Mysterious goldf-issue

[AkPudge]

I moved him to my breeder box, he ate a few pellets finally! He's right side up but just mostly resting. 

I had established media and a filter and a bubbler going in the hospital tank and just couldn't get the ammonia under .25ppm. The big tank is always at 0ppm, so that was the deciding factor on the breeder box...and the warmth. 

Unfortunately I noticed the sick fish has a blood red line down his spine, it looks pretty bad. I don't know what an infection looks like and I'm not certain he would survive another round of meds anyways.

I'm on my phone, so I'll post pictures as soon as I figure out how. 

Edit. Best I can do for now:

https://m.imgur.com/a/JMwaA

 

 

Edited June 10, 2017 by AkPudge

[Arctic Mama]

That could very well be an infection.  Whether it was the water or something else it seems that poor little guy wasn't resilient like his tank mates.  Just make him comfortable and, if they've arrived, we can try some medication if you change your mind on treatment.  Kanamycin would be my choice for what you have photographed and described.

[AkPudge]

Still waiting on my GH/KH test (should be here tomorrow).

 

Sick fish seems to be doing fine in the breeder, he is still "swimming" weird. I can't place exactly what part of it isn't right though....He mostly sits at the bottom of his box, often I find him on his side but he doesn't seem to be in distress and rights himself if you touch him. When I drop in food he wiggles right over and eats it, sometimes on his side still. I guess its the bottom sitting/laying and wiggling vs floating/swimming thats weird.

The deep red vein on his back has faded significantly. I will take a picture today. It looks like its mid back to tail where that light vein was originally. Maybe it was an infection that creeped up the back? I'm wonder if its damaged something in his spine to cause swimming issues? I have Kanaplex which I think is Kanamycin, I bought it for my fish first aid kit last year. I could use this but would need to put him back in the hospital tank, right now I think I will wait a little longer since he seems to be doing better in the big tank (eating at least).

[Arctic Mama]

Yes, kanaplex and Kanamycin are the same thing.  If you want to wait to treat him that's fine, but do pie some pictures and video before you begin.  If the vein is faded it could have been a water quality or stress response and not infection. But I'd need to see him to tell and even then it can be a bit of a crapshoot with some fish who show indistinct symptoms. 

I'm so glad the breeder box is working.  Yay!

[Jordfox1]

Hello I am new to this too..
I'm not sure If I'm replying to the right post but I do have some advise that may help!
Everyone is each to their own but I have had my fancy goldfish for over 4 years now and can honestly say that she is the most happiest little fish ever! I don't mess about with putting too many chemicals into water.. all I do is put some normal tap water and a few drops of water conditioner in a bucket - (I have my own separate bucket to do water changes and never use any other liquid in there) leave it to settle for a while and siphon it back in.. sometimes I tip the last bit on her because she likes the tiny bubbles. From this I have rarely seen her have white spot and she is fit as a fiddle (never has a disease).
Another tip I have is I always change and have different scenery -different coloured green artificial plants and rock/caves as in the day when she likes to nap she will go in there to be away from the water flow. With the plants she has had her babies on the same plant before so it's a good idea of knowing where they will lay there eggs. By changing your scenery and having different places for them to hide this keeps them busy this is why my fish are always exploring and are fit and happy. I also treat them from time to time with a feeder which I will post a video of next time - great way for them to exorcise for food [emoji28][emoji106]good luck hope this helps them


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[AkPudge]

Alright...not a great picture but you can see (as of this morning) that red vein is completely gone.

Fish is for sure eating. I still find him on his side sometimes, but again, not gasping or stressed looking. If you disturb him he rights himself. He's started to swim up to the surface and glide back down, which is more swimming than he's done in a long time. I think hes getting better, slowly but still better!

(above picture is from today, side shot is from last night)

[koko]

Looking better  

[Arctic Mama]

He looks sick to me, kind of skinny and reddish?  I agree I don't see any strong tail veining, so that's great!

 

Is he eating when you feed him?

[AkPudge]

Are you even reading my posts Arctic Mama He is indeed eating, I agree hes still very sickly looking, but I think its because he was VERY sick and had stopped eating when in the hospital tank. So currently hes still skinny but I'm hoping his new appetite will help fatten him back up. Theres no red vein that I can see anymore, and it was extremely red and wide just a few days ago (I'm not sure if that picture of the spine vein ever showed up in my other post or not).

Overall, hes still sick, but he finally looks like hes improving, and improving is better than nothing

[DawnMichele]

Glad he is doing better.  

[AkPudge]

So.....i think I'm going crazy or my test kits directions are backwards. My kh has orange liquid. My gh has blue liquid. My directions say kh will change from blue to yellow and gh from orange to green. 

[Arctic Mama]

I am reading your posts, but I tend to do it in the middle of other activities when I have a lull and sometimes miss information.  And I am actually moving from Alaska in a few weeks and piled high with stuff to do so communication on my end will be spotty. Sorry!

 

That's weird on the test kit! Can you post a picture of the test tubes with one drop of reagent in each of them and the appropriate amount of water?  That should help us tell what might be going on.  

 

If your fish is eating and otherwise looks improved you can continue to hold off on medication and just feed him four very small meals per day - two small pellets in each meal or one good bite.  We will just continue to try and nourish him and keep his stress low.

[koko]

12 hours ago, AkPudge said:

So.....i think I'm going crazy or my test kits directions are backwards. My kh has orange liquid. My gh has blue liquid. My directions say kh will change from blue to yellow and gh from orange to green. 

Photos would help but to me it might suggest very soft water. Do you use anything to soften your water? 

[AkPudge]

Alright, potentially I am just an idiot. I watched a video on the KH and GH drops to see what colors I should be seeing. With my tap water, one drop of KH or GH solution changed the clear water to a very lightly tinted yellow and lightly tinted green. In the videos, they had vibrantly green or yellow water, so its really hard to tell if I'm looking for any color at all, or vibrant color change.

Attached is a picture of my GH/KH straight from the tap, from left to right with one drop of GH and one drop of KH, which was enough to change them from clear to lightly colored.

At Koko I do not add anything to soften my water, it comes from a lake surrounded by muskeg, so its very soft/acidic. In my fish tanks I've started adding crushed coral to get a higher PH, since the tap water was eating my snails shells.

 

Update on sick fish, he was right side up all last night and this morning, pooping, and he swims up to meet falling food! I have no clue what was wrong with him, I know my hospital tank ammonia spike didn't help the poor guy at all, I'm hoping the PH was the issue and that its getting more stable.

[Arctic Mama]

I think your tests are fine and your water is extremely soft.  That's why I said one drop - even up here with slightly harder water in south central I still found I added drops too quickly and my water changed color before I noticed, making me think the test wasn't working

Edited June 15, 2017 by Arctic Mama

[AkPudge]

The liquid in the bottle was the opposite color of what the paperwork said it would start at that threw me off, but it was the right color when it hit the test water. Plus, like I said, the video and paperwork implied it would be vividly colored, not a faint color. I suppose the more drops it takes the more vivid the color would be for people with normal water. So, my tap water is crap water. High ammonia/chloromine, low PH and low KH.

 

Tonight I will test all the tanks KH and GH, now that I understand the tests better. I will test the PH/KH/GH on the tap again, and test a gallon thats been left out 24 hours.

 

I tested the goldfish water last night, I did a 50% water change on the 12th, test from 14th are 7.0 PH, 0-.25PPM Ammonia, 0PPM Nitrite, 5ppm Nitrate. My tank is overstocked, I have been baby sitting my moms 2 goldfish along with my 3, so thats where the ammonia is probably coming from, she will be taking them back this weekend, but I will do an extra water change this week either way.

[AkPudge]

Bah, I keep forgetting to leave a gallon of water out! So I still haven't tested the overnight tap water, but I've started testing the tap every time I test the tank, which is 1 day after a water change, I only test PH/KH/GH. (I should probably test the tap BEFORE the water change...)

Current tap: PH 6.6, KH 1 drop, GH 1 drop.

Current tank parameters; Temp 73F, PH 7.2, Ammonia 0ppm, Nitrite 0ppm, Nitrate 5ppm, KH 1 drop, GH 3 drops.

I am back down to just my 4 goldies, the other two have gone back to their home.

 

I did wanna update that the sick fish seems to be doing well, hes way more active, he's starting to swim around normally. He still spends a lot of time resting but the fact he is right side up and swimming about sometimes is promising.

I'll attach a photo, not that he looks much better (I think his gills look less red, and his belly isn't so caved in) but he is swimming up/around to eat food, I give him 2 or 3 pellets in the morning, one at lunch, and another 1 or 2 at night.

Right photo is from last night, left photo is from a day or two ago when he was occasionally still side laying.

 

Edited June 22, 2017 by AkPudge

[fantailfan1]

I'm kinda late to the party (   that's nothing new  ) but with your KH at 1, personally I'd go the baking soda route for raising KH/pH as I believe it's much quicker than using cuttlebone or crushed coral.    Remind me what you're doing as I read through all 3 pages of this thread and can't remember what route you took.

I think the white "stuff" you were seeing on him was his slime coat sloughing off from the low pH.  Looking much better now  

How are your other fish doing?  Still OK?

 

 

[AkPudge]

At faintailfan1 I have a pantyhose with crushed coral in it in my filter for the last few weeks. It has raised my PH and GH but not KH.

Sick fish has been improving since being put back in the main tank with raised PH in his breeder basket.

All the other fish have had 0 issues since I got them, its only this one fish being affected.

[koko]

On June 23, 2017 at 11:23 AM, AkPudge said:

At faintailfan1 I have a pantyhose with crushed coral in it in my filter for the last few weeks. It has raised my PH and GH but not KH.

Sick fish has been improving since being put back in the main tank with raised PH in his breeder basket.

All the other fish have had 0 issues since I got them, its only this one fish being affected.

I wonder if you can find a Wondershell?

How are they doing? 

[AkPudge]

I'm flying down to the lower 48 again this weekend, so I can definitely pick Wondershells up (or anything else you all might think I need). I would say things are going swimmingly Sick fish is getting fatter from eating so much, when I drop pellets in he swims up to grab them, he does no side laying at all anymore, gills indeed look way less red. I'm feeling pretty positive, but hes rallied and crash before, so I don't expect this to be our last time doing this. I think I'm going to keep him in the breeder box for awhile longer.

Blurry, but heres a picture from this morning.

[koko]

Well if your going to be down in the 48. I would get the Wondershells, Prazi and any kind of meds that might be harder to get. If your flying I don't know how the airlines deal with that  

[AkPudge]

I'm on an island, so definitely flying. Gotta keep it under the TSA liquid rule. I really wanted some nerite snails for my tropical tank, they're $6.99-$9 each here, if they happen to even have them which is rare.

I got them for $1 on vacation, wrapped them in a damp paper towel and put them in a plastic deli cup and carried them on the plane. The lady selling them to me in only a paper towel was more confused than TSA.

[koko]

38 minutes ago, AkPudge said:

 

I got them for $1 on vacation, wrapped them in a damp paper towel and put them in a plastic deli cup and carried them on the plane. The lady selling them to me in only a paper towel was more confused than TSA.

 

[AkPudge]

Oh for cods sake!!! I came home to a totally different fish laying between two vases. Put him in the breeder box, hes been floating on his side since. I'm hoping he's just got bloat. This fish has been fine for 6 months then suddenly crashes.

I feel like the bringer of death with fish. I swear I put way more work than the average fish keepers I know(I don't even know another person who tests their water, let alone even understands the water cycle) and yet their fish are fine and mine are in a constant fight for life. I just had all my brand new ghost shrimp die the first 48 hours I had them in my betta tank (I hear ghost shrimp are cheap and delicate and this isn't uncommon, but its still sad.) I miss the times before I knew so much about fish and their personalities, I was wayyy less heart broken over a loss, now I'm too attached to them and their lives.

 

On a side note, I'm loving the app "Aquarium Note" I have all three of my tanks in there and a tap water log. I log each water change, water test results, fish stock, filters and all that jazz. Its nice having a record of all the parameters and stuff to look back through and compare.