Help with Goldfish illness?

[NekoOo]

As a child I grew up with an awesome aquarium that lit up our family room. It was fond memories of that aquarium that suckered me into rescuing a handful of goldfish from the jaws of death. Long story short, about 2 years ago my friends stupidly tried to populate a wild pond with goldfish. They spent 20$ and got as many goldfish as they could from walmart. Well, at the time I had a 20 gallon aquarium with three tiny fish inhabiting it (the three fish were old and would die within a month or two)...So knowing many of those goldfish were going to be bright, easy prey for the pond fish, I decided to adopt 9. I took four fancy goldfish and five common.

Having come from walmart, the goldies were in bad shape to begin with. Every one of them had jaw rot, one so bad that he couldn't open his mouth to eat and was very skinny. I treated them for the jaw rot, with only one casualty and a year and a half later my goldies are doing well (despite the small tank!)...

However, I have two fish who have some problems that don't really seem to be bothering them that much...But they bother me.

1. One of my fancy goldies has a bloat problem. After meals he can't control his buoyancy and spend the next few hours swimming with all his might to stay near the bottom/middle of the tank, or else he just floats to the top and lays on his side until he digests. I've been treating this problem by frequent water changes and a change in diet. They get thawed peas and a bit of kiwi cycled in with their flake and pellet food, and I fast them for one day of the week to clear their digestive tracts. He's been doing fine since I've started the change in diet and the frequent water changes.

2. My other fish, a common goldie may or may not have a problem. I call him Mutant because he's obviously a little deformed. His mouth is pushed in on one side and his head seems a little odd shaped, though he is a happy, energetic fish and is one of the biggest in the tank. My problem though, is that he has weird little spots on his head. They stick off his head a little and are a whitish color. He also seems a little bloated and I can see a darkness within his belly though he has a very healthy orange color and his gills looks fine (not dropsy as far as I know. he doesn't look like a pine cone from above). None of my other fish have this problem and I was wondering if it might be a result of bad genes as is obvious from his deformities? Or is he really sick and I should treat him, and if so, how?? (I have pictures, not sure how/if I can post them)

Please help. I love my goldies, but I am no expert. I know 20 gallons is small for 8 goldfish but I do my best with what I got and I'm sure my goldies are better kept than most. I do plan on purchasing a bigger aquarium when I move out of my dad's house (ironically he hates fish now....) Or I might just set up two 20 gallon aquariums and separate my fancies from my common.

Anyway, any help would brighten my day!!

THANK YOU

 

[RussellC]

Regarding the fancy, this sounds very much like a swimbladder problem. Peas can help if the cause is constipation, but you mentioned flakes and pellets -- do you soak them first so that they sink? Any dry food will expand when it gets wet. If this happens inside the fish, it can press on the swim bladder and cause buoyancy issues. One remedy is to pre-soak the food so that it sinks, or simply switch to sinking goldfish pellets.

As for the common, the white spots on its head could be breeding tubercles. There are a number of pictures of goldfish breeding tubercles on the web that you can compare to. If they are breeding tubercles, they are completely normal and absolutely nothing to worry about. As far as the darkness within its belly, a picture might help, but if it hasn't changed over time or any changes have been gradual, it's very common for the coloration of goldfish to evolve as they grow and mature.

For the record, even two 20 gallon tanks would be too small, in my view, for that many goldfish, but it would certainly be an improvement.

Good luck!

 

[NekoOo]

I have just started to soak the food before feeding time, probably about 2 weeks ago. Since I've started soaking the food and feeding them peas his swim-bladder problem has gotten increasingly better as far as I can tell. The last week I have seen a lot of improvement and it's been a few days since I've seen him float.

As for my other fish, I shall look at those pictures online and compare. I know fish can get diseases that cause weird stuff to grow on their heads, I just hope my little mutant doesn't have it. As far as the color of his belly, the darkness is within him. On one side it looks like an odd shaped bullseye, and on the other side the darkness within his belly just looks like a solid mass. I thought he might be constipated but even after fasting for a day and being fed high fiber foods, he expels the waste normally but the darkness doesn't go away, so I'm not sure what's wrong with him but I will not give up! I will try to capture a picture of his belly as well.

Having 2, 20 gallon tanks would be a temporary improvement over their current situation. I have four fancies and four common so I figure four in each aquarium would be better than eight in one. I do feel bad about their cramped living space. I need to go aquarium hunting at garage sales and the like. There has to be something better then what I got at the moment. As things are now, I just try and keep their water as clean as possible. I'm hoping to buy a new filter meant for a much larger aquarium...Goldfish are filthy .

Thanks so much for the reply and you were a great help. Glad people care about my little goldfish as much as I do.

Thanks again.

 

[NekoOo]

After looking at pictures, the spots do like breeding tubercles, though I am not thoroughly convinced because I have other males in the aquarium who have the tubercles, but not all over his head like the mutant. I will continue to keep a close eye on him. Thanks all.

 

[RussellC]

Keeping an eye on the 'mutant' is a good idea. Breeding tubercles can look similar to ich (a common parasite found in aquariums) and are often mistaken for ich. If you see the spots begin to spread over more of the fish's body, or to other fish, you'll want to take action.

Good luck with searching garage sales for tanks -- craigslist can also be a good resource.

In the meantime, frequent water changes are your biggest ally. With 8 goldfish in a 20 gallon, even if they're small, your biological filtration capacity is likely to be strained, and you will likely get spikes in ammonia and nitrite, and a rapid build-up of nitrate. With that many goldfish in a 20 gallon, daily water changes of up to 50% might not be overkill -- though testing your water parameters regularly is the best way to tell for sure. You may also want to treat the replacement water with Prime as it helps to detoxify any ammonia and nitrite that your biological filtration can't clear. Prime works only temporarily (48 hours) before it starts to lose effectiveness, so really frequent changes, every day or every other day, while redosing with Prime will be very helpful in the short-term.

I also think you're on the right track regarding a larger filter, as it's generally recommended for goldfish to have filtration rated for double their tank size, and that's with ordinary or full stocking. Overstocking increases these requirements.

I applaud your stepping in and taking action. Releasing any fish into the wild is, in my view, irresponsible (not to mention illegal in most cases). Yes, the situation is less than ideal, but doing what you can to improve the situation even if it is short of ideal is always, in my view, worth doing.

Best of luck from a fellow goldfish lover.

 

[NekoOo]

Here are some photos of the mutant. Not good photos but the white stuff visible. He is also bloated still...

 

[RussellC]

It is a little tough to see the white spots on the photos, but based on the photos, they don't look like breeding tubercles to me at all. It doesn't look like ich either, but that's harder to say. Ich will look like somebody sprinkled your goldie with salt.

Again, with the resolution it's difficult, but when you look at the fish, does it look a bit like flaky skin? Like a person peeling while healing from a sunburn or whose skin is dry and flaky? Or do they look more like little bits of cotton? If it looks flaky (which is what it looks like to me, but again, it's hard to tell), it's possible that the white spots are from a healing ammonia burn.

Also, ammonia burns can give a fish black spots, which could possibly be the source of the darkening on the underside of the fish.

In order to be of much more help, knowing your water parameters would be extremely helpful. Many pet and fish stores will test a sample of your tank water for free, or you can invest in a test kit. If you were to record the results of the tests (most importantly, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate -- though pH, gH and kH would also be helpful) and post them here, the forum could probably steer you in a better direction as to what might be the cause and possible solutions.

Based on what you've said about stocking, my suspicion is ammonia burns (newer ones on the underside, and older healing ones around the fish's head), but again, it's a bit hard to tell from the pictures and without knowing what your water parameters are.

I'll add that in my opinion, improving water quality is the first and most important step of all in healing ill fish regardless of the type of illness -- and that maintaining good water quality is the first and most important step of keeping our fish from getting ill in the first place. If you can get your water tested and post the results, that'll really help the forum when it comes to helping you help your goldies.

Good luck!

 

[NekoOo]

I am going to get a kit on Monday to test the waters and will post the results ASAP. Doing a 50% water change today. Might do one again tomorrow.

It doesn't look like little flakes to me, but more soft and maybe filled with fluid. I admit to having bad eyesight though. I need to get another tank ASAP and 'hospitalize' him, and also get a better look with a magnifying glass. I feel bad for being such a newbie, I apologize to both you and my poor fish

Best not beat myself up, just try to make things better. I will keep updating.

 

[RussellC]

You care and are actively trying to learn how to improve things for your fish. No apologies necessary.

Good luck!