Maybe Ich, maybe not???

[ErinEstes]

I have a goldfish (Hope) and 10 days ago I noticed that she had some white spots on her. I noticed this a couple hours after adding 6 new smaller goldfish to the tank. The next day I went and got API Ich medication and started treatment. I went through the entire process twice over the course of the last week and a half and nothing has changed. I mean, nothing. The spots haven't gone away, yet they haven't spread either. The other fish don't have any spots either. Today I picked up some aquarium salt and am planning on using it after a water change on the 15th. It's also a weird because most articles I've read said that fish die of Ich within 5-7 days and it's been over that long.

Given all of that, could it be Ich still and should I continue treating it like it is? I don't want to over-medicate but I also really don't want my fish to die.

Suggestions??

 

[Colin_T]

Pictures?

Don't add things to the tank if you don't know what the problem is. It could be a male goldfish showing breeding tubercles (small white lumps/ dots on the side of the gill covers and edge of the pectoral (side) fins.

It could be Lymphocystis or excess mucous.

 

[ErinEstes]

Not sure whether Hope is male or female, to be perfectly honest.

Should I keep treating it like ich or assume it's something else?

And do you happen to know what happens if I over medicate for Ich?

 

[Colin_T]

The orange goldfish is a boy. The small white dots on the gill covers are breeding tubercles, which appear on mature male goldfish when they come into breeding condition.

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If you overdose fish a little bit with chemical medications you can damage their kidneys and liver. The fish can sometimes recover from this and sometimes they die.

If you overdose the tank with a lot of medication, you kill everything in it.

 

[ErinEstes]

I feel like such an idiot XD I thought my fish was going to die but, he's just fine. Thank you so much!!!!

I did 2 total rounds of medication over the course of 10 days, is that enough to hurt them???

 

[ErinEstes]

The orange goldfish is a boy. The small white dots on the gill covers are breeding tubercles, which appear on mature male goldfish when they come into breeding condition.

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If you overdose fish a little bit with chemical medications you can damage their kidneys and liver. The fish can sometimes recover from this and sometimes they die.

If you overdose the tank with a lot of medication, you kill everything in it.

Also, at what point are they considered mature?

 

[Colin_T]

I did 2 total rounds of medication over the course of 10 days, is that enough to hurt them???

All chemicals affect fish. If you followed directions on the packaging, the fish should be ok, but in future try to find out what is wrong with the fish before adding things to the tank.

The following links have information about what to do if your fish get sick. They are long and boring but worth a read when you have some spare time.

What to do if your fish gets sick

If your fish ever looks sick or unwell, then the following steps might help. Test the Water and Clean the Tank. Test the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH and write the results down in numbers. Check it for general hardness (GH) and carbonate hardness (KH) too if you can, but...

www.fishforums.net

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

Do not use anti-biotics unless you know what the problem is.

This thread is going to be harsh and a lot of people are not going to like what I have to say. But it needs to be said because anyone who uses anti-biotics when they don't know what they are treating, is contributing to the death and extinction of all animals on this planet, and that includes...

www.fishforums.net

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Goldfish can be sexually mature at 12 months depending on the conditions they are grown in. In cold weather they grow slower and it might be 2 years before they mature.