Please help Comet Goldfish with bloody white tail

[jkchefgirl]

1. How big is your tank: Gal / litres 30 Gal Eheim 2232 35 gal Filter and a 40 gal airstone

2. For how long has the tank been set up: 9 months

3. How many fish: 3 Comet Goldfish and 4 Japanese trapdoor snails 2 freshwater plants and one Bamboo

4. What kinf of fish: Comet Goldfish

5. What are the water parameters: Ammonia.........ppm 1. 0 ppm
Nitrite..............ppm 0 ppm
Nitrate.............ppm N/A
pH.......................... N/A
Temp...............degrees Celsius / Fahrenheit 70 f

6. How often do you perform water changes: Every two weeks

7. How big are your waterchanges: .............. 25 %

8. What kind of waterconditioner are you using: Aquarium Salt

9. Do you add beneficial bacteria: Bio Trace

10. Symptoms your fish is showing: One has a split tail right in the center to the base it is bloody then it has white around it. 2 nd fish has one small sort of fuzzy white spot on the top of its tail. The third is showing no signs. I have been doing a water changes first thing in the morning for the past 2 days taking 40 % out of the tank. I have taken the carbon out and started adding more salt, Pimafix, and Melafix. My Ammonia is not going down. I put the snails in a different tank.
My water a couple weeks ago had a brownish brackish tinge to it fish were acting normal. The Nitrite was elevated to . 25 ppm I had to move my tank so we did a 60% water change and changed the filter pad after soaking the new one in aquarium water with the old pad. Ran test on Ammonia and Nitrites reads went back to normal water was the clearest I have seen it in a long time. Now fast forward two weeks and I see my fish with the split tail reads on Ammonia is elevated high Nitrites 0. Me in panic mode.

11. Since when does your fish show these symptoms: 2 days

12. How is the normal behavior of your fish: Happy swimming around begging for food

13. How do the other fish behave: the same

14. Post pics of the sick fish:

 

[Mr. Limpet]

1. How big is your tank: Gal / litres 30 Gal Eheim 2232 35 gal Filter and a 40 gal airstone

2. For how long has the tank been set up: 9 months

3. How many fish: 3 Comet Goldfish and 4 Japanese trapdoor snails 2 freshwater plants and one Bamboo

4. What kinf of fish: Comet Goldfish

5. What are the water parameters: Ammonia.........ppm 1. 0 ppm
Nitrite..............ppm N/A
Nitrate.............ppm 0 ppm
pH.......................... N/A
Temp...............degrees Celsius / Fahrenheit 70 f

6. How often do you perform water changes: Every two weeks

7. How big are your waterchanges: .............. 25 %

8. What kind of waterconditioner are you using: Aquarium Salt

9. Do you add beneficial bacteria: Bio Trace

10. Symptoms your fish is showing: One has a split tail right in the center to the base it is bloody then it has white around it. 2 nd fish has one small sort of fuzzy white spot on the top of its tail. The third is showing no signs. I have been doing a water changes first thing in the morning for the past 2 days taking 40 % out of the tank. I have taken the carbon out and started adding more salt, Pimafix, and Melafix. My Ammonia is not going down. I put the snails in a different tank.
My water a couple weeks ago had a brownish brackish tinge to it fish were acting normal. The Nitrate was elevated to . 25 ppm I had to move my tank so we did a 60% water change and changed the filter pad after soaking the new one in aquarium water with the old pad. Ran test on Ammonia and Nitrates reads went back to normal water was the clearest I have seen it in a long time. Now fast forward two weeks and I see my fish with the split tail reads on Ammonia is elevated high Nitrates 0. Me in panic mode.

11. Since when does your fish show these symptoms: 2 days

12. How is the normal behavior of your fish: Happy swimming around begging for food

13. How do the other fish behave: the same

14. Post pics of the sick fish:

I'll try to keep it by the numbers:

Is your bamboo the lucky curly cue kind? If so it's non- aquatic, will rot and foul your tank.

Your ammo is high, .25ppm max
You have nitrIte as N/A. This is really important
How do you test your water? If you use strips, I recommend switching to liquid (ie API FW Master test kit)

For goldies, I'd suggest 50% PWC every week because they're very dirty.

Aqua salt for curing your tap water? It's not made for that if that's what you're refering to. I'd suggest Prime by Seachem.

Bio trace doesn't really work IME and only adds chems to your water column.

Mela & Pimafix should help. Sounds like a fungus and they both help with it.

Goldies begging is a good sign .

I'd suggest 50% PWC everyday till they start to show signs of healing and the high ammo clears up. Keep posting with updates so additional advice can be given.

 

[jkchefgirl]

Sorry I misspoke I use Aqueon water conditioner for tap and sometimes I buy spring water. Whenever I do a water change I add Aquarium salt in addition to. I use API liquid test kits on Ammonia and Nitrite I do not have the other 2 test kits for Ph and Nitrate I will get it soon. I just took the curly Bamboo out thanks for your help. I will keep you posted.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Sorry I misspoke I use Aqueon water conditioner for tap and sometimes I buy spring water. Whenever I do a water change I add Aquarium salt in addition to. I use API liquid test kits on Ammonia and Nitrate I do not have the other 2 test kits for Ph and Nitrite I will get it soon. I just took the curly Bamboo out thanks for your help. I will keep you posted.

That's good to hear . If you're low on the Aqueon, I'd still suggest Prime to cure your tap water, it's good stuff and if needed you can dose up to 5x on occasion. Not sure on the spring water, but it came up in another thread and it was suggested not to use it. Aqua salt is not something I like using with my goldies as it can build up in the tank, but that's just my preference. No2 is very important to test for and I consider it to be more harmful than ammo.

 

[jkchefgirl]

It has been a while since I looked at the box I have a Nitrite test kit not Nitrate. The read is still 0 ppm for Nitrite. In your earlier post you said “ Bio trace doesn’t really work” What do you add for beneficial bacteria?
Do you suggest a certain brand,or do you not add anything. Up until this point I have not really had any issues with the tank since I cycled it 9 months ago. After I get rid of whatever this fungus is that is hurting my fishes tail I want to make sure I follow a good regimen so I don’t end up in this situation again.

 

[Yeahitstrue]

You don't need any beneficial bacteria after your tank is cycled. In fact, it usually doesn't even help when your cycling, but some people claim it helps the cycle go faster.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

It has been a while since I looked at the box I have a Nitrite test kit not Nitrate. The read is still 0 ppm for Nitrite. In your earlier post you said “ Bio trace doesn’t really work” What do you add for beneficial bacteria?
Do you suggest a certain brand,or do you not add anything. Up until this point I have not really had any issues with the tank since I cycled it 9 months ago. After I get rid of whatever this fungus is that is hurting my fishes tail I want to make sure I follow a good regimen so I don’t end up in this situation again.

That's good with your no2 is 0ppm. no3 (nitrAtes) isn't as big of a concern, but you should test for it and anything below 40ppm is fine IMO.

Yep, sometimes things build up and crash, it's part and parcel to creating an enclosed enviro. PWC are your best defence against situations like this IME.

 

[jkchefgirl]

QUICK UPDATE
It has been 4 days of adding Pimafix and Melafix only (I stopped adding salt) the tail is starting to get better as you can see from the picture. The fish don’t seem sick because there dorsal are up and they are swimming but they seem kind of pissed off. The spook real easy and my big Goldie who does not have the fungus keeps trying to aggressively bully the others two fish who showed signs of the fungus if they get to close to her.
Ammonia is still high at . 50 ppm I have done a 50% water change every single morning for the past four days. Not sure why it is not going down. Has Pimafix or Melafix ever made an ammonia reading high?
Nitrite still at 0 it has never spiked from the ammonia strange

 

[Mr. Limpet]

QUICK UPDATE
It has been 4 days of adding Pimafix and Melafix only (I stopped adding salt) the tail is starting to get better as you can see from the picture. The fish don’t seem sick because there dorsal are up and they are swimming but they seem kind of pissed off. The spook real easy and my big Goldie who does not have the fungus keeps trying to aggressively bully the others two fish who showed signs of the fungus if they get to close to her.
Ammonia is still high at . 50 ppm I have done a 50% water change every single morning for the past four days. Not sure why it is not going down. Has Pimafix or Melafix ever made an ammonia reading high?
Nitrite still at 0 it has never spiked from the ammonia strange

Glad to here they're doing better. Shoot for 2x50% PWC every other day and see if that helps

You're a bit overstocked with 3 goldies in a 30 and your filter is rated for just over the tank size under normal conditions so that's why you're seeing ammo all the time IME and goldies are never a part of a "normal" tank since they're so dirty. I have 3 in a 37g tall and filter for about 100g and even then I do PWC 2xweek.

IME, anytime you have an ill fish and a healthy fish is a tight space the stronger one will try to make more room for itself.

 

[jsoong]

When you have a 9 month old tank that is showing ammonia, it means that you are exceeding the carrying capacity of the tank. Comets are big fish (they get to 12-18") and will out grow that tank. <How big are they now?>

In addition, comets are fast swimmers & need lots of room. They really need a pond to thrive, or at least a 6 foot long tank. When they are crowded together, that is when aggression shows up.

In the short term, water changes are your friend. Daily water chagnes are in order when you start seeing ammonia. you might be able to increase the biofilter somewhat by adding another filter (or a bigger one), but all this is temporizing. You will eventually have to rehome those fish or it will just be one problem after another.