Brown Spots on Fancy Goldfish

[Fishgirl]

Ok I am just having a horrible time with my freshwater tank at work. The saltwater at home is 10 times easier than this. I wonder if it's this water here in town. But anyways I have this fancy goldfish who when I bought him was all gold and white. Now last week his gills started to turn brown and I though huh that's odd or did I just not notice that about him before. Well this week the brown is spreading! He has brown spots all over him? Any ideas? Is he just changing colors on me or what kind of disease could that be?

I attached a picture. Sorry for the bad picture quailty. The camera I used is the one we have at the office and it sucks.

Thanks,
Gina

[fishfreek]

Gina,

Hope you dont mind to much but I resized your image to better fit the screen.

[fishfreek]

I am interested in the answer also,

My roommate used to have some black gold fish that over time turned more and more a shade of gold. Kind of a reverse of what yours is doing.

[CRaZeeeBiTcHisH]

haven't seen anything quite like that...is it mostly around his gills? what is your water chemistry, ammonia, nitrite, etc...? will look tomorrow and see if i can find anything like that...is he in the tank by himself? how big is the tank? how long have you had the fish?sorry for all the rapid fire questions...

[CRaZeeeBiTcHisH]

Gina--just did a quick look (i was curious) and only thing I have found so far is it could be ammonia burns...apparently goldfish can get brown burns from it ...are you familiar with the nitrogen cycle? Don't know if your tank is new or not....if it is new, or if you have recently used antibiotics or done anything that would kill off some of your bacteria, change some water asap! a lot!

if this is not the case, describe more how it looks..is it flat, raised, scabby looking, fuzzy, lol, i am grasping at straws here, running out of descriptions, anyway, you get the idea. if i come across anything else i will let you know. good luck!

[jenjinx]

OK, my goldfish has the brown spots too, and the fins are looking a little burnt around the edges..
Could the fact that the cats drink out of the fishbowl be causing this?
I treat the water every time I change it with Wardley Watercare's Chlor Out. It does not seem to help.
The fish looks awful but acts healthy.
Is this possibly a disease? I even boiled all the rocks to make sure there is no bacteria in the rocks.
My daughter loves this fish dearly and she is worried about her "dirty" fish...

Thanks,
Jinx in Minnesota

[CRaZeeeBiTcHisH]

don't boil your rocks anymore unless you intend to start over due to an illness or something, your fish desperately needs the bacteria to survive--goldfish are high waste producers, and in such a small enclosure, i would suspect his water is highly polluted--have you checked for ammonia and nitrite? if you intend to keep your fish healthy i would suggest you read up on aquarium water chemistry and gain a good understanding of it--goldfish can get brown colored ammonia burns from soaring levels , and i suspect after you boiled your rocks, he is lucky to be alive....