Odd skin growth on 4 year old goldfish, need help.

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Aoi_Goldfish

Blue fish and love for wildlife
Sep 10, 2007
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As stated in title, I have a 4 year old 5 inch ryunkin goldfish with strange growths on his skin. He is housed in a 300 gallon outside tank with 1 10 inch koi and 4 other 4 inch comet goldfish.

The tank is filtered with a homemade trickle filter that is fed by (I think) a 500+ gph pond pump bought from Lowe's. The pump has a prefilter that screws on that I clean twice a month to remove debris.

I haven't tested the water for nitrates/ammonia here lately. The tank has been set up since 2006 and I empty the tank about 25% twice in every season, refill it with dechloronated water, and add about a cup and a half of salt. No new tank inhabitants have been added since the initial setup in 2006. The temp of the tank is roughly around 50-59 F currently. There is no plants currently in my tank. The tank recieves natural sunlight but is mostly in the shade to prevent excess algae growth. The tank is bare bottomed that is covered with algae. The fish are fed a diet of Laguna pond fish food once to twice daily and are not fed below 50 F.

My Ryunkin developed these strange growth's that I think are tumors but I am not sure. I am away at college and I come home to do maintanence and I noticed the growths on Orangu when I was doing a partial water change. I would like to get another opinion and what's the best way to go about treatment or if there's no hope what can I do? He acts normal, eats, swims, and chases the others like a normal goldfish.

I have treated him once last month with a parasite treatment that had a small percentage of malacyte (spell check?) green in it and it seems like it hasn't done nothing for the infection. Here's some pics when I had given him the treatment.

What are my options to save my Orangu?



 

kyryah

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Feb 3, 2009
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Those do appear to be tumors on your fish. Some tumors are totally benign and will not harm the fish, just look unsightly. I am sure Lupin will chime in, he has had some experience with tumors.

When you say you change 25% of the water twice a season, does that mean roughly 6 times a year? How many fish are in the tank? That is very infrequent as far as water changes go. I change roughly 50-80% of the water in my goldfish tank 1-2 times a WEEK. There should be maintenance done weekly on your tank, even bi-weekly is pushing it. I would really step up on the water changes.

Kristina
 

Lupin

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Sep 21, 2006
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Do those cysts feel hard? Tumors feel that way. Lucky these did not happen internally which is harder to distinguish and diagnose. Tumors do come in benign or cancerous. There is really no treatment to date to obliterate the tumors except by surgery. Malachite green will not help wit tumors. I would advise against administering any more treatments to the fish unless you think outright that the treatment would help which in this case, none will. The areas where the tumors are situated luckily make it easier to do a surgery. Do you know a fish vet in your area? It would be much easier if you borrow assistance of a fish vet to do the surgery for you.

Here are links to how tumor surgeries are done.
http://thegab.org/Veterinary-Procedures/goldfish-tumor-removal-surgery.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMZ6he2gaMw

Once surgery is done, I apply betadine on the deep wound and maintain clean water to allow the wounds to patch up as quickly as possible.
 
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Aoi_Goldfish

Blue fish and love for wildlife
Sep 10, 2007
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One the water changes, that's a rough estimate Since I'm at college and home is a few hours drive away it's the best I can do. I could go home more often but it makes it difficult with classes, assignments, exams and the like. I call home frequently and get an update from the parents on the condition of the tank and if they say something I don't like, I make a trip home. It's a pretty stable tank and I've never had a nitrate or ammonia problem.

Basically it's a squareish 300 gallon above the ground tank and the water level changes with evaporation and when it rains it gets replenished. It's the best I can do for now. When I come home on breaks from college, which lasts for 4-5 days, I do an approximate 50% water change in addition to those I do when I visit home on the weekend. I also remove debris, leaves and tree limbs (if any), and do a thorough inspection of my babies. If I'm at home the maintenance is kept up weekly.

Lupin, I was afraid you would say that. I do not know of any fish vets in my area but I will do a search. If I'm not able to remove the tumors, will he be fine? I know he'll have those nasty bumps on him but that doesn't bother me. What bothers me is that he is suffering and right now he doesn't seem to suffer.
 

Lupin

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Aoi_Goldfish

Blue fish and love for wildlife
Sep 10, 2007
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Thanks Lupin. I'll look into vets in my area.
 
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