Emergency Golfish Help

[l1nd53y]

I was wondering if anyone could help, I have just noticed a red mark on my fancy goldfish's fin, which has a white lump on top of it.

I can provide the following info -

Size of aquarium/pond - Aquarium Tank, around 40 gallons
Types of fish - fancy goldfish and zebra danios
Number of fish and sizes - 2 x fancy goldfish (Approx 5") and 2 x zebra danios (approx 2")
Filtration used and how do you clean it and how often - filter is used, and the tank is fully cleaned fortnightly
How much in the way of water changes and how often -- full change fortnightly
Do you dechlorinate - yes
Symptoms of sick fish ie, spots, behaviour, etc - One gold fish has a red mark on his fin, with a white lump on top.
How long has the fish been sick and which medications are your currently using or recently used - only a few hours
Test results for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph both from the tap and tank -
Anything else you need us to know - Other than the mark on the fin, the fish is fine.

I've tried to find the information, but to no avail. Any advice would be much appreciated.


I have to following pic of the spot -

Thanks!

Lindsey

 

[l1nd53y]

I also forgot to mention that he has recently (in the past few weeks) started to loose his colour, and turn silver. I'm not sure if that is related.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Such spots are often hard to diagnose but they are almost always bacterial or fungal, in this case i would say it is bacterial though if your goldfish has a red streak in its fin this is septicemia which is a bacterial infection and is often caused by some stress in the tank. You should treat the fish with an anti internal and external bacterial med to cure the fish .

You shouldn't be doing 100% water changes though on the tank though, the beneficial bacteria in the tanks filtration responsable for keeping the water free of toxins like ammonia and nitrites also needs a constant source of ammonia to survive itself and cutting off its source of ammonia (usually provided by fish poop and other waste in the tanks filter) or source of oxygen/running water will kill it off and cause the beneficial/nitrifying bacteria to start its cycle of extablishing itself in the tank all over again, leaving the tank vunerable to bad and unstable water quality in the mean time.
Doing 100% water changes will kill the beneficial bacteria off, causing the tank to at least mini-cycle or cycle completely all over again, which isn't good for the fish while this is happening as the unstable water quality conditions during the cycling process stresses them out and is most likely what has caused the fishes health to take a turn for the worse, if you have been doing 100% changes it was basically inevitable that they would fall ill at some point sooner or later since when fish experience stress their imune systems also become stressed and less strong at fighting of disease/parasites/infection etc.
For more understanding on water quality, read this article;

[URL="http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=10099"]http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=10099[/URL]

.



So basically, from now on, instead of doing a once fortnightly 100% water change, you should only be taking out 30-60% of the water once a week and putting fresh tap water back in the tank which has been dechlorinated and is of similar temp to that of the water in the tank .

The goldfish in the pic is also not a fancy goldfish, it looks like a young comet goldfish and will probably eat the zebra danio's as it grows (goldfish will eat any fish that they can catch that fits into their mouths, and large comet and common goldfish are more than capable of eating small fish like danio's, tetras, guppys etc) so you should really get the danio's a tank of their own (preferably of 10gallons long or larger) and get more danio's when their new tank is cycled because zebra danio's are shoaling fish and prefer to be in groups of at least 6 or more of their own kind, as 2 danio's is not enough for them to make a shoal, keeping them in too smaller groups will make them stressed and so more vunerable to diseases/complications etc.

With the goldfish turning silver, its quite normal for goldfish to change colour and pattern as they mature, comet goldfish can grow to 15inches long or longer and often grow more detailed patterns and more colours as they mature. Of course though, some colour change can be the result of health problems (like how the parasite Velvet can appear as a metallic dusting on the fishes skin, or septicemia can cause bloody streaks on the fishes body and fins, or finrot can even in some cases cause the ends of the fins to turn black or grey/white etc), so keep a close eye on the goldfish at all times, although i doubt in this case the silver colouring is the result of disease. Fish fading in colour overal though can be a sign of stress.
Comet and common goldfish don't grow particularly fast (usually about 1inch per 3-4months), but because of their large adult size you should consider either upgrading the tank to something larger at some point or moving the goldfish when the weather is warm enough to an outdoor pond of at least 3ft depth and 6ft length etc .

 

[l1nd53y]

Thank you so much for all your advice!

I have started treating the fish with an anti-fungus, which looks like it is helping already. The white on the spot has almost gone, and it doesn't look as red as it initially did.

I have stopped doing full water changes, and will do the 30-60% changes you suggested.

Lindsey

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I'm glad my advice helped you out .