Parasitica
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2017
- Messages
- 16
A little over a year ago, I won a goldfish (Steeb) at a festival. We had him in a tank until he outgrew it, and we transferred him to a ten gallon tank with some new roommates (3 other smaller goldfish, Captain America, Iron Man, and BUCC). The water was dechlorinated, the temperature was matched to the water in Steeb's tank, and we floated his roommates in their bags before adding them to their tank. Everyone settled in quickly and were calm and healthy. Steeb had a hard time getting food at first because the little guys were faster, but he figured it out after a day. A week later, I noticed that they were acting a little lethargic. I was worried, but then I figured out that my brother had been turning on the light in the middle of the night and I thought it might have been messing up their sleep cycles, so I went ahead and did a partial water change as I had planned for the 1 week mark. The next day, BUCC was covered in this weird, white fluff and all of the other fish had weird white dots on only their tail fins. I've been keeping a pretty close eye on them because they're all new, and this all happened really suddenly. Steeb and Iron Man started flashing, and I caught Iron Man nibbling at Steeb so I transferred him to a separate tank.
That was when I noticed that Captain America was covered in the fuzz too (it was harder to see on him because he's mostly white). We tested the water and the nitrate, nitrite, and GH were all where they needed to be, and the KH and pH were still okay but needed to be monitored. We couldn't figure out what was going on, so we added 1 teaspoon of Kosher salt per gallon, dissolved in tank water, and they all seemed okay. This was yesterday.
Today Steeb and Iron Man are no longer flashing (thank god) but now BUCC's left eye seems to be bulging out a bit. There was a piece of coral in the tank that I just removed in case it was caused by trauma, but I honestly don't know, and every fish has fin rot on their tail fins. On BUCC it's really bad, but all of them have it and I know that two days ago there was no sign of it because I was looking for it.
I'm kind of freaking out and I don't know what is going on and what to do. The lady at Pet Smart yesterday recommended adding a heater, so we did (the tank is now at 75 degrees F) but she didn't tell us what to do about everything else, and I didn't notice any fin rot before we left (they were closed today so we didn't get the medication). I feel like almost everything that could go wrong has and I don't know how to help them.
Tl;dr: I have 4 really sick goldfish and I need help trouble shooting. Water seems good, 2/4 fish have white fuzz, one has mild Popeye (left), and all of them have suddenly developed fin rot. (All of this was sudden, actually.) Added recommended amount of kosher salt, temp is 75 degrees F, separated an aggressive fish from the main 10 gal tank. Tank hasn't been able to cycle yet, 3/4 fish are brand new. The last one is a year old. I'm a new tank owner and I'm very much freaking out over what the actual hell is going on.
That was when I noticed that Captain America was covered in the fuzz too (it was harder to see on him because he's mostly white). We tested the water and the nitrate, nitrite, and GH were all where they needed to be, and the KH and pH were still okay but needed to be monitored. We couldn't figure out what was going on, so we added 1 teaspoon of Kosher salt per gallon, dissolved in tank water, and they all seemed okay. This was yesterday.
Today Steeb and Iron Man are no longer flashing (thank god) but now BUCC's left eye seems to be bulging out a bit. There was a piece of coral in the tank that I just removed in case it was caused by trauma, but I honestly don't know, and every fish has fin rot on their tail fins. On BUCC it's really bad, but all of them have it and I know that two days ago there was no sign of it because I was looking for it.
I'm kind of freaking out and I don't know what is going on and what to do. The lady at Pet Smart yesterday recommended adding a heater, so we did (the tank is now at 75 degrees F) but she didn't tell us what to do about everything else, and I didn't notice any fin rot before we left (they were closed today so we didn't get the medication). I feel like almost everything that could go wrong has and I don't know how to help them.
Tl;dr: I have 4 really sick goldfish and I need help trouble shooting. Water seems good, 2/4 fish have white fuzz, one has mild Popeye (left), and all of them have suddenly developed fin rot. (All of this was sudden, actually.) Added recommended amount of kosher salt, temp is 75 degrees F, separated an aggressive fish from the main 10 gal tank. Tank hasn't been able to cycle yet, 3/4 fish are brand new. The last one is a year old. I'm a new tank owner and I'm very much freaking out over what the actual hell is going on.