Sick fish

fits

I have a fish who seems to have some kind of fungal growth on his skin/scales (white stuff). Anyone know what it is and how I treat it? He is spending a lot of time underneath the pump so I presume he's having trouble getting oxygen in. I'm a novice at this stuff, but we really tried to maintain good water quality (changing 10% a week, washing filter in tank water etc.).

Our man in Havana

Can't think of the name at the moment - but you can get treatment from any good petshop - Ask the shop assistant & they should be able to sort you out with the correct treatment.

cobweb

hi there
its been a while since i had fish but is it like cotton or spots a white film?

The Artist

fits wrote: »

I have a fish who seems to have some kind of fungal growth on his skin/scales (white stuff). Anyone know what it is and how I treat it? He is spending a lot of time underneath the pump so I presume he's having trouble getting oxygen in. I'm a novice at this stuff, but we really tried to maintain good water quality (changing 10% a week, washing filter in tank water etc.).

25% is the normal water change every week depends on the size of tank and filter systems adarted for the tank.what size is your tank what type filter ,how long have you started this hobby,what fish ye have.as for fungal growth they are differant types of diseases.Have you pics of ye fish cllose up i might able to tell you whats wrong.

fits

davey180 wrote: »

25% is the normal water change every week depends on the size of tank and filter systems adarted for the tank.what size is your tank what type filter ,how long have you started this hobby,what fish ye have.as for fungal growth they are differant types of diseases.Have you pics of ye fish cllose up i might able to tell you whats wrong.

Its a 20 litre tank (I think, years since we bought it) with an activated carbon filter. Tank is more upright and hexagonal. Its a goldfish and we have him two months.

I thought it was 10% a week :eek:

No pics I'm afraid.

fits

cobweb wrote: »

hi there
its been a while since i had fish but is it like cotton or spots a white film?

yes, it looks like that.

The Artist

fits wrote: »

Its a 20 litre tank (I think, years since we bought it) with an activated carbon filter. Tank is more upright and hexagonal. Its a goldfish and we have him two months.

I thought it was 10% a week :eek:

No pics I'm afraid.

5 litres is a sufficent change of the water ok.if its cotton or white spot (usually occurs in new tank as new parasites form)can be treated with http://www.fishfurfeather.com/images/interpet/AquariumTreatment6.jpg
Two months ok did you get the filter with it?did you cycle the tank(no fish in tank for two weeks,just water and filter running)
Gold fish is not tropical so you dont need heater,if you have take it out as they are coldwater fish.
where the water comming from?

fits

davey180 wrote: »

Two months ok did you get the filter with it?did you cycle the tank(no fish in tank for two weeks,just water and filter running)

Nope... I knew this should be done, but OH bought the fish without telling me or doing his research. Filter came with the tank. Also the tank is located in a dark corner and we have the light on 12 hours a day or so.

Gold fish is not tropical so you dont need heater,if you have take it out as they are coldwater fish.
where the water comming from?

I dont have a heater and the water is coming from a small shared reservoir (i.e should be no chlorine or other additives)

The Artist

fits wrote: »

Nope... I knew this should be done, but OH bought the fish without telling me or doing his research. Filter came with the tank. Also the tank is located in a dark corner and we have the light on 12 hours a day or so.

thats ok

I dont have a heater and the water is coming from a small shared reservoir (i.e should be no chlorine or other additives)

thats ok

how often do you clean the filter system
take sample of the tank water to a pet shop they will test it for you and will tell whats your water like and also take your (if you are using tap water) sample too.

fits

davey180 wrote: »

how often do you clean the filter system

once a week

take sample of the tank to a pet shop they will test it for you and will tell whats your water like and also take your (if you are using tap water) sample too.

Rightio. I'll do that next week. And will treat fish asap.

The Artist

fits wrote: »

Nope... I knew this should be done, but OH bought the fish without telling me or doing his research. Filter came with the tank. Also the tank is located in a dark corner and we have the light on 12 hours a day or so.



I dont have a heater and the water is coming from a small shared reservoir (i.e should be no chlorine or other additives)

by the way how do you multi qoute as what you did just now as i hit the multi quote button and it goes red and nothig happens?

fits

davey180 wrote: »

by the way how do you multi qoute as what you did just now as i hit the multi quote button and it goes red and nothig happens?

when it goes red, the next time you click 'post a reply' the posts you selected will be quoted. In your case though, I just split the quoted post up by putting in

.....

edit: d'oh! quote me and read in reply box to see what I've written.

Thanks for the help

The Artist

[

edit: d'oh! [PHP]quote me and read in reply box to see what I've written[/PHP].

edit:

d'oh! quote me and read in reply box to see what I've written.

by the way how do you multi qoute as what

The Artist

not quite right i'll just have to pratice thanks for help and good luck on ye gold fish hope they be ok.

Fishyfreak

I reckon 20 litre tank is too small but we can leave that for another day.

Your problem is either slime/velvet disease. They are easily treated with general Interpet remedies.

You are cleaning your filter too often. The water changes every week is perfect but cleaning the filter does reduce the bacteria present on the sponge. Double edged sword particularly in such a small tank, as you are removing physical detritus that cause Nitrate/Nitrite/Ammonia but at the same time removing the "friendly bacteria" that removes it. It also goes without saying that the filter should be cleaned in tank water and not under the tap.

Try cleaning the filter once a month instead, you will notice a big difference in water quality.

If you do buy a treatment for the velvet/slime be sure to increase the aeration of the water. The remedies remove a lot of oxygen from the water so be aware of that. If you point the outlet of the filter towards the surface of the water it should aggitate it enough. If you need any advice/help send me a pm.

Good luck,

Peter.

The Artist

Fishyfreak wrote: »

I reckon 20 litre tank is too small but we can leave that for another day.

Your problem is either slime/velvet disease. They are easily treated with general Interpet remedies.

You are cleaning your filter too often. The water changes every week is perfect but cleaning the filter does reduce the bacteria present on the sponge. Double edged sword particularly in such a small tank, as you are removing physical detritus that cause Nitrate/Nitrite/Ammonia but at the same time removing the "friendly bacteria" that removes it. It also goes without saying that the filter should be cleaned in tank water and not under the tap.

Try cleaning the filter once a month instead, you will notice a big difference in water quality.

If you do buy a treatment for the velvet/slime be sure to increase the aeration of the water. The remedies remove a lot of oxygen from the water so be aware of that. If you point the outlet of the filter towards the surface of the water it should aggitate it enough. If you need any advice/help send me a pm.

Good luck,

Peter.

You are cleaning your filter too often

i always clean my filter every time im cleaning it,if you dont clean it tends to glog up and no flow will go through and yes the fish will get sick

Fishyfreak

Any decent filter will not clog up after a week, particularly if the tank houses one Goldfish. Once a week is way too often to clean an internal filter IMHO.

The Artist

Fishyfreak wrote: »

Any decent filter will not clog up after a week, particularly if the tank houses one Goldfish. Once a week is way too often to clean an internal filter IMHO.

i had a 120 litre tank with about 11 speices of fish and used a internal 170 litre cappacity and it always clog up in a week so i decided to get a lager tank.I got a 250 fluval tank with a external supplied with it to my amazement ,clearer,cleaner,less work,and now only change every month thank god!
whats IMHO.?

The Artist

fits wrote: »

once a week



Rightio. I'll do that next week. And will treat fish asap.

any progress?

cichlid child

davey180 wrote: »

i had a 120 litre tank with about 11 speices of fish and used a internal 170 litre cappacity and it always clog up in a week so i decided to get a lager tank.I got a 250 fluval tank with a external supplied with it to my amazement ,clearer,cleaner,less work,and now only change every month thank god!
whats IMHO.?

Cleaning filter once a week is way to much once a month at most is ok.
imho
in my honest opnion

ValerieR

Frequency of cleaning the filter ...

It depends on the tank, the filter, its inhabitants and whether you have plants in the tank. It's up to anyone to find the right frequency depending on how quick the filter clogs up. However, what is important here is that the filter media (sponges) never gets fully cleaned under the tap. If it really needs it, do half of the media only as the chlorine in the water would destroy the beneficial bacteria. For routine 'clean', just rince your media in the tank's dirty water you just removed.
I hope this helps.

Valerie
www.irishfishkeepers.com

The Artist

its strange why my old filter kept clogging every week,i had never used plants as i thinks they are a bother to use.Ive always clean the filter media with the water from the tank,when i started doing this hobby i did clean the media with tap water and a few days later white spots,fish were lacking air,suddently i lost all me bleeding fish after paying a fortune for the fish.The problem id say that i never asked the pet shop how to start or begginners guide to tropical fish.As this board site has given me a great start about fish keeping and i must say thanks to whoever is on this forum for the help,sorry and the members too for the help otherwise my fish wouldnt be alive now.:):)

ValerieR

Yep, that is the beauty of discussion forums. I must say I did start my fishkeeping without any disaster thanks to the help that is available out there (the good old internet) ! :-)

Again, depending on what you are keeping, I find plants are great. In addition to providing some cover for the fish, it really give the tank a nice look. I am not very good with plants (the non-aquatic type) but I find the ones in my tank do resist quite well. ;-D

Valerie

The Artist

ValerieR wrote: »

Yep, that is the beauty of discussion forums. I must say I did start my fishkeeping without any disaster thanks to the help that is available out there (the good old internet) ! :-)

Again, depending on what you are keeping, I find plants are great. In addition to providing some cover for the fish, it really give the tank a nice look. I am not very good with plants (the non-aquatic type) but I find the ones in my tank do resist quite well. ;-D

Valerie

i keep
2 Oscar
2 parrot
2 angels
1 red tailed sharkfish
1 golden severum
1 large catfish
2 plecos
1 gourami
1 kissing gourami
and i use the artificial plants.they are all about 2 years old now but the oscar are greedy feckers.

ValerieR

Yep - you probably are better off with articificial plants all right ! they defo wouldn't last long with your lot ;-)

Valerie

fits

davey180 wrote: »

any progress?

Well he is still with us. I tried to clean some more of the detritus, and did a substantial water change. He has also been treated with that medication, but no real progress as yet. I still feel like he's not getting enough air. Anyway, I'm going to leave it for a few days and see if he improves.

The Artist

fits wrote: »

Well he is still with us. I tried to clean some more of the detritus, and did a substantial water change. He has also been treated with that medication, but no real progress as yet. I still feel like he's not getting enough air. Anyway, I'm going to leave it for a few days and see if he improves.

air?Have you any idea what make is your internal filter is?As some filter have adapter supplied to create air like this system

Fishyfreak

fits wrote: »

Well he is still with us. I tried to clean some more of the detritus, and did a substantial water change. He has also been treated with that medication, but no real progress as yet. I still feel like he's not getting enough air. Anyway, I'm going to leave it for a few days and see if he improves.

The medication will strip the water of oxygen, get a pump and airstone or make sure the filter aggitates the surface of the water to help the oxygen exchange.

fits

I've altered the pump outlet so that more air is getting in. Fish looks better too. I think he'll be ok.

super ted rules

cichlid child wrote: »

Cleaning filter once a week is way to much once a month at most is ok.
imho
in my honest opnion

I like fish

fits

Well Freddy the fish is no longer covered in the white stuff. And he's not spending too much time at the surface either, but I'm still not happy.

Now he's got a black mark on one of his gills, and he's not very active. He's quite still in the tank and doing a lot of starting to sink, and then recovering (if that makes any sense). I think the water should be ok now.

He wasnt interested in any food there this evening either (he is definitely not overfed).

apologies for my novice descriptions.

The Artist

fits wrote: »

Well Freddy the fish is no longer covered in the white stuff. And he's not spending too much time at the surface either, but I'm still not happy.

Now he's got a black mark on one of his gills, and he's not very active. He's quite still in the tank and doing a lot of starting to sink, and then recovering (if that makes any sense). I think the water should be ok now.

He wasnt interested in any food there this evening either (he is definitely not overfed).

apologies for my novice descriptions.

not your fault fits at least you tried everthing,i wish i could help here as the black mark on his gill i wish i knew what it is???Im sure someone here might just help ya with this.Dont give up on the fish awile as help migt come.sorry, i hope he inproves later.

The Artist

i dont know if its this FITS look at this link
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Fish-1472/black-marks-outside-gills.htm

fits

Well it doesnt really matter what it was now

He deteriorated really quickly and died.

CathyMoran

Shane and I are sorry for your loss - we were watching your progress and hoping that your fish was going to be OK.

Jimkel

Fishyfreak wrote: »

Any decent filter will not clog up after a week, particularly if the tank houses one Goldfish. Once a week is way too often to clean an internal filter IMHO.

Totally agree, your bacteria are taking a beating.

The Artist

fits wrote: »

Well it doesnt really matter what it was now

He deteriorated really quickly and died.

im sorry to hear ye fish is gone

The Artist

Jimkel wrote: »

Totally agree, your bacteria are taking a beating.

everyone was trying to help imo it maybe not the bacteria that caused it as the fish may have develped black spot it has nothing to do with the filter changes only the water its self i think.

fits

Thanks for all the help and advice guys. I really am baffled that he died so quickly, really thought he was going to be fine and that I had cracked it.

Anyway, next time (which wont be for a while) I'm going to,
use a decent pet store
cycle the tank properly
buy medication in advance so fish can be treated properly at early stages,
and get the water tested before we get the fish and at regular intervals until we're pretty happy that all is ok.

The Artist

fits wrote: »

Thanks for all the help and advice guys. I really am baffled that he died so quickly, really thought he was going to be fine and that I had cracked it.

Anyway, next time (which wont be for a while) I'm going to,
use a decent pet store
cycle the tank properly
buy medication in advance so fish can be treated properly at early stages,
and get the water tested before we get the fish and at regular intervals until we're pretty happy that all is ok.

you did all ye can.The idea that you quoted would be the best thing to do if you want to start again.Ask anyone in the pet shop they should help and require what you need to start again.The same things have happened to me and the good thing i learnt from it.My oscar as i started a thread about him made me realise that the needs for fish is confusing and got help and it worked thanks to anyone who helped me on that.Im not a fish expert but to ask for help was a good need for it.I hope it goes well for you in the future for fish keeping and theres always help when you need it.

Jimkel

davey180 wrote: »

everyone was trying to help imo it maybe not the bacteria that caused it as the fish may have develped black spot it has nothing to do with the filter changes only the water its self i think.

I just offered my opinion. Im not saying the fish died cause he cleaned the filter out weekly, just saying his bacteria are taking a beating....By the way Healthy bacterial colony converting Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates = good water quality. Depleted Bacterial colony = poor water quality and as a result fish illness and eventually death.