Sick black moor - advice & opinions please

[jsoong]

I had been treating recurring swim bladder problems with my black moor in my tank for the last 2 months. Time for a 2nd/3rd opinion & advice....

History of tank - set up for over 3 years ... as per sig ..... current specs: pH 7.8, temp 75, NH3/NO2/NO3 0/0/10-20 (dosing with KNO3). No changes for months.

Last problem with tank over 6 months ago - ick with new fish, treated with salt ... no recurrence. 2+ months ago lost my oldest fish (4 year old or so - sudden bloating no other signs) - elected not to treat the tank, no other fish appeared affected.

Noticed Moor acting strange about 6 weeks or so ... floating, poor balance. Tried peas, no change. Noted a bit ragged fins & some white threads. Treated with salt bath (1%) daily for 5 days. Fish perked up, white patches gone & balance better. 2 weeks later, same problem with balance, treated with peas + salt bath, better almost immediately.

Bad balance again today ... lethargic, floating sideways .... maybe white poop. He is currently sitting in a tub by himself after a salt bath. I've finally broken down & started feeding him antibiotic laced food <I hate using drugs without a firm diagnosis>.

BTW - the Moor is 2" long, about 2 years old. One problem is that the Moor is kinda blind & is being out-competed by the other golds for food. However, I have been feeding him separately from the others for the last few months so I know that he is getting something.

Your thoughts? The Moor is responding quickly to salt baths ... but I hate to see the problem come back every few weeks. Everyone else is fine so I don't think it is a problem with the tank. Am I missing anything?

TIA.

 

[Zagz]

Try some epsom salt. 1 tsp per 10 gals. Keep feeding with peas once in a while and how often are you doing water changes?

 

[Devilishturtles]

For what it's worth, I have a black moor that has an unsolvable balance issue as well, among other things. I saved this fish from flushing from someone I knew, and didn't have a tank for it so I put it in my tropical tank. Over the course of a year, he got balance problems. Then, one day his skin looked like it had cracked. Two places, one by his anus and the other his eyeball. Needless to say, it seems as if he lost his sight in that eye becuse he constantly runs into things. He still eats fine though, and he swims fast, just off balance. No medication has helped it, no salt baths (although I have not tried epsom salts), nothing. I've just given up and told myself he'd be like this...

That doesn't help much, but atleast you know you are not alone.

 

[jsoong]

I have not tried Epsom's salt, as he responds to plain salt bath within 10-15 minutes, and he will be fine for a couple weeks, then gets the balance problems and become totally lethargic & near death looking, only to be revived with another salt bath.

I am at a lost to explain this. I don't think this is constipation, as the fish all get peas at least once a week, plus they get lots of veggies from the plants <lately they have developed a taste for the vals... ... >

When he gets the SB problem, he floats. At night, he struggles to go down to the bottom to sleep, and I think that's when he get exhaushed & near death looking. I don't know why he would recover so quickely in the 1% salt bath. I was using the salt bath to treat a possible surface columnaris, and didn't expect any change for at least a few days, so the quick response was a surprise.

One thought I had was that he may be malnourished as he was being out-competed for food. So I had been feeding him seperately ... but he still had a recurrence. I am now giving him a full week's course of anti-biotic food just in case this is an internal infection .... but the quick response to salt seem to rule out infections ... so I don't know.

 

[Zagz]

Epsom salt draws fluid out of fish, as it may be a swim bladder issue epsom salt may help where aquarium salt will not make a difference. Worth a try. Epsom salt won't hurt him a bit, I've used them with sensitive fish like discus.

 

[DepotFish]

What size tank? How many fish of what kind? What do you feed the fish? If you feed flake food, stop completely. Goldfish don't do well on flakes. I am also a member of a goldfish club and have found in many instances that antibiotic food does not work. You need to put the fish in a quarentine tank and use a treatment for internal parasites. My other concern is his size. He is way small for a 2 year old. Stunting is caused by a small or crowded tank, poor water conditions, or poor diet.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Depot, looks in the signature of jsoong for tank specs.

 

[jsoong]

I would use Epsom's salt if plain salt is not working. As it is, he responds pretty promptly with a simple salt bath ... the problem is that the trouble comes back.

I don't think my tank is overcrowded.... But I am concerned with the stunting. This fish is now 1/2 the size of my other 2 year olds. The problem I think is that he is not able to compete with the others for food ... so lately I have been giving him extra food away from the others. This Moor is rather unlike the other golds. He would take in a pellet (when he finally finds one - as stated before, he has poor eyesight - worse than even most bubble eyes), then chew for 5 or so minutes, & look for another one. During the time he eats one pellet, the other golds would have cleaned the tank of every scrap of food!

Antibiotic food may not work, but from what I read, is better than just antibiotics in water. Now that I started, I will finish the one week course to avoid bacterial resistence. I am considering something for internal parasites if this is not solving the problem..... what would be a good one to use?