A few questions. Goldfish People. :)

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My_Goldie

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Mar 1, 2009
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1st question...So about a week ago, Goldie (my goldfish) got stuck in the decoration in the tank and injured himself (scraped all the scales off the left side of his face and injured his fins pretty badly) Since then, he has been in the 20 gallon hospital tank healing up with daily doses of Melafix and medicated pellets. He is healing up wonderfully and is acting just like his normal self. His last dose of the melafix is tonight, and I was wondering when it would be alright to put him back in the other tank with his buddies. Should I wait until he is completely healed, or would it be fine to transfer him back when his 7 days of the melafix is up? ORRR... should I continue to dose him with the melafix until he is completely healed?

2nd... Skid my orange and black oranda has issues with constipation. I've tried the peas and whatnot and every couple days he seems to be floatin nose down in the middle of the tank until he is able to take a poo. He is the only one that has problems with it. They are currently on TetraFin Goldfish Crisps. Any suggestions on what I could do differently?

3rd... I am getting rid of my pleco from the goldfish tank. He's going to live in my friends 200 gallon tank. And I'd like to get some snails instead. What kind and how many would be good?

Annnnd... I think that is all of my questions for the moment.
I'll try to get some pictures of Goldie's face... if he'll show it to me. haha
He usually faces that side away from me.
 

My_Goldie

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No pictures of Goldie. Bad camera and I can't get him to sit still for long enough.
Got some nice ones of Pepper and Skid though. :D
 

JenniferLynn

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Dec 4, 2008
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I wouldn't put your goldie back in with the others until his wounds are all sealed up and he's back to his normal self to be ready to deal with the other fish. I think with the problem that Skid is having that it would be a good thing if you looked into some of the higher quality food. I just started trying out one of the formulas offered from kensfish.com for my goldies but haven't been with it long enough to know if it's great or not. I know some of the others in here will come along with their favorites sinking foods to give you more ideas.
 

McLendon

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Oct 13, 2006
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.Wait till goldie is heald up Good. Skids needs some green food I keep water sprit in my gold fish tanks.just float it and give it lots of light.plant it pretty thick and let them graze.along with the unlimited salad bar each fish get's 5 shimp pellets a pinch of blood worms to a tank and feeder guppies when they catch them
 

Kashta

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Jun 24, 2008
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Agree with the others about still waiting. You're doing a nice job with Goldie's rehabilitation. It's alway so good to read happy news like that. But jeez.. we still want to see pics! Tell that fish to hold still! lol.

With Skid having the constipation ease up just to come right back, again, I would feed him nothing but peas until you're sure the problem is gone completely. Fasting helps too, so it's okay for Skid to go a day or two with no food at all. Then feed him more peas. The veggie fiber content in the mushed up pea works as a laxative and helps him pass the blockage sooner. As he improves, still avoid flake foods. He'll be fine on a complete veggie diet for a while. For variety, you could steam some yellow squash, zucchini slices, and dark leafy greens. They'll also nibble on cucumber. Either use a veggie clip that has a suction cup on the glass, or attach it with a rubber band to a flat stone.

When one of my fish (Chiffon) went through a few months ago she went from fasting for 2 full days, then to nothing but peas until she was up swimming around normally, and then she started eating duckweed (floating plants) on her own from the surface. Omega One makes a slowly sinking goldfish pellet food that's recommended a lot. There are other highly recommended brands too that I don't recall now by name. You could give them spirulina and algae wafers. For flake foods, compare the ingredient list. You're looking for something relatively low in proteins and fat content. Flake foods, when given, should be submerged so they're already wet and start floating downward. That helps prevent the goldies from gulping down air as they feed.

For snail recommendations, my first choice would be apple snails (briggs, diffusas, mystery snails). And the best source for the healthiest stock would be our own classifieds section. I also like keeping olive nerites for something different. Start out with just a few snails though. The apples grow fast, get quite large, and produce a lot of waste (doesn't everything? lol).

Keep up the good work and I'm glad they're recovering well.
 

Lupin

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Pomacea canaliculata are illegal to obtain except within your state. These ones do reach baseball size and can consume plants voraciously. I have not mixed mine with any snails at all as these are aggressive eaters that can easily deprive anyone of their foods. I do prefer the Pomacea diffusa. They don't eat plants preferring the dead and decaying parts. lol..They already ate all the dead leaves of my Heternanthera zosterifolia. Furthermore, these snails can reach golfball size only. The guideline for these snails in particular has been set to one per 2.5g to avoid overcrowding. These are similar to plecos when they excrete wastes as mentioned by Kashta. If you are willing to do more water changes to cope with the water parameters due to the amount of wastes by both goldfish and snails alike, why not?

Depending on your KH and pH, snails still need calcium to keep their shells intact. Shell erosions can pose quite a problem for the snails as they become more vulnerable to damages. What are your KH and pH? If the pH is 8.0 and above with hardness high as well, then you won't need to dose calcium at all but focus on calcium enriched foods such as seaweeds, collards and then the Kensfish product suggested by msjinkzd and Ken himself containing 20% calcium content designed for inverts.

I also have trapdoor snails and nerites. Trapdoors are very shy though. Both eat algae and will refuse any commercial foods so that's something to keep in mind.
 

My_Goldie

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Thanks Kashta and everyone!!

The bf is coming home with the good camera soon so I'll be able to get pics to put up :D

I'll leave Goldie in the hospital tank until he is completely healed. Which is lookin good on everything but his eye... which almost looks like it has formed a bubble. AH!

And i'll get some pretty snails in the next few days!!! I'm SO excited lol
 

My_Goldie

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Okay... here are pictures.
The close up pictures look worse than he does just looking at him.
Got him to look right at the camera.


You can see how far the bubble (?) sticks out over his eye.


From the side it just looks cloudy. His fins are not as black as they were a few days ago which is good.
 

Kashta

Always Niko's fault.....
Jun 24, 2008
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These are similar to plecos when they excrete wastes as mentioned by Kashta. If you are willing to do more water changes to cope with the water parameters due to the amount of wastes by both goldfish and snails alike, why not?
Exactly. That's another reason not to overstock with goldfish in the overall scheme of things, it leaves some room in there for the snails and dojos. My big tank is way overstocked right now. And until I get my other tanks going and transfer over some of the newer fish I've received, I'm running a third canister filter and have to do partial water changes every 2-3 days. I'll have to stay in super high maintenance mode until I get the stocking level back down to a sustainable point.

Okay... here are pictures.
The close up pictures look worse than he does just looking at him.
Got him to look right at the camera.

You can see how far the bubble (?) sticks out over his eye.

From the side it just looks cloudy. His fins are not as black as they were a few days ago which is good.
Wow.. I see now how bad the damage was from that incident you described before. What a lucky fish he is you were able to rescue him from that ornament. The healing process is going well, too. I thought the eye was lost, but maybe it won't be. (Not to get your hopes up too much there, just in case.) At a wound site like that, they produce a real thick layer of slime. That might be why the eye looks so cloudy. But if it's still intact underneath all the goo, he might not lose it.
 

My_Goldie

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Mar 1, 2009
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Yeah I saw the really thick slime the first couple of days. It was disgusting. The entire side of his face was covered in slime just that thick and it was like hanging off because it stuck off so far. But it gradually went down over the days.
We'll just have to wait and see what happens with that eye. I don't think it will affect him too much if he looses it, we'll just have to make sure that he stays really good and healthy during the whole process.

I was freaking out when I first found him stuck in the decoration. I thought he was dead at first, and am just thrilled at how well he is doing. Goldie was my first goldfish that I bought on impulse and we have had a long journey through my research and figuring out how to be a good goldie keeper. And I honestly would have cried if he died. :)
 
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