HELP! Possible Funky-Fungus on Goldie!

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RodLech

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Feb 6, 2003
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HELP!

About six months ago my wife brought home four comet/feeder goldfish that were scheduled to be flushed by an uncaring family. We can pretty much skip over the obvious of having too much fish for the size tank since I have read all the posts concerning this fact. But being stuck in Germany and not speaking the language makes it a little hard to get supplies and food for the fish, let alone another tank setup. The fish are about 2in in length, crammed into a 20 gal. tank. Like I said, I know, I know. Trust me, it's getting old doing a complete water change every week! Let's move on to the problem; Two days ago one of the Goldies, Moe I think, or maybe Larry, had his whole snout, up to his eyes, turn white. Prior to this, all were perfectly orange, with no spots or anything, and it is just the one fish. I've read where this could be a fungus, but the fungus is described as being either white or grey and being 'cottony' or 'fuzzy'. This discolorization has no disernable consistancy like that, it just appears that the pigment has changed from solid orange to solid white. Any ideas and/or help and advice would be greatly appreciated. Like I said it's not like I can run down the street to the Petsmart and ask someone.

TIA

Rod
 

JeffP

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Mar 26, 2002
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Syracuse, NY
I lost a favorite goldfish to a similar disease. Here's the problem. There are actually 4 "critters" that can cause a white fuzz. The two most common are fungus and columnaris (which is a bacteria). Since the fuzzy stuff is on the head, I bet its columnaris.

Anyway....

FIND THE CAUSE
Since your tank is established, disease is almost always caused by degrading water conditions caused by decreased maintenance OR fish have outgrown existing maintenance and filtration. Do 50% water changes once per week minimum. If you're doing a 100% water change you could be disrupting beneficial bacteria in your gravel and filter (or both if you're using an under gravel filter). Vacuum the gravel with each water change. Add salt at 1 tablespoon per 5 Gallons but add half one week and then half the next so as not to shock your fish or filter. Top-off your tank with plain dechlorinated water before water changes. Evaluate the adequacy of your filtration. You may need more! Check your water parameters (ammonia and nitrite at least) with some inexpensive test kits. Sorry if this seems like a lot but prevention is a lot more effective than treatment.

TREATMENT

If you try to treat your tank, you could disrupt your biological filter and stress other fish. If you can, find any clean container and separate your sick fish. No soap residues please. Put an airstone in it. If you have only one air pump, you might be able to run to bubblers off it.

Get some antibacterial meds effective for columnaris. See links below. Put medicine in the container at the prescribed dose. Some meds allow you to apply it directly to the fuzz with a cotton swab. Since you are in Germany, it will be difficult to understand lfs advice on selection and use of meds that are available locally. I can't help you there, but maybe an online store can help?

Make daily water changes in your makeshift hospital tank. Make sure the temp stays constant. If you don't use a hospital tank, then you should make frequent partial water changes in your main tank until your biological filter gets going again. Ammonia and nitrite test kits would be really helpful here.

LINKS

Info on goldfish diseases including fungus:
http://members.aol.com/sirchin/ailment1.htm#fungus

Info on more goldfish diseases including columnaris:
http://members.aol.com/sirchin/ailment2.htm#cottonwool

Brief summary of goldfish meds:
http://members.aol.com/sirchin/medicate.htm

This in information from one of my favorite goldfish sites...goldfishguy.com.
goldfishguy.com information

Another great site to check out:
http://www.koivet.com

I wish you luck, and I apologize for the lengthy response.
 

Aderynglas

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Feb 4, 2003
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Guten abend Rodlech,

I keep fancy goldfish here in the UK but I have family in Germany, There are a lot of fish keepers in Germany, its a very popular hobby there (huge). All the best aquarium equipment is German made ! (Hagen, Eheim,Juwel)

There are two things you could do

Look in the telephone directory for Aquariumgeschaft - Frankfurt
Use the internet - do a local search
Find a pet supply shop and enquire there (my apologies if you've already tried these)

Goldfish in german is.............Goldfische
goldfish food is .....................Futter fur goldfisch
Aquarium is............................aquarium

Many of the words you need are the same
:)

I will contact my family in Germany for you (Munster)and find out if they can give the name of any shop you could look for in Frankfurt or near there.

As far as your golfish loss of colour is concerned, if there isn't any sign of disease (you seem to know what your looking for ) it could be

a, The fish has somehow scraped the skin off his scales and the colour of the scales is showing thru, this may or may not colour up as the skin grows back - not sure what the influences are

b, The fish is naturally changing colour (some can change quite quickly) I have had a fish do this - a beautiful blue fantail now gone snowy white I'm very sad:(

I hope this has been of some help
Regards
Paule
 

JeffP

AC Members
Mar 26, 2002
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Syracuse, NY
This is a little off-topic, but several years ago I visited my brother who was (at the time) in Stutgart. While I was there, I found the people extremely friendly and accommodating. I often found someone who could converse reasonably well in English and many people could at least understand key words ("beer" for example). If you visit enough lfs, you might find one with a clerk who understands english. Who knows?

Good luck.
 
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