a question for my mother and her goldfish

[Meredith]

My mom has three "fancy" goldfish in a 30 gallon hex. She added some Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Algae Destroyer Advanced yesterday ( I try to dissuade her from using this stuff. I really don't think she sees the harm though) Anyway I noticed today that her fish have this clearish skin looking stuff pealing up from their body. From what I could see its mostly their head area. Also I tested her water and the nitrAtes are off the chart. (ammo/trItes=0) The fish were also just hanging out on the gravel and breathing hard. I helped her with a 50% water change and I added some melafix. Any idea of what this "skin" looking stuff is? its very thin and it comes off a bit if they swim around. I told her to increase her water changes to twice a week (here former schedule was 1 every two weeks) And to continue with the melafix for the next few days. Any other suggestions?

 

[Devilishturtles]

Likely the slime coating, IMO. Sounds like you are taking good action to me. I'd keep up with it.

I dug up a really cool link on Simazine (the main ingredient in Algae Destroyer) if you are interested.

http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Algae/simazine.html

 

[Meredith]

Very interesting. Thanks! I had a feeling it may be the slime coat. I will pass that article along to my mom.