Sick Comet Goldfish: Fin rot, and possibly ick?

[BurpingChowder]

My comet goldfish currently has fin rot and I got medicine to treat it which is “API Fin & Body Cure” and a small amount of blood started coming out my goldfish’s gills… It stopped after a couple seconds but she also has a skin coming off her mouth causing her mouth to be a bit bloody. Please help I am freaking out! Her fin also seemed to flair up after putting the medicine in, but has calmed down after a couple minutes. She also seems to have tiny dots on her fin, which I told the guy at petsmart and he said it was Ick but I’m worried about putting to much medicine into the tank that might cause her to become more stressed. I also don’t think it’s ick but I could be wrong. Is it okay to add the Ick treatment “API Super Ick Cure” too?
~ Tank Info ~
-Tank Size: 50 Gallon
-Temperature: 70 Degrees
-PH: 8.5-9.0
-Ammonia: 0ppm
-Nitrite: 0ppm
-Nitrate: 0ppm
-Internal Power Filter System
-Sponge Filter
-Mini Fan that blows on the water
-20% water change every week and I make sure to suck the gravel

 

[Andy Sager]

First off, I'd like to tell you that freaking out will not save your fish. You need to be calm and collected so that you don't do the wrong thing thinking that it made sense to do. When fish get sick, there's a reason why. What you have to do is keep a level head and figure out what caused the fish to get sick and what it will take to fix them. So as gently as I can type it , don't be a but do be a ( thinker) .
Now to start the thinking process......
It's rather unusual to have 0 nitrates in a cycled tank with a pH that high and that does not have either a large volume of nitrate absorbing plants in it or you are doing very large scale water changes almost daily so something tells me there may be a problem with your test results. I'd have a store check your water to confirm your results.

How long has the tank been running? Did you go through the cycling process? If so, how did you do it?
How long have you had the fish? If it's recently, how did you acclimate the fish to the tank?
Are there other fish in the tank with this one?

The wound on the face actually looks like a net burn which can happen when the fish is caught in a net or it possibly ran into something solid and may have ruptured a blood vessel in the face. That could account for the blood coming out of the gill. Unfortunately, the Ick parasite's first line of attack is often the gills since that is where the blood supply is so that too could be a cause. The good news is that the bleeding has stopped so for now, put that little bit of blood aside and concentrate on answering the questions I've asked.

 

[BurpingChowder]

We moved recently about 5 months ago. So the tank has been running for around 5 months and a couple weeks. I feed her 3 times a week, pellets soaked in garlic guard. I didn’t clean the gravel or any of the filtration systems but I did put all freshwater into the tank. I chlorinate each bucket of water with prime and I add aquarium salt to the tank to 2500ppm. I’ve had her for over 3 years, she will have problems every once in awhile but the first year or two I over fed her and didn’t have as much knowledge as I did that I do now. She is the only fish in the tank. Below are photos of the water parameters from earlier today.

 

[Andy Sager]

For starters, I would have your nitrate level double checked. The end result of ammonia is nitrate. If your gravel and filter material was kept wet and was set back up within 48 hours OR was aerated within 48 hours during the move, the nitrifying microbes should still be alive. If it was longer than that, your tank should be cycled again and the cooler temps may be why it is not happening quickly. Optimal temps for nitrification is 77-86 degrees. These microbes are on surfaces more than free swimming in the water column so using all new water should not have done anything to the filter bed.

It sounds like you went from one extreme to the other when it comes to feeding. Goldfish do not have a " stomach" per say where they can hold food to digest it so they are constantly digesting food which means that they need more food than those fish with stomachs. Goldfish should be fed as much as they will eat in 1-2 minutes 3-4 times per day at a minimum. Yes, that means they will become poop machines but that's what Goldfish are...Poop machines. Your fish is most likely weakened from lack of food which is why it is succumbing to ick. Healthy fish can protect themselves better against parasites. Start feeding the fish more often. You may need to gradually get to that 3-4 times per day so if the fish does not eat, do not force it. You might have to start with twice a day or the amount for 1 minute until the fish gets used to feeding more frequently again.

Regarding your medications: API's Fin & Body cure's main ingredient is doxycycline hyclate which is in the Tetracycline family. You need to make sure the med was not an old medicine. Check the expiration date on the box. Old tetracycline is actually harmful to fish so one can assume the same may apply to the doxycycline hyclate. You need to have your water hardness checked. Calcium can block the effectiveness of doxycycline so if you have a high GH ( General Hardness) or any rock or decorations that are calcium based, you would be best to switch to Kanamycin ( Seachem's Kanaplex) to address the face issue as well as any fin rot because of your high pH. Regarding the Ick, doxycycline actually has properties that are somewhat effective against Ick so unless you are switching to Kanaplex, I would hold off on adding the Ick Cure until the fish is a bit healthier and stronger. Ick rarely kills fish but bacterial issues do kill so that has to be the first line to attack.

Hope this helps.

 

[BurpingChowder]

I will have the water tested at my local pet store today. The gravel to my tank was kept wet but I recently switched to a sponge filter in my tank and before I was using Carbon filters but stopped because my local fish store told
Me she got poisoning from it and switching over did help that issue.

I will start gradually start feeding her more. I’m glad I got your input because another fish store told me to only feed her 3 times a week.

The medicine is not expired but her back fin seems to be shredding still. I have tried treating her with Kanaplex a month or two ago by putting it in her food. Should I do a water change to get rid of the API Body & Fin Cure out of the water and start treating her with Kanaplex? I usually give her the Kanaplex in her food but would you recommend putting it in her tank instead? I’m usually told feeding it to her is better but I want to make sure that’s the best way. Her mouth looks a lot better today but like I said above, her back fin seems a bit more shredded today.

Thank you for your help. I truly appreciate it.

 

[Andy Sager]

I wouldn't change anything until you get the GH tested. As for the Kanaplex in the food, that would have worked better if you were feeding the fish more. Consider when YOU take an antibiotic. You usually take it multiple times per day and for 7-10 days. Right? You weren't feeding the fish often enough for the medication to do it's job. The problem now is that the pathogens effecting your fish may have built up a resistance to the medicine. I don't see severe bleeding in the fins in your pictures so for now, IF you need to switch medicines, use the Kanaplex in the water for a complete dosage length. IF you do not see any improvement after a full treatment regimen, I'd switch to Maracyn 2 ( minocycline) to see if that will work. If you are seeing improvement but the fish is not healed with the Kanaplex, do a second full treatment regimen instead of switching medicine.

One of the other possible issues is that malnutrition can cause the fins to shred. The blood streak in the tail is called septecemia and does not look really bad in your pics so both the Kanaplex and the minocycline will usually work because internal issues are usually gram- pathogens while external issues are usually gram+ and both medicines are absorbed into the body through the gills and skin so it works whether the fish is eating or not. Doxycilin works primarily on gram+ pathogens and only a few gram- pathogens. Remember, if the malnutrition is the main cause, it will not subside rapidly but will over time. You just need to get the fish metabolically cured so that it can get physically cured. What you are looking for is a reduction of the blood in the fins and the face. The rest will follow.