Need advice for sick goldfish tail (pictures included)

[kdom]

Hi everyone,

So for the past month or so, I have been trying to help heal my oranda goldfish's tail. There are these little white bumps and red streaks on the bottom of the tail and he has a few tears in it as well.

1) I double checked the water parameters and everything checks out. I have been doing regular water parameter checks throughout this process.

2) I thought it might have been an infection of some sort or fin rot so I fed him Medi-Gold for 2 weeks but did not see any improvements. So I stopped that.

3) Since there are white spots and red streaks on his tail, I thought it could be ich, so I increased my temperature to 86 degrees F and added aquarium salt to the water. I did this for about 10 days now. At first it seemed that the white spots started to fade, but now they are back and as strong as ever. You can see this in pictures 2 and 3.

4) There are also tears in his tail at the top of his tail (picture 4) and a small tear in the middle of his tail (picture 2). I'm not sure if he is some how injuring himself (he does swim around quite often), or if he is being bullied (although he is the largest fish in the tank), or if it is fin rot or another similar disease.

5) Throughout this process, I have only seen a white spot once on his wen but that went away after a day or two. Otherwise, I haven't seen the white spots spread to other fins or other parts of his tail. He is otherwise a healthy and active fish with a huge appetite. As you can see in picture 1, he looks otherwise healthy.

6) The other goldfish doesn't seem to have these issues. I did notice that at certain angles, the fish seemed like to have whiteness around the base of her tail. After doing the heat and salt treatment, it seemed to get a little better which made me think this is ich. I'm not sure though.

So I guess my questions are:

1) At this point, should I try to take him to a vet?
2) What do you think the issue could be, and what would be the treatment?
3) Should I continue the heat and salt treatment or should I try an alternative treatment?

Thanks for any help you all can provide!

 

[kdom]

Here is additional information another person asked on a different forum:

It is a 29 gallon tank that is normally kept at around 76 degrees F. I top it off with distilled water to keep the water level above the top of the glass to prevent build up on the glass. I do weekly 6 gallon water changes and use Seachem Prime as the dechlorinator. I also put half a capful of Seachem Flourish every week to try to help my plants do better, but it doesn't seem to be working.

There are 2 orandas and 4 nerite snails in the tank. The snails have been laying eggs around but they haven't spawned any new snails. Not sure if that is relevant or not.

I just did a water test with the API liquid test kit and got the following:

pH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0.0
Nitrite: 0.0
Nitrate: 40.0-80.0 (Can't tell from the color)

Could my Nitrates be too high?

I did have one issue where I was gone for a week for vacation and left an automatic feeder. I think it put out too much food and it did pollute the tank. I did a huge water change when I got back to clean that up.

Also while he was gone, he pulled up the air stone and ripped up his tail which makes me believe he injured his tail. The rips look pretty clean and not tattered. While he was healing, the top point between the two tail fins started to create a bubble of some sort. After a week, the bubble went away and looks a bit normal now. But even after a month or so, the top of his tail still doesn't look full. Maybe it will take much longer for it to completely heal?

I do have a piece of driftwood in the tank, so perhaps he is injuring himself while swimming around because it does look like he may have injured the top part of his tail again. Or he is getting bullied by the smaller fish, I don't know.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Roz]

Hi there,

I'm not an expert - can only base my advice on my own experience.

I would think fresh water will help heal your little guy's tail.

I would suggest keeping the water pristine - with nitrates definitely below 40.

I don't think warm water will be helping if not ich, and may be compromising the quality of the water.

Hope this helps.



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[jlk]

Hi there,

I'm not an expert - can only base my advice on my own experience.

I would think fresh water will help heal your little guy's tail.

I would suggest keeping the water pristine - with nitrates definitely below 40.

I don't think warm water will be helping if not ich, and may be compromising the quality of the water.

Hope this helps.





I agree as well. A nitrate level of 40-80ppm is quite high and likely a primary factor contributing to his fin issues. Healthy water along with an appropriate diet can do wonders for fish health. Rather than topping off with distilled, simply increase the size and frequency of your water changes and make sure he is eating a nutritious diet. Keeping your nitrate levels below 20ppm (preferably, below 10ppm) should help along with diet.

The white spot that you saw on his wen was just part of normal wen growth- expect to see white 'spots' on his wen more frequently as he matures. This is perfectly normal but its also important to keep your parameters in check during these growth periods to limit any possible risk of infection. Please ask if you have any questions!

 

[Angela1108]

I agree I think it might have to something to do with the nitrates especially since the test of the parameters look good. I would do water changes to get those down and see how it goes.

Our big tank we bought used on craigslist with the fish. It was super overstocked but we've kept it as is and just done lots of water changes. The person gave us all the supplies when we bought it but no master kit. I went and bought one and the nitrates were around 120!!! At that point a couple of the fish had some white on the fins like that - but with water changes it did clear up.


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