Pet Forum / Aquaria / Goldfish / May 2004

I will be appreciative of help with this problem with my goldfish.

Tank info:

54 gallon allglass bowfront with overflow and wet/dry.
About 250 gph through the filter.
Large rounded rocks for gravel (3/4" to 1.5").
Not quite enough gravel to cover the glass.
The idea is to not let the goldfish swallow smaller
gravel yet allow them to move the rocks around to
get the food off the tank bottom (which they do).
Some fake plants are in the back in front of the overflow.

Water:

I use RO/DI with seachem equilibrium, alkaline and acid
buffer to get the GH up to about 9-10.  pH stays around 6.8.
It's difficult to keep it stable over 7, so I stopped trying.
During the initial startup of the tank about 8 months ago,
there was a great deal of water changing to keep the ammonia
and nitrites down, but that's old history.  Currently, I do
a 25% water change weekly.  Nitrates are kept below 15ppm.
I clean the glass every two weeks (it gets dirty quickly).
I add 1 Tbsp instant ocean salt per 5 gallons as a medication.
The tank is currently undergoing Melafix treatment (below).

Temperature stays around 75F.  I realize this is high for
goldfish, but I'm not sure how to fix it unless I remove the
wet-dry pump from the sump and/or add a chiller.

Tank has 3 occupants:
1) Red Ryukin fantail (about 7" nose to tail)
2) White/gold/grey Oranda (about 7" nose to tail)
3) Redcap Oranda (about 5" nose to tail)

The white Oranda has health problems.  He's a pretty cool
guy who likes to be held and hand-fed (underwater, of course!)
His cap is translucent white with an orange colored injury
on the left side.  The cap has swollen to cover his left eye.
He also has tapeworms.  Books I have consulted claim "the
tapeworms aren't a serious problem, are almost impossible to
cure, so don't worry."  I'm not so sure...

The obvious health issues started about 6 weeks ago.  He
started resting on the bottom, listless.  We began Melafix
treatment and saw immediate improvement.  The Melafix was
discontinued after a week with a resulting return to poor
health.  It was at this time we noticed the tank's ex-resident
black moor (3" youngster) sucking the slime off of him.
We would sometimes see the oranda go nose-over upside down and
rest on the bottom inverted.  While this greatly disturbs other
family members, it doesn't seem to bother the fish much.  The
muscle tissue next to one of his pectoral fins seems red, like
it's inflamed or irritated.  His breathing always seems labored
compared to the other tank occupants.

The tank is back on Melafix.  His health has improved, but
the swollen cap, inflamed pectoral fin, breathing, and nose-
overs aren't fixed yet.

I'd like to return this fish to good health.  He's like a wet
puppy to us.  Suggestions?

We have several other tanks with no issues, but we did have
a guppy tank which was wiped out by intestinal parasites.  I
suspect the guppy parasites are the source of the goldfish
tapeworms.

On another note, I'd like to improve the apperance of the tank.
The rocks are growing a sickly-looking covering of brown algae.
We're not thrilled with the appearance of them either, even without
the algae.  What would be a good substrate for goldfish?  The books
we have read all suggest something too large for them to injest,
but this size substrate allows food to go down between the rocks
where the fish can't get to it, where it rots and pollutes the
water.  I've considered sand as an alternative.

Thanks in advance.