Very injured goldie!

[Tula]

I'm not an expert, so have hesitated to post anything; however, with the fish being covered in fungus, I believe you should remove the fish from the pond for treatment. I'll leave the type of treatment to the experts.

 

[myswtsins]

I brought her in, put her in the 30g and started adding some salt, since that's all I have ATM. Looking into everything else! More opinions and/or details welcomed!

 

[myswtsins]

I am slowing increasing the salt levels with aquarium salt (till it runs out). How much should I work up to? Tbl per gallon or I do have a float hydrometer. I also found a small bottle of pimafix which I think it enough to do a full 7 day treatment. I doubt the pimafix would work completely on it's own but maybe with the salt it could do the trick?

 

[Tula]

I've copied and pasted this information from koiphen.com, a site devoted primarily to koi, but also has forums for gold fish and turtles. This information can be found under their thread "Koi Health, A comprehensive Discussion".

SAP Treatment:

At one time it was generally agreed that Malachite Green was by far the most effective treatment. However, a treatment for topical bacterial ulcer disease has shown a very serious advantage. Tricide Neo, produced for dips and sprays has now been used for topical swabbing when simply mixed with the slime of the fish. It is important to continue to work this into and under the scales and flesh of the fish for about 5 minutes. Then simply wipe off and revive the fish. The results have been extremely good. It remains to be seen if this will become a staple in the medicine cabinet for SAP but it definitely has proven, in the short term, that it works.

The following is older information but Gentian Violet still is an important tool in the medicine cabinet.

Gentian Violet may also be used as it is antifungal. GV is available over the counter at most pharmacies. It is very inexpensive and easily applied without the mess of mixing or the dangers of Malachite Green.

Columnaris: Mouth Fungus; Fin Rot, Cottonmouth Disease:
This is not a fungus or a mold. This is a bacterial infection-gram negative. The problem is that it can somewhat resemble SAP. Symptoms include grayish white spot on the head, gills or body sometimes surrounded by a reddish tinge. It can be topically treated with Iodine and then given antibiotic injections per the charts listed in that section. I would, however, strongly suggest the use of Tricide Neo as the topical of choice when used as a paste mixed with either slime coat, or even better, Silvadene.

 

[myswtsins]

Thanks Tula!

Now that she is inside and adjusted I took a good look at her. Under the fungus is very red, mostly near her tail where she had the deepest damage. Would that indicate an infection? I have only added salt to the tank so far, no pimafix yet. She really is acting good though, active and even tried to swim away from me when I got her out of the floating basket. I want to feed her. I have anti-bacterial food I'd like to give her. Any reason I shouldn't?

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Anti-bacterial food would certainly not hurt, and may aid in the healing

 

[myswtsins]

Having not heard back about the questions for @Dave 54 I was reluctant to move forward with that procedure. I've been slowly and ever increasing the salt levels. I read up to 6 tbls per gallon is used for prolonged treatment of goldfish so I haven't been worried about over salting (just watch for floating?). I did not add the pimafix cause I wasn't sure if I should if she has an infection and because the ammonia levels are high which I would normally fix with water changes and that's not good for dosing pimafix.

Where I am now is that the fungus near her tail hasn't almost completely fallen off and the redness has gone WAY down. She is eating the medicated food vigorously and having regular poos which I am netting out immediately. The ammonia jumped up to 1ppm even though I did take a bunch of small rocks from the stream, rinsed them in pond water and added them to the tank in a basket with an air stone in the bottom for BB (it's like a sponge filter but with pebbles instead of a sponge). I added an ample amount of prime though.

Now, I think I want to keep doing salt but want to add pimafix too. Should I just keep up on prime doses and not do water changes? Or do the water changes and not use the pimafix? I only have enough pimafix for do 6 days of dosing or I'd do WCs and replaced the removed amount of pimafix. I am also concern about WCs cause trying to get the new water to match in salt content would be extremely difficult, no?

Thanks for all the help so far and the possible help to come!

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Since the fish appears to be recovering with the present method of treatment, I see no reason to alter this treatment including raising the salt level.

 

[myswtsins]

Thanks again Meyer. What about the ammonia levels though? Using prime should be sufficient?

 

[Ruben Miranda]

Hi
It has been a while since I used prime and other meds.
But i do seem to recall that they will kill bb so causing ammo and nitrates to rise.
I also recall it was
No feeding
Dose
24 hours
Water change
Ammonia will to the problem so this should be corrected before continuing to dose.
Ruben

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Thanks again Meyer. What about the ammonia levels though? Using prime should be sufficient?

Prime has to be re-dosed every 24 hours. Since you really don't have any bio set up, I would also incorporate water changes each day. However, at the rate the fish is responding, I, if it were my fish, would return it to the pond once all evidence of redness has disappeared. Continue with the medicated food (it won't harm the other fish) for a few days. The fish should be strong enough by then to cease any special attention. Getting it out of the 20 gallon tank ASAP is paramount as this is certainly stressing the fish, compounding the problem.

 

[myswtsins]

Hi
It has been a while since I used prime and other meds.
But i do seem to recall that they will kill bb so causing ammo and nitrates to rise.
I also recall it was
No feeding
Dose
24 hours
Water change
Ammonia will to the problem so this should be corrected before continuing to dose.
Ruben

I only "dosed" prime once, no meds. I am using salt only atm. The medicated food is the only meds she is getting so I don't want to stop feeding her. ???

Prime has to be re-dosed every 24 hours. Since you really don't have any bio set up, I would also incorporate water changes each day. However, at the rate the fish is responding, I, if it were my fish, would return it to the pond once all evidence of redness has disappeared. Continue with the medicated food (it won't harm the other fish) for a few days. The fish should be strong enough by then to cease any special attention. Getting it out of the 20 gallon tank ASAP is paramount as this is certainly stressing the fish, compounding the problem.

Once the the redness AND the fungus is gone, right? There is still LOTS of fungus but it appears to be breaking down and a little is falling off, adding to the bio-load I'm sure. I will get a picture tomorrow, she's resting now. It is a 30g, not that it's much better.

 

[Usman]

i didnt see pic of your fish lateron but one possiblity , its due to injury or stress when fish losses its slime coating and fungus attacks within hours then fish has tail rot some times redish or blackish border , it eats fin very quickly .

it happened once , its not contageous , i seprated it and gave methyle blue for 2 days and 1 drop per galon with antibiotic quarter tablet , the fin rot stoped but its fins were almost gone (dont use salt with these meds) , then i gave melafix and ket giving antibiotics for week , i noticed fins grew back half , i let it go in the pond then.

usualy fishes get sick very quickly and react to good med quick as well , so if your giving her med and its not working for a day or 2 then you need to change med , diagnoses is wrong .

 

[myswtsins]

Pictures of her current state attached. I think she is doing well, only those tiny bits left and her tail area is pink fleshy colored but not the bright red it was. Sorry I don't have pictures of when she first came in to compare, I didn't want to stress her anymore at the time. But almost her entire side was covered in fungus and the fleshy tail spot was RED like it was bleeding type of red.

Now one of the other fish is sick. Most likely completely unrelated since this fish started as an injury turned fungal but I will link them together anyways. Sick Fish

 

[Tula]

I believe the green spots are referred to as SAP.

SAP Treatment:

At one time it was generally agreed that Malachite Green was by far the most effective treatment. However, a treatment for topical bacterial ulcer disease has shown a very serious advantage. Tricide Neo, produced for dips and sprays has now been used for topical swabbing when simply mixed with the slime of the fish. It is important to continue to work this into and under the scales and flesh of the fish for about 5 minutes. Then simply wipe off and revive the fish. The results have been extremely good. It remains to be seen if this will become a staple in the medicine cabinet for SAP but it definitely has proven, in the short term, that it works.

I copied this paragraph from my previous post, on this thread. Glad to hear the fish is improving.