thought it was a flesh wound

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uglygoat

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jan 2, 2007
Messages
46
i got some(4) feeder comet goldfish for my daughter after our dog passed this sunday. i took a lot of gravel and filter media out of another tank we have had established for a long time and set her up a twenty gallon long, after my inherited twenty gallon failed. i've done several water changes since sunday.

one of the fish is just in bad shape, and i think we got her/him that way. the gash is just behind the gills, between teh fins. in the center is a black spot/hole. around the spot is white/dead flesh and hanging scales. around that is a red ring, very thin, almost like ringworm pattern.

that fish is isolated after we discovered the other fish having a go at the wound after we acclimated them to the tank (sunday night). the other fish are now very happy and have stopped biting at each other.

the fish in the isolation tank just hovers around, but when i drop some food in there he goes up and eats.

i'm just curious as to what thoughts you have on this fishes condition. it doesn't sound like any malady/disease i've read about. i suspect the fish has some sort of wound that is infected, and smelled like chum to the others.

tim
 
One of my fishes actually suffered from similar symptoms.
It was because my fish scraped against a new ornament that was sharp, and a small wound appeared. Then the other fishes began pecking at it...
After isolation, I kept the water extra clean and treated her with topical antibiotics (betadine cream). It seemed to have worked with my little baby, however, I'm a little concerned with the black hole on your fish...
That could be an ulcer that's so deep, it's actually reached its internal cavities... Or it could be a parasite...
Let's hope this thread would gain Jsoong's attention, since he is very experienced with goldfishes.
 
he's still alive in the little isolation chamber. i've been changing his water daily. the redness from the wound is gone, now he's got a slaw of scar tissues attempting to grow back. he was pretty active this morning. we will see. :rolleyes: cheers to 17 cent feeder fish... ;)
 
you know, one of my guppies had the same thing the other day. For the past couple weeks she has had the tiniest, almost impercievable spot of fungus behind her fin, and I have been treating the tank all this time, and yesterday it just blew up into a big hole and I ended up putting her down. Strange. It was a perfect circle with a red ring like you said.

They must be very happy little goldfish in a 20 long!!!!!!!!!!!
 
well he took his final lap around the porcelain circuit this morning. not sure what his malady really was, but it's done and over now.

thanks for the well wishes, and after looking at that diagnostic picture link posted, if i had to guess, i'd say some sort of bacterial infection. probably.

i know it sound cruel, but i don't see the sense in treating a fish with medication that costs 20 times what the fish cost. ;)

the other three are fine and happy so far...
 
That's where I am at with the guppies right now. I'd had them for a year (not the same consecutive ones) after switching from platies. Even the platies died occasionally, but I'm willing to bet that was due to my inexperience. The guppies just seem to die off randomly even though I am watching my water parameters like a hawk. I spoke to our LFS manager yesterday about it and she said they just seem to do that. It comes from inbreeding and sketchy conditions at the pet store. Even she admits the pet store fish's health is compromised compared to locally bred fish. I am willing to bet in the past few weeks I have spent close to 300 dollars on stuff in an effort to keep them alive longer - live plants, air pumps, addition of sponge filters, medications, water testers, not to mention several replacement fish. I've been very discouraged this past while, and so I have decided to trade in the guppies for a betta or two. Probably an equally expensive venture, but hopefully more rewarding (aka I don't have to get a new one every week?) We;ll see how it goes. I think bettas will be better for me while in university anyway.
 
Bettas are AWESOME! :D

Bettas ARE awesome! I've managed to keep Hemlock and Sayonara alive for over a month now - a record for me! But, seriously, they are beautiful fish. Sayonara likes to put out his "ruff" for me whenever I come over to the tank. What a flirt, eh? ;)
 
Tape a little hand mirror on the side of the tank and watch him then! LOL! Only do that for about 10 minutes though, so they don't get too stressed. ;)
 
well we're down to two in the twenty long, and we've isolated the third remaining gold fish in his own ten gallon quarantine tank. he's got a red mouth and it looks like gills from where he was biting at the other deceased fish's flesh wound. that'll learn him, or maybe not.

anyhoo, i am not sure if it's bacterial or some sort of ich/fungus, or some parasite. the guy with the red mouth was acting really distressed in the tank with the other two fish, but now on his own he swims around and eats just fine. his mouth is still red.

any thoughts, or suggestions?"

tim
 
He does not want to spend money on medication on them, I would say to look into proper euthanasia and not just flushing them down the toilet, because its a slow and painful death. I think it was still alive in his post it was not to clear or i just don't remember. I vote get rid of any that seem to have a problem wait a week if no others seem to have anything wrong replace the lost ones but make sure you take a look at the fish before you buy them.
 
i know how to whack fish painlessly... and don't flush live bait down the toilet. that's what i was sold, was bait, my fault i know...

i don't want to spend money true, but i've not been able to identify what the ailment is, nobody here has been able to correctly identify the ailment that i tried to describe the best i could. i fault nobody, but the shody the retailer. i've got two out the four left. one is fine, one has what appears to be a chomp out of the tail, behind the fin. it's been in it's own ten gallon tank for a week, and appears to be getting better. i've been changing the water and vacing every other day.

cheers...

tim
 
Sometimes it is difficult to ID fish ailments without a bunch of expensive vet procedures ... and the feeder goldfish are often full of diseases, so not surprising you got trouble.

It sounds like you have thing more or less under control. Clean water will do wonders for a lot of ailments. The only thing I have to add is that you might consider salt. <It is cheap!> It sounds like there is a bit of fin rot going on (or perhaps a wound), a bit of salt (0.1%) helps in preventing bacterial infection of wounds.
 
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