What is going on???

[Priscilla]

One of my gorgeous long tail goldies (Marbles) has a badly damaged tail. The bottom bit is almost totally gone. The top looks almost like its been bent in half.

My pond is only 4 months old. I bought Marbles in Feb/March - I don't know how old the fish was when I got it, but its grown nicely since its been in the pond.

Marbles is eating and swimming, but doesn't seem as active as the other fish right now. I've noticed a smaller fan tail goldfish nudging OR pecking at Marbles. And some of the other fish seem to be swimming very closely to poor Marbles. The fins are NOT clamped. Other than the tail, I don't see anything else wrong.

We've just had loads of rain over the past few days. And before that the water had been quite warm, but its much cooler now.

Is it possible Marbles is a female and spawning at such a young age???? I haven't seen any of the aggressive behaviors I've read about, no obvious chasing, but of course all the other fish are quite young too.

Or does Marbles have some disease that is eating up the tail???? ACK!!!! I'm going to die if this is the case!!! I can't handle the stress of a disease in the pond!!!!

I will feed them some squid later today and try to trap poor Marbles and get some photos. I have a small tank I can stick him in and give some treatments if I need to.

Let me know your thoughts please, I'm very anxious!

 

[sissy]

could be the other fish are being a little bit to romantic .I had that happen and had to take her out to keep her from being killed by all the males attacking her

 

[Priscilla]

OMG!!! They are spawning!!! I just went out there and there are two other fish chasing her around!!! I can't believe this!!!! I thought they were all babies!!!! They are chasing just under her tail, and a lot. Luckily only one seems really interested, I guess maybe the rest are too young. There's one other one fish giving it a half hearted try.

What should I do??? Will she actually have eggs? I'd like some baby fish. Should I try to net her out this afternoon? How long do I keep her out for???

I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING!!! I will not get anything done today besides watching this! My day is shot!

 

[sissy]

You will have to watch she does not jump out or they do not kill her .My neighbor Tammy had that happened .She forgot to take her out before she left for work

 

[Dave 54]

Have you though you may have fin rot Priscilla that is a major possiblility I've never heard of fish being so rought in the mating game as to loose half a tail lik thar , may I ask what is the ratio of male to female in your pond please ?
Photos go a long way in helping you so a good photo of the tail would go well right now.
Have you put any new fish into your pond of late and not QT' them first ?
Sorry to be brutal in my questioning like this but sometimes it happens you lik a fish and think "ok so I'll risk it", and when you do put a new fish into the pond and an established fish goes down with something .
Its called Sods Law or Murphies Law

Dave

 

[Priscilla]

Dave, yes, I am worried it could be fin rot, in fact I'm terrified of it being fin rot. But I'm trying to be positive in thinking its not. Its happened like over night, yesterday this fish was fine, or at least not noticeable damaged. I just noticed him this morning, so if its fin rot, its going to eat him alive in a day.

I'm going to post a picture, I have some bad pictures, but I need to take my son out right now, so I'll post them later and work on getting a better picture.

 

[Priscilla]

Dave, Marbles is not missing as much tail fin as I thought its hard to tell because its so flowy. There is a chunk gone from the bottom and the top looks like as if its been bent, like a crease mark. I'm very worried about it being fin rot, there's a fish in the pond, not a new one, but an old one that I've had for years and he's had fin rot before, an albino cat fish that doesn't get very big. I wonder if he's got it and spread it?

There is chasing going on, but I guess that doesn't have to be spawning.

I'm really worried. I will try to get better pictures when I have more time today.

Yikes! What is the worse case scenario here for fin rot? Will the fins grow back and how easy it to treat????

 

[Priscilla]

@Dave 54 , here are the pictures. I think something is wrong for sure. I caught Marbles and she's in a small tank - that's all I had, she's a big fish for a small tank.

I had some aquarium salt, the instructions said 1 tablespoon for 5 gall, I added about 1.5 tablespoons (10 gall tank). I have the pump going and an air stone for extra oxygen. I feel like that's a lot of salt. I don't have anything in the tank at all. Do you think I should add some gravel or something? Is that just for looks or do good bacteria grow on the gravel, helping with the ammonia? I don't know.

The fish is not very active and I wouldn't say looks that good. I think its sick for sure. I hope she makes it through the night.



night.

 

[Priscilla]

The PH is around 8 and ammonia is 1ppm

I have some guppies in this tank and always seem to have a problem with ammonia. That's why I'm wondering if I should add some gravel to the tank. I will do a large water change tomorrow (already did a 50% when I added Marbles and it didn't seem to matter much). Should I add ammonia lock? I hate adding chemicals, but I guess if I need to, I need to.

 

[Priscilla]

Hmmm, not looking great. The fish is leaning to one side at times.

 

[dieselplower]

Big fish small tank needs nearly 100% water change daily.

 

[Priscilla]

Okay, will keep on top of it. Chemicals? Ammonia lock? Or just water changes?

What do you think about the tail?

 

[dieselplower]

Good bacteria will take a good month to establish anyway unless you seed with an already established media.

 

[haver79]

Prisilla I cannot offer any advise. But I hope your fish recovers.

 

[Dave 54]

Pricsilla Both Val and I have looked at the tail of your goldfish and we both agree on what we are seeing
The tail at sometime has been damaged top to bottom , the top of the tail you'll see has had time to heal so this is an old wound however the damaged part of the tail to the lower part has at some stage dropped off .
The algae growing in the wound area attests to that, apart from that Priscilla you'll be happy to know there is nothing wrong with this goldfish in that its a pig.
The dorsall is sticking up proud indicating the fish is in good healthand the large bit of detritus hanging out of its backside shows this fish has eaten very well of late to the extent that I've a feeling the food in its stomach is pressing on its swim bladder and this is causing it to sit on the bottom.
Chopped earthworm and shell'ed peas are a natural laxative so give it some of these and hopefully within a few days this goldfish will be up and swiming about again with its pond mates

Dave