onegoldfishguy
Aquarium Advice Newbie
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2021
- Messages
- 1
Hi all, its time I reach out for help because I’m at my wits end here, I'm going to upload this to multiple sites.
So basically the situation is I have one goldfish in a DIY outdoor pond that’s around 520L he’s been happy and healthy here for a most of the year, and I was gearing up to get him some companions when he started acting lethargic, sitting at the bottom and gulping water, he’s normally very active, strong swimmer and super inquisitive. That being said he’s pretty big now and has been pretty healthy his whole life so I did not panic too much until I saw some white bumps appear on his head (definitely not tubercles and they are a bit bigger, not like what I’ve seen of ick), he has always had one strange white bump on his tail but it hasn’t changed size or anything for at least 2 years now however more started popping up on his tail, pectoral fins and his head, none on his body except it looks like he’s missing one scale, I moved him to a 100L plastic tub with a small pump where he used to live when he was smaller in my room so I could monitor him closer, I treated him with tetra MediFin, waited 3 days and then started doing 50% water changes and salt dips every other day for a week, he perked up a ton and while the white bumps didn’t disappear they were a lot less so I let him go back into the pond after doing a water change (I estimate it was about 20%) and added a 2nd course of tetra MediFin at the appropriate dose for the pond size, he was back to normal for about a week when the lethargy hit again, pretty much all the same symptoms and some, his tail has started fraying a bit and the white spots have started coming back, mostly on one side of his head until today where I saw a bigger one on the other side, he seems to be leaning to one side a little but I don’t know if I’m overthinking it, and finally what has driven me to reach out, he’s stopped eating. I have had a crazy last few days so I wasn’t able to act immediately, he has already lost weight and I’m stressing, if I’m going to add a 3rd course of MediFin tomorrow is the day, however today I did a 100L water change today and gave him a salt dip at 1 teaspoon per litre (it’s impossible to find consistent instructions online so I started at 7 teaspoons per 20L and have been ramping it up as he’s shows no signs of stress while in the dip but I won’t do more than this) when I put him in he started thrashing his head like he was stuck or like something was stuck in his gills, I was about to take him out when he stopped, he thrashed one more time and then relaxed for the remaining 5 mins, these salt dips seem to perk him up a bit as he’s was slowly swimming around after instead of just sitting in a corner but still not eating.
Some additional info:
No clamped fins.
I am in the southern hemisphere so its summer for me now, so it’s not an issue with the cold.
I suspect whatever he has got came on the back of some hornwort I bought from my LFS recently.
I do things here on a budget, I had a DIY bucket filter but it broke so at the moment the pond is under filtered with a sponge filter, however with only one fish (as messy as he is), tonnes of plants, a +- 15% water change every 7 to 10 days and spot cleaning my test results have shown no issues for the time being, still going to replace the bucket soon.
Water parameters tested with those tetra 6 in one strips, I know some people think they are inaccurate but from what I have been able to find they are:
NO3: 0
NO2: 0
GH: 40dH – 80dH
KH: 60dH
pH: 6.4 – 6.8
Cl2: 0
I don’t have an ammonia test but I have a Seachem ammonia alert that says I’m still in safe levels (<0.02).
Specific meds are hard to get here what I have on hand is tetra MediFin, aquarium salt, Methylene blue, Potassium permanganate and acriflavine.
I need a game plan as all I have now is daily salt dips, any help would be so appreciated.
I'll attach pics of him when he was in the salt dip today, I know they are bad but its difficult to get proper ones, the spots don't look nearly as bad in the photos but they are much more prominent in person.
So basically the situation is I have one goldfish in a DIY outdoor pond that’s around 520L he’s been happy and healthy here for a most of the year, and I was gearing up to get him some companions when he started acting lethargic, sitting at the bottom and gulping water, he’s normally very active, strong swimmer and super inquisitive. That being said he’s pretty big now and has been pretty healthy his whole life so I did not panic too much until I saw some white bumps appear on his head (definitely not tubercles and they are a bit bigger, not like what I’ve seen of ick), he has always had one strange white bump on his tail but it hasn’t changed size or anything for at least 2 years now however more started popping up on his tail, pectoral fins and his head, none on his body except it looks like he’s missing one scale, I moved him to a 100L plastic tub with a small pump where he used to live when he was smaller in my room so I could monitor him closer, I treated him with tetra MediFin, waited 3 days and then started doing 50% water changes and salt dips every other day for a week, he perked up a ton and while the white bumps didn’t disappear they were a lot less so I let him go back into the pond after doing a water change (I estimate it was about 20%) and added a 2nd course of tetra MediFin at the appropriate dose for the pond size, he was back to normal for about a week when the lethargy hit again, pretty much all the same symptoms and some, his tail has started fraying a bit and the white spots have started coming back, mostly on one side of his head until today where I saw a bigger one on the other side, he seems to be leaning to one side a little but I don’t know if I’m overthinking it, and finally what has driven me to reach out, he’s stopped eating. I have had a crazy last few days so I wasn’t able to act immediately, he has already lost weight and I’m stressing, if I’m going to add a 3rd course of MediFin tomorrow is the day, however today I did a 100L water change today and gave him a salt dip at 1 teaspoon per litre (it’s impossible to find consistent instructions online so I started at 7 teaspoons per 20L and have been ramping it up as he’s shows no signs of stress while in the dip but I won’t do more than this) when I put him in he started thrashing his head like he was stuck or like something was stuck in his gills, I was about to take him out when he stopped, he thrashed one more time and then relaxed for the remaining 5 mins, these salt dips seem to perk him up a bit as he’s was slowly swimming around after instead of just sitting in a corner but still not eating.
Some additional info:
No clamped fins.
I am in the southern hemisphere so its summer for me now, so it’s not an issue with the cold.
I suspect whatever he has got came on the back of some hornwort I bought from my LFS recently.
I do things here on a budget, I had a DIY bucket filter but it broke so at the moment the pond is under filtered with a sponge filter, however with only one fish (as messy as he is), tonnes of plants, a +- 15% water change every 7 to 10 days and spot cleaning my test results have shown no issues for the time being, still going to replace the bucket soon.
Water parameters tested with those tetra 6 in one strips, I know some people think they are inaccurate but from what I have been able to find they are:
NO3: 0
NO2: 0
GH: 40dH – 80dH
KH: 60dH
pH: 6.4 – 6.8
Cl2: 0
I don’t have an ammonia test but I have a Seachem ammonia alert that says I’m still in safe levels (<0.02).
Specific meds are hard to get here what I have on hand is tetra MediFin, aquarium salt, Methylene blue, Potassium permanganate and acriflavine.
I need a game plan as all I have now is daily salt dips, any help would be so appreciated.
I'll attach pics of him when he was in the salt dip today, I know they are bad but its difficult to get proper ones, the spots don't look nearly as bad in the photos but they are much more prominent in person.
