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Pet Forum / Aquaria / Goldfish / August 2007Very sick goldfish -right eye now clouding over
Hi: I have two goldfish in my 29gallon tank. Each are about 5 inches long, and I have had them since March. I confess that I got lazy recently and did not do water changes. As a result, both fish lived in a _very high_ nitrate environment, even though the ammonia and nitrite were zero or minimal. This lasted for probably 1-2 weeks. About a week ago, they both got sick, although the fan-tailed female is much, much worse than the regular male. They both stopped eating. The female got red streaks in her tail, and her top fin has been partiallly clamped. She hides in the darkest corner of the tank, near the top. Both eyes have bulged out on the female (not on the mle) and the female also has developed several dark spots on her head. Now her right eye is clouding over. At this rate, in another day it will be impossible to see the black pupil. The male is doing much better. He never got anywhere near as sick as the female. He is starting to eat now, and never got the bulging eyes or red streaks, etc. I just tried feeding the female strained peas, but she won't even eat that. (I normally feed fish flakes.) Last night I tried freeze-dried shrimp, and also dried bloodworms. Until today she acted very hungry, but would just spit all food out as soon as she tried to eat it. Tonight she is just "sniffing" the strained peas, and not even trying to eat. I'm assuming that both fish got nitrate poisoning. It was terribly high for over a week. The API test for nitrates was deep, deep red. I've been doing major water changes for the past several days, and the water is almost back to normal. The nitrates are now about 10-20ppm. Can anyone suggest what I might be able to do for the female, or is it likely that she will die in the next day or so? If you need any more info, I will try to provide it. Please help if you have any experience with this. Thank you very much! Dave clouding is usually due to increased slime coat, which thickens due to toxic water conditions among other things. it might be she has columnaris in the mouth, a bacterial infection. continue to do water changes and if you got gravel you will need to clean that as it could be the source of the high nitrate readings. here is how to clean the gravel without toxing the fish http://weloveteaching.com/puregold/care/care1.htm#REMOVING then you might consider giving the fish a 30 second salt dip. this seems to help with columnaris. however, you do need to put some salt in the tank to stimulate their slime coat turnover. http://weloveteaching.com/puregold/disease/treatment/trtmnt.htm#salt start with 1 teaspoon of salt with no additives per 5 gallons, increase over next couple days to 3 teaspoons per 5 gallons. you can let the salt levels drop then with water changes. Ingrid > I have two goldfish in my 29gallon tank. Each are about 5 inches >long, and I have had them since March. [quoted text clipped - 36 lines] > > Dave >clouding is usually due to increased slime coat, which thickens due to >toxic water conditions among other things. [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] >let the salt levels drop then with water changes. >Ingrid Hi Ingrid, Thanks for the info. I've had a Penguin 200 Biowheel filter installed since I got the fish back in March, and also a medium-sized Tetra filter. I've always changed them regularly, since I was concerned about ammonia and nitrites. I've never had a problem with ammonia or nitrites. I always vacuum the gravel when I do a water change. I never thought nitrates could be a serious problem, until now. I'm going to start removing the gravel (about 1 inch layer at the bottom) I've always kept a 1% salt solution, since I had to deal with an ich problem back in April. I hope I've got good news this morning. The male appears to be back to normal, and is eating well. I put a barrier between the two last night, splitting the tank in half, to give the female a better chance to get food before the male chases her away. I gave her some strained peas an hour ago, and now they are gone. She must have eaten them. Thanks again for your help, and for the web links. I'm still learning. Dave biowheel are less than optimal for GF, IMHO. what do you change regularily? if you mean the filter, then you might be tossing the biobug colonies out. I clean in treated water and put them back in. many people vacuum the gravel every time and are shocked to find, when they drain the tank and start stirring up the gravel that the water goes nasty and smells like a sewer. I know I did, which is when I got rid of the gravel. I do hope you mean a 0.1% salt solution. > Thanks for the info. I've had a Penguin 200 Biowheel filter >installed since I got the fish back in March, and also a medium-sized [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > > Dave On Aug 24, 5:08?pm, dr-s...@wi.rr.com wrote: > biowheel are less than optimal for GF, IMHO. > [quoted text clipped - 34 lines] > > - Show quoted text - Don't forget that nitrifying bacteria are sticky and adhere to every surface inside the tank. These bacteria are not just in the filter media. However, simply rinsing the media in old tank water is the best thing to do. The only time you'd want to toss it out is when it's worn, has holes, etc. As far as the gravel goes, as long as you aren't over feeding, and vacuum during water changes there shouldn't be too much gunk in it in the first place, therefore it's not a problem. When over feeding occurs, a tank is over stocked and water changes get forgotten or the vacuuming gets skipped...then you're going to have a problem. It's not a gravel problem, it's a slacker problem. > On Aug 24, 5:08?pm, dr-s...@wi.rr.com wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 52 lines] > > - Show quoted text - Fish and anayone else is gonna get white cloudy eyes as long as TYNK keeps giving out free facials. She just aquired her dick and she is not good at making it shoot where she wants it to go yet! TYNK should have stayed at sucking dick instead of possessing a dick! And Dr. Solo has not helped her much either since all Dr. Solo knows anything about is licking and munching of carpets. > Hi: > [quoted text clipped - 38 lines] > > Dave Being so irresponsible is what is affecting your fish. Do them a favor since your incapable of taking care of them FLUSH them they would be better off than living in a septic tank..Keeping fish is a day tyo day commitment not a when you want to take care of them thing.Grow up and assume respoinsibility and either give the fish away or flush em.Better dead than to live in filth and such.............I bet you do not even keep your own house clean either do you. How many times a week or month do you flush yuor crapper.1 or 2 times jkust because its too much work for you? Probablay clean the house every 10 years if it needs it or not, and wash yuor skank a.s every 60 days or as soon as the right guard fails to cover up the nasty smell! >> Hi: >> [quoted text clipped - 50 lines] > needs it or not, and wash yuor skank a.s every 60 days or as soon as > the right guard fails to cover up the nasty smell! What pompous garbage. Go away forever. You are a true idiot. |
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