Help my goldfish is sick!

DrDave

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Don't confuse salt in your pond as treatment for your fishes problem. Go to the University of Florida's web site that I have a link on my web site to and follow the instructions there.

I use a treatment described there that can only be used for a maximum of 10 minutes or until the fish rolls over. It is agressive and should be done in a bucket with lots of areation. Do not take your eyes off the fish for the 10 minute treatment.

Then, you can use a diluted salt solution, again follow the instructions on their web site.

I would treat them all at the same time, whether they are sick of not, fin rot is contagious.
 
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Okay I found it...sounds really scary. :/ So would you say about 2 teaspoons of salt for say a 2 gallon bucket to do the treatment in?
 

DrDave

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Ok, I have done the math for you:
2% solution is 73 grams of rock salt per gallon of water. This is your 10 minute bath. If your fish is in distress before 10 minutes pull them out. Distress is upside down. Use plenty of areation. I set up an air pum and an air stone for this.

.3% solution is 11 grams of rock salt per gallon of water. This is for no more thn 3 days. Start reducing this to .2% then .1% a day later.

.1% solution is 3.65 grams of rock salt per gallon of water. This can be for as long as you want and is the reccommended amount for carp longterm.

Good luck, I will be back tomorrow.
 
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As a somewhat experienced goldfish and koi owner I would reccomend installing a heater in your pond. As it is winter and the eather conditions can be brutal. In the past when my fish act lethargic I add a heater to raise the temperature to make it easeir for them. Also if your fish does get better try fattening up the little guy so that he or she will have enough body fat to brave the cold conditions.
 
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Alright, I've never had anyone suggest a heater. As for him being "thin" this is b/c I do not feed the fish when it's cold. I've always been told not too. We've had a few days where it's warm and I'll give the fish some food BUT he hasn't been eating. :/ That's why he's so thin. Btw, I live in Nashville, TN so the weather here can be quite bipolar. >.< Infact, it's going to be 63 tomorrow and in the 30s-40s for the rest of the week. I plan on doing the water change and treatment tomorrow.
 
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Flashing is when a fish rubbs it's self on something. it's a fast movement and the fish will usually be on it's side for a instant....it looks like a flash. most people think there fish is plaing but if it's happens all the time you should have parasites in your pond which can cause bactieral disease.
salt bath is good but if you don't see any improvement briang the goldfish inside and use a tank heater to slowly get the water to 80. 80 kills some parsites and will get your fish running on all cylenders. Then treat for protizoa for three days while feeding bactieral food. do water change and treat for finrot with salt and medication and med food. after two weeks you should have cleared up the problem and see a happy goldy ready to get cold again.
 
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Okay DrDave is telling me to do it a certain way and now you're telling me to do it a different way. I'm so confused. :(
 
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he's right with the salt bath but you won't see improvement till the water warms up and the fish can grow it's fins back and the fishes immune system won't help fight the infection in cold water.

The infaction is bacteria on it's fins witch needs to be killed first then the fish needs to start healling. it may work with some salt baths but the best way is to tank your fish. if your fish arn't flashing or wern't before the winter you don't need to treat for parasites but in cold weather protazoas can thrive and start biteing your fish and then bacteria gets in and this could be the cause of the problem. the good news is a strong salt bath kills the bugs on the fish but it may not clear up your fin rot.

you also need to make a salt paste by adding some water to a bunch of salt then clean you gold fishes infected fins with a paper towel to get the slime off and apply the salt paste to the fin. this should kill the bacteria on the fin.

Warm water can never be not recommended in a case like this but i wouldn't worry about heating your whole pond just pull the fish out. You should see a quick improvement if you do but in the cold pond where parasites just hop back on you may not and the salt baths may only add stress. but do salt baths over nothing!
 
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Okay, I don't have a tank big enough to hold 4 gold fish and a koi. I can buy a heater if needed (hopefully PetsMart sells them)

I was going to do a water change.
Do the salt bath on all 5 of them.
Put them back in the pond.
Do a salt bath again the next day but not as strong.


I can heat up the water if necessary if I can find a heater for the pond.
Should I try to find some antibiotics as well??
 
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good but the salt bath should always be strong. the fish will hate it but this is nessasary. you want it at a level where they would die at if you left them in it for 20 minute but you only do a ten minute bath and watch them all the time, and put them back if they turn over. the levels of salt i am talking about is what your reading i am just stressing the point of don't leave the fish alone because they would die!

antibiotics should only be used in warm water. you don't need to treat all of them if they are ok. if you warm up the pond, and want to treat everthing then don't add salt to the pond at all till you treat the pond to kill the bugs. the best is to use proform-c which need to be used at 60 degrees then after the treatments you can treat the pond with salt and if you see the fish comming around you then may want to think about treating for flukes.

another great thing to use is potassuim pergament----i'm spelling it wrong. you have to be careful if you use it because it can kill fish but it will clean the fin rot up and kill all parasites other than fluke eggs or fish lice. With this you can treat the pond with at any temp and it will kill the cause of the problem. it can set back your fileter though and you need to really no how to use it. it is sold cheap on ebay but take atleast 2 week to arrive because of shipping rules.
 
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I really appreciate all of the help. The thing is. I'm not savvy with all the chemicals and treatments and such. I've had two of these fish for over 5 years and there's never been a problem. I need simple instructions and advise. :( I know I am very very ignorant and probably shouldn't be considering how long I've had the pond, but like I said this is the first time I've had a problem with the fish.
 
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Priscilla519 said:
I really appreciate all of the help. The thing is. I'm not savvy with all the chemicals and treatments and such. I've had two of these fish for over 5 years and there's never been a problem. I need simple instructions and advise. :( I know I am very very ignorant and probably shouldn't be considering how long I've had the pond, but like I said this is the first time I've had a problem with the fish.

sorry. if your haveing problems just with one fish salt bath him but the best is to pull that one fish from the pond and warm him up. if all your fish have problems then you need to treat the pond and the fish.

PP is easy to use, and is the only cold water..... medication. to much can kill but the right amount will treat finrot and parasites with no ill effects to the fish. If you go this route...if the salt baths don't work then i can give you advice on how to use it. PP can be found at some koi pond retailers and it might be in your area.

If your pond is really dirty or has lots of plants or and rocks pp will only treat your fish and won't kill all parasites hiding in the pond. but, it will set them back and will clean the fins of the bacteria.

I am just sugesting it. but also don't trip out and over do things. fish can live with parasite for years and not kill your fish so it's not an oh my gosh the sky is falling , so relaxe.
 
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oh and then again fish do and can die from parasites and bacterail infections. I mean i don't want you to say hey you told me to relaxe and three fish died after i relaxed!

It's better to not over stress fish because your worried and want to fix things right away with meds. Learn how and what to do first. Read up and ask questoins from multiple sources.
 
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I'm sorry I'm just trying to figure out what all needs to be done. He just sits there in the pond and rarely moves..he looks dead...then comes up for air and goes back to his spot. DrDave said I need to treat all the fish because if they don't have fin rot yet then they will catch it because it's very contagious.
My pond doesn't have any rocks in it at all. Also, it only have two plants. A lily pad and something else and they're both dead for the winter. They always come back in the spring.
I guess I'll just change the water and do the salt baths and see what happens from there.
 
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PP with set back the bacteria, think about picking some up. it's only 10 bucks or less for a pound on ebay and you only use grams of the stuff for a pond treatment.

Another reason to pull the fish from the pond so the other fish don't get sick. usually in the winter your fish is not going to shead much bacteria into the pond to get the other fish sick. it would be in the pond already and a healthy parasite free fish won't pick up the fin rot unless you have lots of bad bacteria, and this is another good reason to cleans your pond with PP.
All it does is oxidize the organice in the pond. first it works on the dead algae and then kills parasites and bacteria. it will kill all parasites on your koi with in two hours. you treat the pond between 3-8 hours and then add hydrogen preoxide that you get from any wallgreens or rite aid and you will have crystal clear clean water. Your pond will be purple during the treatment.
 

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