Is my goldfish sick?

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AKalina

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Hello so I just noticed one of my goldfishes have something white on the top of its head. What is this? Shoud I worry?
 
Any chance of a picture?

How long have you had the fish?
How long has the fish had the white thing?

How long has the tank been set up for?
How often do you do water changes and how much water do you change?
Do you gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change?
Do you dechlorinate the water before adding it to the tank?

What is the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate & pH level in the water?

What other fish are in the tank?
Have you added anything new in the last few weeks?
 
1556980897886..jpg 1556980868214..jpg 1556980848316..jpg 1556980787386..jpg
 
Any chance of a picture?

How long have you had the fish?
I have it for 2 years
How long has the fish had the white thing?
I don't really know I just noticed it
How long has the tank been set up for?

How often do you do water changes and how much water do you change?
I change all the water and clean the whole tank once a month.
Do you gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change?
Yes
Do you dechlorinate the water before adding it to the tank?
I just let the water for 1-2 days before adding it to the tank before the whole cleanup I don't know if this dechlorinate it otherwise no
What is the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate & pH level in the water?
I don't really know
What other fish are in the tank?
1 goldfish and I'll post pic of the other one I don't know it's name english it's my not first language1556981531569..jpg
Have you added anything new in the last few weeks?
No
 
It looks like excess mucous. The fish might have grazed its head on something and it has produced more mucous to help it heal, or it has become infected with fungus. I reckon it's excess mucous at this stage.

Try doing a 75% water change each day for a week. If there's no improvement after 2 big water changes then add salt.

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You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate will affect some plants. The lower dose rate will not affect plants.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that.

Use the lower dose rate of salt because you have a Hoplosternum thoracatum catfish in the tank and they don't particularly like salt. The catfish looks like a female but if you get me a clear picture of the pectoral (side) fins, I can be more certain.

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You should change the water more often. I recommend changing 75% every week.

You do water changes for 2 main reasons.
1) to reduce nutrients like ammonia, nitrite & nitrate.
2) to dilute disease organisms in the water.

Fish live in a soup of microscopic organisms including bacteria, fungus, viruses, protozoans, worms, flukes and various other things that make your skin crawl. Doing a big water change and gravel cleaning the substrate on a regular basis will dilute these organisms and reduce their numbers in the water, thus making it a safer and healthier environment for the fish.

If you do a 25% water change each week you leave behind 75% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 50% water change each week you leave behind 50% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 75% water change each week you leave behind 25% of the bad stuff in the water.

Fish live in their own waste. Their tank and filter is full of fish poop. The water they breath is filtered through fish poop. Cleaning filters, gravel and doing big regular water changes, removes a lot of this poop and makes the environment cleaner and healthier for the fish.

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If you have chlorine in your tap water then letting it sit in the sun or aerating the water for a couple of days will get rid of the chlorine.

If you have chloramine in your tap water, you will need to add a dechlorinator to get rid of it.

If you contact your water supply company, they can tell you if there is chlorine or chloramine in the water.

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When you clean the filter, squeeze the filter materials in a bucket of tank water. When they are clean put them in the aquarium. Wash the filter case and motor under tap water. Then reassemble it and get it running again.

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If there is no improvement after a week of salt, or it gets worse rapidly, post another picture of it.
 

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