Can my goldfish be saved?

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TheLupinLady

Registered Member
Feb 19, 2012
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I have an at least eight-year-old comet goldfish that - well - hasn't been looking her best, to say the least, since we put her in a twenty gallon tank. Her first symptom was cloudy eye, but she's gotten much, much worse since we noticed it about a week ago. Along with the eyes, she has some strange, fluffy, white, fungus-things growing all over her. They're not very visible until you turn on the aquarium light, then ... hoo boy ... icky. Along with that, her tail almost seems to be decaying, it used to be very long but the - webbing, I'm inclined to call it - is disappearing, and there are red marks on her as well, mainly near her fins. I also noticed that she seems to have a sort of tumour on one side of her body, like half of her is bloated and half isn't. She's kind of swimming around near the surface of the water gasping for air, she's vertical most of the time.

Am I right to assume there's no saving her? I tried very hard at first, I went to a special fish store to figure out what was wrong and they said to put her back in the ten gallon tank and gave me a treatment for the water in her old tank along with some medication, but she's been getting progressively worse and I've been thinking that euthanasia could be the kindest thing for her.

And if all hope is indeed lost, what would the most humane way be to euthanize her?
 

mykidsmylife

Princess of Peons
Aug 26, 2005
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Indiana, U.S.A.
I'm sorry to say but it doesn't sound good. At this point I would be doing daily water changes of at least 50% to try to help. I wouldn't know without pictures but I have a bad feeling.

It sounds like a serious issue. How big is he now? At 8 years old he should be a foot or more long. I imagine due to the small tank there is some serious stunting going on but that isn't the issue right now.

What medications did they give you for him? Do you know what his water parameters are on his tank now? (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate).
 

TheLupinLady

Registered Member
Feb 19, 2012
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She's only about six inches long ATM, (my guess was that the growth-stunting took place in the first half of her life when I didn't know any better), but anyway ...

I was given Melafix for the eyes and Pimafix for the fungus, and the ammonia, ph, nitrite and such are fine. I'm at a complete loss.

If it makes a difference, there used to be a Plecko in the tank as well - he was there from August till now, but he was returned to the pet store yesterday because the theory was that that could be part of the problem.


Status Update: She's swimming rather frantically at the surface and pretty much constantly wiggling around, and the colouration of her scales is a bit off. When I fed her today, I gave her both fish food and a pea without the skin, which I was told would help, but the pea sank and got lost amongst the rocks (leave it to me to get multicoloured pebbles where one of the colours is the ​exact colour of a pea...), and she wouldn't eat the food. I also forgot to mention what looks like a fairly shallow cut along her side - sort of made up of a lot of very short lines end to end. That had been there for a fairly long time though and she acted completely normal.
 

BettaFishMommy

finkids make me happy :-)
Mar 17, 2008
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Sherry N.
could you please tell us what your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph levels are? (exact number in ppm please). 'fine' is such a vague term, and pinpointing those readings for us can help us help you figure out what is causing the problems.
 

Somervell

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Feb 8, 2009
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What you are describing sounds as if it may need something a little stronger than Melafix and Pimafix, both of which are really diluted tea-tree oil solutions that are good for minor abrasions, but will do very little for major infections.

I agree with BFM. If you send parameters and/or a picture of the fish, perhaps someone here will be able to help make a clearer diagnosis and give you an effective treatment plan, if one exists. It's hard to suggest anything without more information.

Plecos will sometimes suck the slimecoat off of goldfish. I never had that problem with my bristlenoses, but I have heard of others who have had that problem with common plecs. This can open up the possibility of infection.
 

mykidsmylife

Princess of Peons
Aug 26, 2005
925
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Indiana, U.S.A.
I agree with Somervell. If it was a common pleco, they can develop a taste for slime coat of other fish. The lights go off, fishy goes to sleep and pleco rasps on the sleeping fish for the slime coat and cause injury.

I have used the pea trick with success before on bloated bettas (canned peas,skinned, no added salt works best) but if your fishy isn't eating then that would be pointless.

Pimafix and Melafix are good products and the ones I go to first, but it definitely sounds like Goldy is going to need something much stronger. A picture would be good to help us identify the problems. With out one we are just guessing.
 
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