Sick fish. Not sure what'swrong and need help diagnosing!

[JustinFoo]

Hi all, one of my goldfish recently started developing what looks like blood on the edge of his tail. All was okay until a couple of days ago when he didn't show any interest in feeding. My tank details are below:



Water parameters:
Ph 7.5
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
Temp 24

Hardware:
140 litre tank
Aqua one aquis 1000 filter with seachem matrix added. (filter has been running for more than a year)
Air pump

Stocking:
3 fantails
2 bristlenose
6 white cloud minnows
2 anubias on driftwood

Maintenance & feeding:
25% water change every week
Feeding once a day of either (NLS goldfish, NLS Thera-A, spirulina flakes, dried black worms)
Frozen peas once a week
Fasting one day a week

The only thing I can think of is when we had a stupidly hot day last week and the tank temp went up to 28 degrees Celsius! How do I keep my goodie tank cool during summer? There was also a weird nitrate spike about a week ago with nitrates up to 20-30 ppm which is now back under control.

I gave the affected goldfish a salt bath yesterday and he started to show a bit more interest in food today but only had a couple of worms. Still swimming around like he's lethargic.

I'm at a loss as to what to do to help him. Please help!

 

[molliwopp]

Nitrates of 30ppm is acceptable and is actually within limits. 28c sounds hot hot hot is your tank in direct sunlight? Could of been because of this and to be honest Im stuck in thinking what else could be wrong.

 

[molliwopp]

24 is at the higher end of a fantails temp but dont really know if it could of caused his bloody tail.

 

[JustinFoo]

Yeah it's my first summer in this house and that's the only room in the house that I can have the tank in... We've got a 50L planted tropical tank in the front room, a betta tank and a nano planted shrimp tank in the kitchen, these goodies in my study and a 250L+ goldfish pond in the backyard. I have the curtains drawn during the day in the room where the goldies are but e room does retain a bit of heat especially when we have 38c - 40c days!!

 

[molliwopp]

Thats rather warm isnt it, its making my sweat just thinking about it. Cooling a tank thats already out of direct sunlight might be difficult and or impractical. Maybe something that can blow cool air onto the tank?

 

[JustinFoo]

Hmmm. This is worrying. I've just gone to have a look at him again and he's started pooping, but there's blood in his poop! Help!

 

[molliwopp]

You said he stopped eating and then ate some worms.. They wouldnt be blood worms by any chance? May be why his poop is red?

 

[Fishanatic]

You said he stopped eating and then ate some worms.. They wouldnt be blood worms by any chance? May be why his poop is red?

My cichlid and oscars always eat blood worms and never had black poop.

Also, to cool you're tank, I've heard of tank coolers, or fans. The reason might be lack of oxygen, poisoning, or probably because of the rapid temperature change(drop). That's the most dangerous

 

[molliwopp]

My cichlid and oscars always eat blood worms and never had black poop.

Also, to cool you're tank, I've heard of tank coolers, or fans. The reason might be lack of oxygne, poisoning, or probably because of the rapid temperature change(drop). That's the most dangerous

When my fish eat blood worms there poop is red. Not black

 

[Fishanatic]

Also, with goldfish, you might want to change around 30%-50% of the water instead

 

[Fishanatic]

When my fish eat blood worms there poop is red. Not black

Oops i meant red. I wanted to say my cichlid's poop is always black, even when he eats blood worms, and i don't recall my oscar getting red feces either.

 

[jlk]

24c is ok for fancies but 28c really is too high. The red streaks combined with a lack of appetite are symptoms of septicemia (internal infection). Your water quality is very good so this is unlikely to have caused these symptoms. Perhaps the spike in temps stressed him enough that his immune system lowered and he became suseptible to bacteria. The issue is that antibiotics appropriate for treating him are not available in your country unless you seek the aid of a vet. I am not sure if you are in the same area as MummaofTwo but you can send her a pm in respect to vet that may be able to help. The only other option than a vets aid would be if you have certain human antibiotics that can be used for treatment. Otherwise, I would do some extra water changes and consider increasing the salinity to .1% along with the wcs. Make sure you have lots of aeration in the tank in case the temp starts to spike again. You can float bags/bottles of dechlorinated ice and run a fan across the surface to help keep the tank cool. They do make chillers for tanks but they are quite pricey- I would do some looking to see if this is an option. Please ask if you have any questions!

 

[JustinFoo]

Ok this is not good. He has deteriorated since last night for sure. I woke up this morning and when I checked on him, I thought he was dead! Just stiff and getting pushed around by the currents! Double checked and he's still alive. He's now in a hospital tank with an air stone. If it is septicaemia, I hope that Aquari-Cycline will work? That's pretty much the only antibiotic we can get in Australia. I've also put a dose of Melafix in the main tank just in case. Am I doing the right thing or am I just panicking??

 

[JustinFoo]

Here's him in hospital tank. He's still pooping blood!!

 

[jlk]

I believe this product is tetracycline? Did you put melafix in his tank? You dont want to combine melafix with the tetracycline. Is there a 'mg' strength for it? Is it powder or pills? You will want to dose 250-500mg/20g. In his case, 500mg/20g. If they are pills, crush them & dissolve them in a bit of treated water before adding. Lets see how he looks in 24hrs. Generally, you would only dose once every 48hrs with a decent water change before redosing but if he still holding on, you can do a decent water change at 24hr mark & redose. Good luck!

 

[JustinFoo]

There's no Melafix in the hospital tank, only in the main tank. There's salt, prime and aqua-Cycline in the hospital tank at the moment. Anything else I should add?

 

[JustinFoo]

Oh yeah and the aqua-Cycline is in pill form. We did crush and dissolve in the hospital tank before putting him in...

 

[jlk]

Nothing else needed. Ill cross my fingers for him!!!

 

[JustinFoo]

Oh man, whatever is affecting him is really virulent! He's not just poopinng bloody stool now... There's actual blood coming out of his anus!! What else can I do?!?! Really panicking now!!

 

[jlk]

I wish I could offer you a simple solution here but there is none. If he is bleeding from his anus, he is likely hemorrhaging internally from either infection or internal injury, but I am suspecting infection. If he is suffering unduly, you may want to consider euthanasia.