Spookie
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Hi! I have a cold water 15 gallon tank that held two small fantail goldfish that I've had for over six months. The tank is cycled, and meters have been reading fine. Two weeks ago, my boyfriend's mom gave us 4 tiny comet goldfish fry to keep for her for a few months (They're about 3/4" long and were bred in a pond). The same day I also bought a dojo loach from a pet store. Immediately upon introduction of the new fish, my orange fantail started getting lethargic/laying on the bottom of the tank. His eyes started bulging out of his head and he started getting super swollen... really bad dropsy. A few days later ALL of his scales stood out, like an ultra pinecone. He would just lay there gasping for breath, and seemed like he was trying to swim around but just literally couldn't and didn't eat. I felt guilty and horrible, supposedly knowing he was going to die and just waiting and watching him suffer. We changed the water 25% every day & gravel vacuumed but since the other fantail wasn't sick, we didn't know what else to do but cross our fingers. Surprisingly, he has now made a full recovery! All of his scales are back to normal, he is active and eating... its like he was never sick at all, like some miracle (I am so happy!!) He does have small black marks on one side, but water tests indicated ammonia was at 0, so maybe its from him just resting at the bottom for a week? Anyway, now the dojo loach suddenly has ich. My formerly sick fantail went from fine to COVERED in ich in the span of a day, probably because he is still weak. We have raised the temperature but I'm guessing can't add salt because of the loach? How hot is too hot for goldfish to treat ich? I really don't want him to die after going through so much and recovering from tough odds! My other fantail and the comet fry are all active and fine, they have no ich spots from what I can see, and they will all be transferred to a 30 gallon tank in the next month. Thank you!