Goldfish White spots, red spots, veins, deteriorating fins

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geekboy

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Jul 1, 2009
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Thanks Lupin. They've been in a separate 25G tank with an Emperor 400 filter for quite a while already. It has a thin bed of the same coarse gravel as my main tank, which I had intended to kick start the cycle. It seems all it really did was make cleaning more difficult -- though it would probably be more of a pain to remove at this point. I vacuum the whole thing with every daily water change.
 

Lupin

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Sep 21, 2006
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Get all the gravel out and stuff a handful in the bag for the filter. I wish I could help with a lot of established filter media I have here but living on the other side of the world is really not making this an option.:(
 

geekboy

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I removed the gravel, and I have little doubt the debris that it was holding on to was contributing to ammonia. Hopefully that will be one less problem.

Lupin, I think we can hold off on the overnight International shipment of established media -- I do have an established main tank with two different filters after all. :rolleyes:
 

geekboy

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It's a good thing I never went to med school, because I don't think I could put up with this sort of self-contradicting disease stuff all the time. :eek:

Both fish seem stable. Cutting off the antibiotics hasn't immediately spelled their doom, and I don't plan to introduce any other meds unless things change.

Young comet has almost no redness anywhere, and has even come a long way toward repairing the tail fin. I'm a bit worried that I can still see several very small whitish "polyps" around all the fins, which was the original symptom before this all started.

Older comet has perhaps only slightly improved since the last pictures, but there has been no spread either. The main blood supply to the tail is still red and inflamed. It seems like other areas that became swollen would eventually drain and begin to heal, and I hope that will eventually happen here.

Behavior is completely normal. Both of them look at me in the morning like "What the hell? Why can't we be in the main tank again?"

Honestly, I don't know if I would move them back even when they do recover. The two of them are looking cramped alone in the empty 25G hospital tank. They are definitely reminding me that comets are still single-fin goldies with growth potential.
 

geekboy

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Glad they're doing well.:clap: Where will you put them in the end?:confused:
Probably in a hole in the backyard someplace.


Seriously though, the main tank got some relief from cramped quarters when I moved them to the QT. As much as the goal has been to get them healthy enough to rejoin, it is almost cruel to put them back.
 

Flaringshutter

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Oct 17, 2006
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Geek, I'm sorry to hear that you're still having problems with these two. If they start to go downhill again you might consider sedating and trimming off the most rotted bits of fins. As long as you don't cut too far down toward the body, the clean edges will give them a chance to start regrowing from a healthy base, rather than trying to shed dead tissue and repair dying tissue. I had some persistent finrot with my largest common, and after I trimmed off the worst affected areas (under anaesthesia, of course) the problem went away in about a week and she began to regrow. Now her tail is back to looking like it did before the finrot.
Best of luck to you!
 

geekboy

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After pulling back on feeding as much as I was willing to, I still couldn't keep the ammonia in the hospital tank under control. Even with daily changes, I was seeing buildups to 4+ ppm, which was dangerous even with Ammo-lock. It was probably a chicken-or-egg situation: I had to change lots of water to remove the ammonia, but the large water changes slowed down the growth of beneficial bacteria.

Meanwhile, the infected portions of the fin were disappearing. Many spots were leaving holes and tears in the fin, but seemed to be knitting up quickly. There were still some blood vessels showing through the fin, but I suspected these were largely because of elevated ammonia. Based on this, I made a hasty decision: The established (but high-nitrate) main tank was a better place to be than the toxic ammonia bath in the QT. I reasoned that whatever bacterial infection remained should be an acceptable risk to the other fish if their immune systems were healthy.

Anyways, here's the most sickly one, two days back in the main tank. Note the much less-tacky-looking subtrate (in prep for plants).
 

Flaringshutter

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That is excellent progress! I definitely agree with your decision to move them back to the main tank. They look much, much better. At this point I would stop any in-tank antibiotics, just let their immune systems take over and start spot-treating for any bits that refuse to heal. Bio-bandage or even neosporin is great for spot treatment. Bio bandage is easier to use, and though it's expensive it is definitely worth it. I used it with great success on my big common (who, coincidentally, could be your fish's twin)!
 
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