Golden Barbs Are Sick - Advice Please?

[shelli_williams1]

Hi I am not very experienced in the keeping of fish so please bear with me! Over the last couple of days I noticed our golden barbs becoming unwell. They are not acting to different they are still eating etc. The thing is all 3 of my barbs have the same skin symtoms but none of my other fish are affected. It seems to of become worse and spots? have became bigger in last day or too. Basically I am wondering if anyone can identify what is wrong with them from the picture, as I do not want to make the wrong diagnosis and not treat it correctly. My partner is the fish keeper who normally deals with these problems but he is away working and I dont want the fish to suffer if it is serious. Thank you if anyone can help.



( The marks are quite lumpy too, they stick out a little)

 

[WILDER]

Size of tank in gallons or litries.
How many fish and which type.
Water stats in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.

Looks bad in the pic are the fish rubbing themselves on things in the tank.
How there breathing is it laboured.
Any whiteness to the red patches.
Red patches that look lumpy can also be septicemia which is hard to cure once its advanced.

 

[shelli_williams1]

Hi thanks for the reply. Stats are:

Ammonia - 0.10
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 40
P.H - 7.6

The tank is 260 litres and is stocked with:
3 golden barbs 2 dwarf gouramis
2 plattys 5 neon tetras
2 lemon tetras 10 small guppys
and 4 other small community fish (not sure of names)

The fish seem ok, not rubbing on anything that I have noticed. I have had a good look at tank this morning and none of the other fish seem to have any problems, just the 3 golden barbs. If looking from the front down the fish, I can see that the lumps do have a whitish tint. I am setting up the hospital tank because the other fish are nipping at the infected areas.

 

[WILDER]

Going to say I would issolate them and use a bacterial med.
Don't forget to match ph and temp.
You will need extra aeration with the med as meds reduce 02 in the water.
<a href="http/badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article25.html" target="_blank">http/badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article25.html</a>

Need location for a med.

Water change because you have an ammonia reading.
Do you know whats caused the ammonia reading.
it can be lack of maintaining of the tank, over feeding, rotting and decaying plants and food.
How long has the tank been set up.

 

[shelli_williams1]

Thanks for that, as I said im all a bit new to this! I was meaning to say the temp was a bit low when I checked this morning about 23 degrees. Not sure what caused this so have altered the heater and it is going back up now. The tank has been set up for about 2 and a half years. And at last water testing about 3 weeks ago results were fine. Although I found the male figther dead about 5 days ago, he was at the back so maybe he had rotted a little before we got him out? Doing a water change now. Heater in hospital tank isnt working now so may need to get a new one.

So I can get a bacterial treatment from the pet shop to treat them? If it turns out not to be bacterial it wont harm them at all?

 

[WILDER]

United States Maracyn Plus.
United Kingdom Anti Internal Bacteria Med By Interpet.

 

[shelli_williams1]

Ok thank you for that I will buy some tommorow and see how I get on. They are now in the other tank and seem to be ok. I used the water from my big tank, should I do a water change or will it distress the fish as they are already poorly? Is there anything else I can do to help them, while they are in the hospital tank?

 

[WILDER]

All you can do is keep an eye on water quality.
And get the med fast.