Rescued goldfish w/ Ick or Septicemia?

foolishfish

foolishfish

Registered Fish Offender
Dec 10, 2008
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Where the wild things are
I've got a half dozen 4"-7" gold fish that was part of a "free" tank offer. The five days in isolation they they ate well and were active to a normal level when feeding but would go right to the bottom and huddle together with their fins clamped after that. About 6 days ago they started exhibiting white spots and the fantails started looking real ragged, they've all had poor color.

LFS guy proffered Formalin, 1 drop per gallon every other day till cured. Pulled the carbon filter, started raising the temperature gradually and began treating. They have just gotten worse.

Did a 50% water change earlier today and just tried dosing with Quick Cure. Also added 1 teaspoon of salt / 5 gal. in each treatment tank. Temp. is now at 85 degrees and after a couple of hours the fish are not as lethargic, but occasionally one will flit suddenly around the tank.

The two sickest seem to have dark blood red lines running thru the lower portion of their tail fins. Mainly nearer the bottom edge but also a little near the top. One also has a blood red look directly behind the edge of its gill opening.

Add salt, make it warmer, continue Quick Cure? There's nothing in these tanks but a couple of large ceramic diffusers and a couple of large clumps of horn wort...so nothing to harm but the fish.

What else can I do? :confused::help:

Ammo: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: <5.0 ppm
ph : 7.2

Air delivery is about 4 l/min. @ 3.5 psi thru 3" dia. ceramic air stones
 
id lower the temp a bit a bit mabye to 76 cause gold fish are cold water and prefer cooler temps and the warmer temps are probably reaking havoc on its immune system, thus the bad symptoms. watch them very carefully!
 
:iagree: lower the temperature. Although goldfish have been recorded to live in waters at that temperature if not higher they don't last long and can be stressed very much.

I just treated Ich in my own tank (although it is tropical) with salt and heat and I can tell you that it gets worse before it gets better. I would give it sometime, cause if it is ich it will probably start getting better. Not sure about the blood lines. I can't remember my fish having those when they got ich.

Here is a link to a place with pictures of goldfish with ich. It also says that for goldfish you should only raise the temp to 78-80 to speed the life cycle up. http://thegab.org/Articles/IchSaltTreatment.html Oh and it is about the salt treatment if you are interested.
 
If you can please post some pics.

The quick cure is very effective in knocking out the ich by itself. It is also highly toxic and dangerous to use. The redness around the gills may be formilin toxicity due to higher temps and salt.

That being said, I would lower the temp to the mid-70's and stop the addition of salt. I would complete the cycle according to the directions (2 days of treatment) with the Quickcure and do 50% or larger daily water changes before dosing. I would then continue to do daily large water changes until the fish have recovered.

The shredded appearance of the tails and redness could indicated a secondary bacterial infection. The malachite green and formalin is effective against the parasites but not the bacteria. If the tails continue to get more red or more damaged, treat with a gram-negative antibiotic.
 
Many thanks to all. Temps back down to about 78 and falling, I'll stop it at 73/74. Haven't added any salt since the 1st dose and won't add again. 50% water change tomorrow and second dose. Fish are a little more active already, although I can't see much difference in appearance...still clamped and scary pale. 1st thing tomorrow I'll grab the antibiotics just in case. Any thoughts or recommendations on vitamins or trace that might help them?
 
If you have an air pump, add some aereation to there water.. Warm water holds less dissolved o2 than cold, Goldfish need more dissolved 02 in there water than tropical fish..

Personally, I would dose the salt method at 2 teaspoon per gallon for the ich. However since you have already added quick cure, give it time to work before putting anything else into the tank. Everything you add is going to stress the fish out more. The red lines on the fins are probably there because of the high temperatures they have been in.
 
THE V said:
If you can please post some pics.

The quick cure is very effective in knocking out the ich by itself. It is also highly toxic and dangerous to use. The redness around the gills may be formilin toxicity due to higher temps and salt.

That being said, I would lower the temp to the mid-70's and stop the addition of salt. I would complete the cycle according to the directions (2 days of treatment) with the Quickcure and do 50% or larger daily water changes before dosing. I would then continue to do daily large water changes until the fish have recovered.

The shredded appearance of the tails and redness could indicated a secondary bacterial infection. The malachite green and formalin is effective against the parasites but not the bacteria. If the tails continue to get more red or more damaged, treat with a gram-negative antibiotic.
Click to expand...
Cams not working but I did get some poor shots with my phone. How do I attach to post?
 
Alright, I sort of have pics. If you click on my user name and go to my profile the Ick pics from my phone cam are in the album there. Sorry for the rez. Tomorrow I'll have a new battery and can get better. You can still see that they're very sick.

Thanks again
 
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