My Goldfish died mysteriously?

[goldkelly]

To begin, I am an inexperienced fish keeper. I have two goldfish (or had, now that one has died) in a ten gallon tank. One is a Shubunkin, and the other was a comet. My Ammonia is at 0, there are no live plants in the tank, and I have a filter. Before you yell at me for having two goldfish that can grow up to twelve inches in a ten gallon aquarium, they were/are both about an inch and a half long. I was planning to upgrade as they grew. My now deceased comet goldfish was very energetic and lively for the first month or so that I had him, but maybe two weeks ago I noticed that it seemed he may have lost a scale or two on one side. I searched the internet for answers, but I found none. He seemed OK, and I left it alone. About a week ago, however, I noticed that Julius Caesar (my comet) seemed a lot more lethargic. He would usually swim up and down the tank staring at his reflection, but he had stopped doing so. I tried to look at him more closely, and saw with alarm that his top fin seemed to be gone, or at least mostly gone. Noe this fish was almost entirely white, and his fins were practically clear, but with some close inspection I saw that it has disappeared. I then looked at his tail and noticed that it was very ragged looking. I was concerned and searched the internet yet again for answers. My conclusion was that he had somehow gotten fin rot, and so I ran to the local pet smart and grabbed some medicine for bacterial infection as well as some aquarium salt. I began dosing the aquarium once a day and added some salt the first day to try and help my fish heal. But he didn't. He quickly got worse and worse, his tail getting lesser and lesser. He just sat at the bottom of the aquarium his last two days. About an hour ago I discovered he was dead at the bottom. And closely inspecting him, I saw a wound in his side, as well as what almost looked like white mold around his tail. I took him from the tank to take pictures (though the mold like substance cannot be seen with him out of water). He has some red discoloration that seemed to come from beneath his skin as well. I'm hoping you guys can help me diagnose what exactly killed him so I can learn from this experience and so I can make sure his tank mate doesn't meet the same end.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Welcome to the site and sorry for your loss! We've all been through it. How long did you have these fish in your tank? What was your water change schedule volume changed on this 10g? Even just two ~1.5" goldfish in a 10g would require a 50% or more water change per week to keep nitrates under control.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Welcome to the site and sorry for your loss! We've all been through it. How long did you have these fish in your tank? What was your water change schedule volume changed on this 10g? Even just two ~1.5" goldfish in a 10g would require a 50% or more water change per week to keep nitrates under control.

 

[goldkelly]

Welcome to the site and sorry for your loss! We've all been through it. How long did you have these fish in your tank? What was your water change schedule volume changed on this 10g? Even just two ~1.5" goldfish in a 10g would require a 50% or more water change per week to keep nitrates under control.

I had the now dead comet in the tank for maybe a month and a half and the shubunkin in there for maybe a month. I try to do about 50 % water changes every week, but really it's probably more around 30-40%. I did a 90% water change yesterday to try and make my tank as clean as possible for the fish still alive, who also seems less energetic Could my nitrates be crazy out of control with my Ammonia being at 0? I haven't tested my nitrates, I don't yet have the money for a bigger kit with that included. Thank you for responding.

 

[Evanleigh]

You can get a can of Tetra EasyStrips 6 in 1 Aquarium Test Strips at Petco or Petsmart. It will be around or a little over $15.00. With one strip you can test Nitrate, Nitrite, Water Hardness, Chlorine, Alkalinity and pH. There are 25 strips per bottle. Once you have an idea of your water parameters it will help take some guesswork out the water. I hope your Shubunkin is doing ok.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Kelly, you're way ahead of the game given you were doing water changes. That's always a good thing. 2 small goldies in a 10g is fine for awhile. Like said, try to get ahold of a water parameter test kit that allows you to measure for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate in PPM. Test strips are better than nothing, but the liquid dropper kits like the API master test kit is much better. I'd do more like a weekly 80% water change or a 50% every 2, 3 days.

Other thing to keep in mind is goldfish are usually horribly kept before we get them, so damage could have already been done, or the fish came in with an illness or parasite.

 

[goldkelly]

Kelly, you're way ahead of the game given you were doing water changes. That's always a good thing. 2 small goldies in a 10g is fine for awhile. Like said, try to get ahold of a water parameter test kit that allows you to measure for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate in PPM. Test strips are better than nothing, but the liquid dropper kits like the API master test kit is much better. I'd do more like a weekly 80% water change or a 50% every 2, 3 days.

Other thing to keep in mind is goldfish are usually horribly kept before we get them, so damage could have already been done, or the fish came in with an illness or parasite.

I got some strips and my nitrite seems to be at 0 while my nitrate seems to be at 20.