White discoloration on goldfish

M

mattsfishtank

AC Members
Jan 1, 2008
21
0
0
Minnesota
Hello,

I have a couple of goldfish in a 29 tall tank. A little over two weeks ago I had another goldfish in the tank die suddenly. There was nothing noticeably wrong on the fish when I pulled it out of the tank. I checked the other fish at the time and did not see anything out of the ordinary.

I usually feed them in the morning before I go to work and then again later when I get home. I typically turn the aquarium light on at that point. The past couple of days I had been busy so, while I did feed them when I got home, I didn't spend any time looking at them or turning the light on.

Today when I fed them and turned the light on I noticed one with a pale white discoloration on its forehead. Its pretty noticeable, so this must have just recently started (in the past 3 days).

I am going to post the best picture I have so far of it. If anyone has some ideas as to what it could be, or need more info from me to help, I'd appreciate a post.

Thanks

Picture 079.jpg Picture 083.jpg
 
More info needed as sought above - I'm going to put in coldwater forum for you.

edit : and welcome to AC :)
 
I typed up my post while waiting for my water tests. My ammonia level was really bad, almost at 2.0 ppm. Nitrites was at zero. I didn't test nitrates because I didn't have a free vial while the other two tests were going. Once I saw the ammonia levels, I immediately did about an 80% water change.

I just retested ammonia and it's somewhere between .25 and .50.

I haven't added anything to the tank since I set it up in February. It contains two goldfish and a plecostomus. Like I said in my previous post, I had three goldfish until the one died. All four of these fish had been together in a 10 gallon tank at my parents' place for a couple years before I took them and moved them to my new tank.
 
i would do another large volume water change to reduce the ammonia further. also keep checking the tank diligently. Do as many wc's daily as needed to keep the ammonia down. Don't underestimate the healing powers of clean water!
 
The tank is cycled. Water changes are not on a set schedule, although I probably will do that from now on so that I know exactly when I'm changing out the water and roughly how much is going out/in.

I did a second water change today so far. 50%. While doing it I took a better look around the back sides of the tank. I noticed near the "roots" of one of my plastic plants there was a dime sized grouping of what seemed to be fungal spores. I got that area cleaned out really good. Normally that is where my plecostomus likes to lay down, so I hadn't noticed it.

This is just telling me I need to take better care of my fish, and to not let other stuff get in the way of them.
 
just a thought - i've seen that sort of isolated whitish patch on my goldfish before and it turned out to be a chemical issue. we had done some construction on the bathroom and i guess some fumes or particles managed to get over to the tank. the white irritated skin only showed up where the goldfish had touched/broken the surface of the water. a large water change and a couple days took care of it.
 
So I have done 4 water changes at this point. Went from 2.0 to now about .25 ppm ammonia. Today when I got home the water quality was really bad. The fish are acting normal, however. The water just looks really "dusty" and cloudy.

When I fill the tank up I take the water from the tap, fill up my bucket, add prime, stir, let it sit for about 10 minutes, add the water to the tank with a plastic cup I only use for the fish tank.

After seeing the cloudy water, I put a new carbon filter in my Penguin 150. I am still going to do a water change tonight, but I wanted to see if the filter was at least alleviating some of the particles first. I don't know where the stuff in the water came from as it was not there last night.

Any ideas what could be happening?

Water conditions currently are - Temp: 70 PH: 6.8 ammonia: .25 ppm nitrites: 0 nitrates: 5.0 ppm
 
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