hold from over crowding and heat. Goldfish dont tolerate tropical temperatures for too long.
To help the fish recover, your mum must do a bucket to bucket method.
She will need two buckets with dechlorinated cool water and leave them to sit for 24 hours. Place the fish in the first bucket with plenty of aeration and then 24 hours later move it into the other bucket.
When the fish is in the other bucket empty bucket one and refill with clean dechlorinated water.
The object of the exercise is to keep the fish away from the bacteria.

The oozing is dead white blood cells and wont be of any harm to the other fish but she must seperate the goldfish and put them in a 20 gallon tank or face losing all the fish to a bacterial disease.

 

[kat and james]

ok, james's sis is on the job... poor little guy..
how many days do we need to switch him between the buckets for..?
thank you so much both of you!

 

[black angel]

Until the wound has healed over which may be 7 to 10 days. You can salt the water if you want to. 2 teaspoons per bucket should help and only use aquarium salt, rock salt, or pickling salt.

 

[Fella]

How would you acclimatise the fish from the tropical tank to the buckets of room temperature water?

 

[black angel]

Maybe by drawing some tank water and putting them in a large container for half an hour or so.

 

[kat and james]

thank you so much guys..

i have passed on all info to james's sister, who in turn passed it onto their mum (who returned last night) we'll be going over there tomorrow, so i'll check up on them!

by the way fella.. james read the post i wrote in response to yours and he said i sounded really moody ) .. i didn't mean to.. so i apologise, you were only trying to help

THANKS GUYS!!

 

[Fella]

thank you so much guys..

i have passed on all info to james's sister, who in turn passed it onto their mum (who returned last night) we'll be going over there tomorrow, so i'll check up on them!

by the way fella.. james read the post i wrote in response to yours and he said i sounded really moody ) .. i didn't mean to.. so i apologise, you were only trying to help

THANKS GUYS!!

Don't worry about it, sometimes I worry about being too much of an arse in my supposedly helpful replies!

I hope all goes well with your goldfish!

 

[kat and james]

sometimes stuff that is typed is read in the wrong context, and obviously you can't hear intonation in something you are reading, and so stuff gets read and interpretted wrong.. oh well!

fingers crossed for the little goldie!!

i'll let you guys know!

thanks again!

 

[kat and james]

well the fish aren't as bad as i thought actually.. they seem to be doing ok, and the spot appears to be healing itself, the fish has been removed from the tank, and is being switched from container of water to container of water every 24hours.. hopefully they will be fine.. i think that james's mum is gonna remove them permanently from the tropicals tank which is good news!!

thanks again for all your help!!