Parasites- Goldfish ticks - HELP!!!

[Ady1397]

hi im having big problems with my fish

I recently discovered bugs on my goldies.
they are oval shaped and they attach themselves to the fins and scales . They look like clear flat disc shaped bugs. and they grow bigger every day. they have suckers to attach themselves. They make my goldies hemmorage. They leave trails on the fins and scales from their movement.
A lot of flashing going on. No loss in appetite.
I have already lost my 6 inch Oranda and im afraid my 5 inch black moore is next.
I have tried Methyl Blue but that didnt work i think.

what can they be?

do they live out of the water?

should i clean out the whole tank? gravel too?

medicate?


Im in the process of manually removing them with tweezers.
I have raised the temp to 28.5C-29C
I added lots of salt

Is there anything else i should do..?
Help me please

 

[grimlock3000]

http://www.petlibrary.com/goldfish/fishlice.htm

i do not think lice are as easily killed off as ich is, and you should medicate the whole tank because from my understanding, there can be lice eggs in the gravel. i would try using parasite clear from jungle, but i have never had fish lice experience myself.

 

[Christmasfish]

http://www.kokosgoldfish.com/disease.html
another helpful gold only zone. One of the best I have seen for golds.

Lice are a hard thing to be rid of, though your fish expiring so fast was prolly the meds/heat. They are hard to get as well, very uncommon for fish not outside.
You must have got something new in the lately and they decapsulated with the sping weather. Yuk!

You have such a nice set up, what a bummer!..total treatment of tank is a must with lice....
I will be the messenger of the bad news..though I know you don't want to hear this and it is mentioned in nearly every new members post and you've been around a while.... that doesn't make it less so...
For goldies: you are way-waay overstocked .. you should only have an overstock of no more than 10 there to keep bad things down. And you have 9 fancies and 6 ?unknown assorteds?.....which means you may have the even larger bioload of comets and commons? The bare minimum for golds is 10 gallons per fish! Sure, you can cheat on a gallon or two with bigger tanks or younger fish; but not by much.
And you do not have a sterilizer like some keepers that like stuffed tanks will put in. And over-filtration does not put oxygen back in the water, or electrolytes..golds are big USERS of resources, worse than a mooching relative!

And you have some poor plecos at the bottom of that mess...bleh :?


With that many, treatment for lice is gonna be a bear! It is HIGHLY contagious and they populate exponentially. The whole tank has to be stripped and sterlized most likely. What a pain to recycle.

You will have to join a goldfish forum somewhere to get a DIY cure because of how complicated it is. Especially for so many fish in an X amount of gallons. I have onl seen it once on koi and my betta I got for Christmas (His I picked off since he was already by himself and under meds for 4 things..the meds killed him eventually); haven't done it in years and I was just a helper at that..so I wouldn't dare try to half remember the steps and post them. The complicated part is the amount of meds.
For most proplems, Golds respond well to just good old copper and salt
..I would take extreme care with other meds and with heat since it can make your golds ill and weak and isn't as good against lice.

 

[jsoong]

http://puregold.aquaria.net/pg/disease/symptom/byname.htm#ARGULUS

You can try this site or koivet.com. Unfortunately, both sites recommend drugs from a vet as best treatment. I guess fish lice is not a DIY project.

BTW, fish lice is very contagious, you'll need to treat the fish, plus sterilize everything the tank. And be careful not to spread it to any other tanks.

 

[Christmasfish]

No it wouldn't be posted in a public part of a forum no more than Home Depot wil say you can use playsand in an aquarium....
someone could say you gave them dangerous advice and coma after the site.
So it has to stay more word of mouth..plus i think the meds are not your petsmart shelf item. So that makes measuring it out hypercritical

 

[Ady1397]

thank you for the input

I dont think i am overstocked anyomer

One pleco jumped out of the tank and my cat found him. The other one along with my snail and 7 assorted oldies are in my 20 gal, safe and healthy.
My large oranda is dead. So is my large black moor. I only have 7 3-5inch goldies left in the tank..

I took out all the rocks and decorations.
scrubbed the tank sides.
removed the lice.
treated the fish with copper and salt and heat
I changed 50 percent of the water.

I am checking everyday for reinfestation but so far so good.
they all seem healthy and hungry.

 

[Christmasfish]

Hmm..good luck...

For treatment not that many years back, only organophosaphates would reliably remove the buggers (ie.malathion is an organophosphate!) from tanks and ponds..that was one of the complications..the removal of these dangerous chemicals, specially from ponds usually with strong bleach.

Fish lice DO NOT respond much to the same things that kill ich and anchor worms. I kid you not when I say it is a nasty customer!

Sorry to hear about the fishies. Suicide is usually not a preferrred method of paring down residents..
Again good luck......

 

[intensity68]

Suicide is usually not a preferrred method of paring down residents..

I should add that as my tag at the bottom of my post.

 

[grimlock3000]

Ady1397, sorry to hear about the losses. Sometimes this type of thing is a blessing in disguise. Once you get the tick issue behind, you can look forward to having your remaining Goldfish around for many years in a tank that will be more healthy. Good luck.