Black Moore gets white film in 2 hours and dies

[toughguy1]

Hi,

I am a pretty experienced aquarist - I had a successful salt water aquarium for 3 years and have about 10 years experience with fresh water. I read a lot of AA, but for what happened yesterday, I am baffled. I have a 2.5 gallon tank in my office. It has a filter, biowheel, bubbler, and has been running fine for about 6 months. I do a PWC every two weeks and treat with AmQuel+. I do not have the water parameters today because my kit is as home. However, there was one neon tetra that had been living for months in there and I decided to add a Black Moore Goldfish. I bought the fish in good health from a good LFS during my lunch break. Right when I got back, I did a 50% water change. I aclimated the fish with a half a cup of water every 10 minutes for 30 minutes, and then temperature aclimated him. After I added him to the tank, it was not even 2 hours before he turned white all over and died shortly after. BTW, the neon tetra is still doing fine. Attached is a picture where you can see the white film. I know that ich and other parasites takes longer to develop and wanted to seek advice from AA. Does anybody have any ideas as to what happened?

 

[jsoong]

Yikes, that is one nasty looking fish. My first thought is Columnaris, the thick white slime coat fits & some strains of columnaris can kill in hours.

I suppose that it could also be some water quality issues. Although with the 50% pwc, slow acclimatization & the tetra is still fine, that seemed unlikely.

I rather think that the fish might be sick to start with ... it seemed unlikely that you would ahve a virulent strain of columaris (or other bugs) in the tank & still have an alive neon...

Whatever the cause, I would suggest not adding any more goldfish to that tank .... It is really much too small, and goldfish & neons don't mix well anyhow.

 

[mackdaddy81]

I had something like this happen a while ago when I got my first gold fish. It was also a black moor. It got this white film all over its body. It researched it and it looked like a a bacterial infection. I treated it with some antibiotics, but unfortunately he still died. However, the symptoms did not come about as fast as yours, so I don't know if it is the same.

 

[toughguy1]

Thanks for your comments. I think that whether it be water quality (PH for example) or parasites/bacteria, the black moore reacted. I have heard that some fish react in defense by secreting the white film, and this one was a fatal reaction. As for the neon, evidently he is used to the conditions. Also, I have seen some fish live with parasites in the tank if they are very healthy, and when a new fish is added, and he is stressed or unhealthy, he succomes to the disease. I will bring my test kit and test the water to rule that out. If not, I think my best bet is to move the neon to a fresh temporary tank, and totally clean the main tank. I guess I will let the bio wheel dry out, change the filter, kill the bacteria, and start over.

 

[Terry]

Hi toughguy1, Firstly you don't say what the water temperature was, but i feel that is where the problem was. I have in the passed had a simular problem and what it was is that the water temperature was to high, Black moors like there water very cold compared to other goldfish. As your neon tetra did not die i would say thayt the water temp was to high for the Black Moor and the white stuff was the fish going into shock.

 

[mike47517]

i have no idea. the only thing i can think to help or even just buy you time is stress coat it is good for the fish's slime coat and good for fin damage.