Rescued goldfish w/ Ick or Septicemia?

One look at those fish and they look like they are on there last leg, honestly. I personally would reccomend a 50 percent water change and adding carbon to the filter to get rid of the meds and see if you see some improvement in there lethargy. Then I would go for the salt treatment in 24 hours, this will give the fish a chance to recoop a bit. Salt also has mild antibacterial qualities as well that will help the fish.

Good luck.
 
I agree with Blueiz, I think those fish are on the way out. If it were me, especially being that you just picked them up with a "free" tank, I would euthanize them. This is why I never, ever take a fish tank with fish, free or not - you always (well, 95% of the time) end up with fish that are very sick or dying and you end up spending more than it would cost to buy a new healthy fish to try and treat them, and/or you end up with fish that grow too large for the tank you got and then you have to get another tank to properly house them. So it's not really "free" at all.
I don't see any ich from those pics (but like you said, not great resolution), are you sure that's what was on the fish? I think your only hope is to do as Blueiz suggested, water changes to get rid of the Quick Cure and then start again with a bit of salt. It does look like they have something bacterial going on, whether that was secondary to the ich or not, I'm not sure.
 
I may have mentioned before, the tank water had not been changed for months, the woman that had the tank was purposely not caring for anything because it belonged to her ex and he had left it behind.

The filter cartridge had clogged & been replaced with a wad of paper towels about a month before we got there. The water was so bad that you couldn't see that there were any fish in the tank at all. We did skim off what was left of the dead algae eater 1st. Just in case I had taken a tote w/ water from one of our tanks for transport...glad I did.

Two of the six that we recovered are actually doing quite well. I just finished doing another 50% water change in both hospital tanks and gave the 2nd dose of Quick Cure to the two that are recovering. Haven't been up to the LFS yet but am headed there now to look for antibiotics and some vitamins.

I didn't know whether to add 1, 2 or the full 3 teaspoons of salt to the tank with the really sick fish, or...chance the second dose of Quick Cure. There is a bad case of ick that seems to be clearing somewhat, the visible white spot part at least, but I'm sure there are secondary problems as well. My biggest worry is that the lightest colored one shows a little more of that reddening behind the gill openings.

I just can't tell if by not finishing the ick treatment I'm going to kill'em or if by finishing it I'll do'em in. I'm leaning more toward the mild salt therapy w/ an adjunct of antibiotics and vitamins. They still eat and I've been trying to keep them on a mix of low carb pellets and flake.

I don't know if this would be better or worse but I've also got two empty tanks that are ready to go...I could just switch them altogether, to limit the possibility of reinfection from protozoa in the substrate, and then disinfect the original hospital tanks and switch back again later?

Much as this is stressin' me out I really don't want to throw in the towel. These are going to be the most valuable fish that we own.

Buy new healthy fish...any body can do that. It's like my now deceased father-in-law used to say...anybody can quit smoking, but it takes a real man to face cancer,(which BTW is what did end up killing him).

Any additional comments are appreciated. Thanks again to all who have responded. :eek3::confused:
 
I didnt see where the tank was suffering from OTS. These fish are most likely in osmotic shock from going from dirty water with high TDS to clean water with low TDS.

Dont add anything more to the tank than what is already in there.

Good luck.
 
I took a look at the pictures and treat with antibiotics immediately. Those fish have a severe case of hemorrhagic septicemia as well as ich. You will mostly likely lose a few of them at this point. They are also severely malnourished, showing signs of stunting, and probably burned by ammonia from the dead algae eater.

It's actually amazing that they are still alive. Do your best but don't get your hopes up to high. Even if they survive the immediate ailments the internal damage could lead to deadly organ failure in the coming months.
 
THE V said:
I took a look at the pictures and treat with antibiotics immediately. Those fish have a severe case of hemorrhagic septicemia as well as ich. You will mostly likely lose a few of them at this point. They are also severely malnourished, showing signs of stunting, and probably burned by ammonia from the dead algae eater.

It's actually amazing that they are still alive. Do your best but don't get your hopes up to high. Even if they survive the immediate ailments the internal damage could lead to deadly organ failure in the coming months.
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Really wish I had a better cam workin' (went out for meds and a new battery...gotta order online, can't win), but from what I've been told, read and seen I think you are correct. I have Pimafix, Melafix, and Maracyn - 2 and Paraguard.

The Paraguard has Malachite green in it (like the Quick Cure), the Pimafix & Melafix are supposedly botanicals that have Pimenta Racemosa & Melaleuca in them as active ingredients respectively.

The Maracyn-2 is the only one that mentions gram negative or septicemia by name. I only mention all of this because I really don't have a very good feel for what to do.

The water quality has been near perfect since day one and I've been trying to keep their feed as varied and hi quality as possible. Temps are now at 75f with a half teaspoon of salt per ea. 5 gallons and daily 50% water changes.

Which med do I use first on the really sick ones? I already gave the recovering guys a dose of the Pimafix and fed evryone the lo-carb slow sink pellets which they tore up.

Will feeding small amounts twice or thrice daily do any harm?

What is best food for them now? I have Gold fish flake & lo-carb pellets, tropical flake and lo-carb pellets, floating pellets, veggie flakes and wafers, brine shrimp flake, spiro, sinking cat pellets w/ brine shrimp, sinking pleco pellets, some generic tetra tropical flake, Koi pond pellets and flake and some garlic enhancer.

Should the tank have any salt at all and if so how much? It sounded good but with all of their other issues and needs I wasn't sure about the synergy?

Should I just switch them from tank to tank instead of doing the vac/water changes (which I'm sure freaks them out). I have no substrate in the other two available tanks.

Cold, cool, warm, tropical...I'm good at following directions (been married forever since the military), what temp is best for the really sick ones? The other two big fantails are recovering so far, their four smaller tank mates are the ones that look like death...but they keep hangin' on while I stumble through this.

Stupid fish...why can't they just tell me what the heck's wrong? You see, this is exactly why I stopped keepin' kids, well that and Social Services gettin' pissed about 'em bein in too small of a tank...:lipssealedsmilie:
 
Your doing just fine.

I would only add in the Maracyn-2. Pimafix and Marafix work well on more minor infections like finrot but will not be effective against what these guys are fighting against. You need something strong and fast. ParaGuard is more for external parasite control. For the ones that are recovering the Pimafix won't cause any harm but they mainly just need clean water and appropriate amounts of food.

Do not add salt as these guys have had enough stress already from changing locations, water sources, nitrate levels and temperature. Keep the temperature stable in the mid-70's and leave it there. Do a 50% water change everyday prior to adding in the antibiotic. Add in an airstone because the Maracyn will lower the oxygen content of the tank.

Feed them the koi pellets if they are small enough for them. Koi food is what I feed my fish. I would feed small amounts 3-4 times daily. No more than they can eat in 1-2 minutes. They've had a long starvation period and gorging on food can cause constipation and death. I would also feed them the mush from the inside of frozen peas (just squish them into the tank and keep the shells out). This will help get their digestive tract working again.

These fish are in pretty much the same condition that feeder fish come in: starving, injured, and full of disease.
 
Lost two now, two are pretty well on the mend and the last two are still teetering. Ick seems gone but the worst two still look horrible...but they eat the peas and food bits. Still on antibiotics so we'll see. Thanks again!
 
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