Slime disease in goldfish?

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Tracie6283

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Jun 1, 2011
Messages
379
Location
Springfield, mo
We just reset up our goldfish tank and I think I may have screwed up. Today they are covered in slime, clamping their fins and generally pretty sluggish. How do I fix this? We have 3 shubunkin left and 3 comets. Please help. I don't want to lose any of them!
 
How did you reset the tank? Did you kill the biofilter?

First - check water for ammonia ... this is possible an ammonia burn. Treatment is immediate water change. <The higher the ammonia, the more water you need to change out ... make sure you dechlorinate the water, and match temp, etc.>

Actually, a big pwc is a good thing even if ammonia is normal ... you might have some chemical residue from tank cleaning (did you use soap?), that can give you the same kind of picture. I would do a couple daily 50% pwc's. at the minimum. <if you have sky high ammonia or suspect tank contamination, you can do up to 100% water change .... ie remove the fish to a clean container & completely change out your tank water ... just make sure that you carefully match the water parameters (esp. pH & temperature, and salinity if adding salt) so as not to shock the fish.

BTW - how big is your tank/pond?? If you have a big pond, it is acceptable to use an ammonia/toxin binder (like Prime) instead of big water changes in an emergency. However, you would still need to fix the underlying problem that cause the water parameter problems.
 
We have them in a 50 gallon tank. I wish there was a way for me to "wash" them or something. I keep reading something on adding salt to help? Is there some sort of medicine t buy for them?
 
Clean water is more important than meds ... you really need to check your ammonia & nitrites, or do a pwc on spec. (Clean water never hurt.)

Medicine won't help if the water is toxic. Fix your waster & the fish will likely fix themselves. Yes, a salt bath can stripe off the slime coat, but that is useful only if this is from a parasite. It is not going to help if it is a water problem.
 
Tracie6283 said:
Yeah I think were gonna change the water today. We lost two of them last night. It's so sad!

Im sorry for Ur lost. But it's counts for experience. Do u have an API freshwater master test kit?
 
Yeah just tested the water and everything is where it should be. Ingress they were just stressed from the move. The remaining four are ALOT better today!
 
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