BaztheWonderCat

In the interest of archiving information for folks in the future: The goldfish was necropsied. It died of gill flukes, with two secondary, adventitious gram-negative infections. I suspect that the maracyn 2 showed signs of perking her up, because it was helping with those infections. Paraclense hasn't got enough praziquantel in it to kill gill flukes. Its only 1/3 praziquantel, and the other 2/3 medication is ineffective on gill flukes. (that's from memory, the proportion, but its not enough any which way). Praziquantel powder full strength is needed, and even then, its quite the proposition to get rid of them. I haven't achieved it with praziquantel and high salt, not yet. One fish exhibits symptoms 8 hours after salt levels are allowed to dilute, so now he's in ivermectin for at least the next 48 hours, in a 5 gallon bucket. He's doing well today, and ivermectin has a systemic lasting power, so anything deeply burrowed into his gills should be knocked out, finally. I hope.

So I moved her to her own tank, in case she was carrying a virus (no meds are working, so seems possible and not sure why I didn't think of it sooner). It really seemed she was making headway. I'd added in paracleanse to the meds I was trying, but had to dilute the tank. She seemed to take it too hard. But today, being day three for that, I put some in anyway. Then she seemed slow, so I did a small change, and should probably have done more. She wasn't seeming stressed, just far slower than she had been in the morning. Then she just dropped dead. I've wrapped her up very well, and put her in the freezer. I'm contacting the ichthyology department at Oregon State University, and am going to try to find a way to get her necropsied. Whatever this is, I have tried every wrong thing, and I need to know if there's a right thing, before someone else comes down with it.

Roughly 24 hours after the single too-skimpy dose of Maracyn 2 that I gave the tank, the infected fish seemed to perk up. That was yesterday. I couldn't locate more Maracyn 2 anywhere within driving distance, to continue the meds. I made phone calls and shot off emails and contacted every pond maintenance and tank maintenance person I could find online, and my daughter posted on Facebook asking... couldn't locate any. One day after that, today, I was in my LFS the instant the door was unlocked, and they had what will amount to three doses of the med. I'd called them yesterday but they are closed on Mondays, and their answering machine is old school, there in the shop, on a landline. I didn't reach anyone. I suspect if they'd have gotten the message, they'd have come down to the store and sold me some. They're great folks. So, my current plan of treatment is to continue with the Maracyn 2. After today's dose, if she shows promise of continued improvement, I'll continue with the Maracyn 2. IF she doesn't show marked improvement in another day or two, or goes backward- I'll water change, and begin the Paracleanse, but feel like I need to continue the Maracyn 2 for the full 5 days, if the two can be done together. I gathered from Colu's post in this thread, that the two can be combined? I'd continue the antibiotics just because that's the standard antibiotic practice, and I can't know if something in there is being effected by it, even if not on this particular sick fish. Make sense? I've seen rare, but there, contrary opinions about creating resistance by not finishing antibiotics. Seems like risky hogwash to me, to stop them prematurely. (edit to add- I realize I acquired only 3 doses, as I said in this post, and need 5- I'm hoping the mail carrier doesn't screw up, and my AC order arrives just in the nick of time, thereby allowing me to complete a 5 day course)

Now that was my thinking at first, too- parasite. Hence the salt, then the Paraguard. Must not have been a hearty enough hit, for whatever this is. I did the erythromycin on the suggestion of the seller where I got these fish (Great seller online, I've had the fish months). It DID seem to help. For a bit. Possibly confirmation bias or some such. I'm wrung out, observing every little twitch and counting the naps of these fish. The one time I've used Paracleanse, it seemed to hit that community tank hard. I've been leery of attempting it, though I know around here at the AC, its revered. Need I change a huge amount of water or use carbon, to strip out the antibiotics, before starting the Paracleanse? I'd do a change any which way, but can they be mixed if I don't wait to get it all out? Without the saddle or any other signs, what's the possibility of Columnaris? We had one small goldfish in a different tank die of that (pretty sure) that was purchased at the same local place as one I put in this aquarium a few months ago. Triple checking before I commit to a treatment. Thank you!

My goldfish tank is in desperate straits. I'm not sleeping. Maybe someone else has seen this and will recognize what to do. First, my water quality is not the issue. The tank is seasoned, I like maintenance, I test regularly, its a planted tank, I'm on a well, and this morning's test strip reads: 0 nitrite, trace of nitrate, ~7.2 pH (we've been so wet in S. Oregon that our well's pH and KH are diluted somewhat over summer numbers) KH hovering around 80, and GH off the test strip range, high. I grow plants like mad, fish all happy. it seems to be going along swimmingly, and then: Several weeks ago, one goldfish started slowing down. Tended to hang out low in a corner. Fins not clamped. Still came out for food, less enthusiastic about whuffling around for more though. Would retreat to the back corner. She slowly... slowed down. One thing she seemed to be doing toward the end was chewing a lot. Not gasping, but working her mouth, as in chewing, without her gills really speeding up compared to watching other goldfish. I wondered if she had something stuck in her throat, and held her and looked as far in with a flashlight as I could. Saw nothing. Not a mark on her anywhere. No other behavior to clue me in. I tried salt at first, then when I saw the 'chewing' I tried medicated food, and ramped up from there. At this point I don't remember the progression of things I tried, in which order. This is over several weeks- carbon and changes in-between, she seemed to be the only one having an issue, and I didn't have a free tank to move her into. I believe we tried Metroplex, Kanaplex, Paraguard either or both as a soak or in the water (my son kept track and he's not here to refresh my narrative with factoids), polyguard even, I think. That fish dwindled and died. Quietly. Just hanging below the lily leaves looking the same as days before. Just slower. When I pulled her out, I looked into her gills, and they were nicely colored, not a mark on her anywhere. So on the day she died, another goldfish had begun to sequester itself. That's been a week ago, and its 'chewing'. I did a massive water change, and upped the temp, and put in erythromycin. Yesterday was day 4 of that (api box says 4 days, maracyn box says 5 but I'm utterly out of meds, have cleaned out two towns of meds, no one else open until tomorrow for hopefully finding more). Over the first two days, she seemed to perk up. Day three? She started to hang at the back again. Day 4, she was slowed back down, and I suspect an additional fish of slowing down. I threw in what Maracyn 2 I had, just shy of a full dose, on the gamble that I'd locate some today, but can't. Hoping for some tomorrow. That might have been a misjudgment, but this HAS to be halted and I've no clue what it is. When she hangs around close to the top (not gasping at the surface, but hanging gently an inch or two below the surface), she lets her dorsal droop, and she droops a bit, just hanging. When she does come out for food, its hesitant, like slowly waking up. Yesterday, I rounded up a 40 gallon, got it set up with a sponge from a healthy tank, and will add some of the goldfish's own water to it, some of their sand too, in the idea that Im helping season the tank, and move her. And the one I THINK might be slowing down. I want to operate on the idea that maybe the big tank doesn't have widespread carnage about to happen. And the limits of medication I can get my hands on require less gallons anyway. I'm considering switching to acriflavine (if I can get some today, might have to wait till tomorrow to meet seller, which is still faster than shipping). Or possibly, should I change to ParaCleanse? I HAVE NO CLUE WHATS HAPPENING HERE!!! I could try Jungle Fizz and Kana (kanaplex alone achieved nothing) but I think I'm running out of time for making the RIGHT call, and haven't a clue which thing to try. I have kana and jungle fizz on hand. Plenty. One final thought/clue/hint- When putting the first fish in a specimen container to feed medicated food (Focus, Kanaplex, Repashy, bit of Garlicguard) it appeared there was some mucus/spit/tad fibrous stuff in there. I haven't figured out if it was the Focus coming off the food (need to make fresh and run a test on that) or if she'd breathed/spit it out. It wasn't slime coat. It came out of her mouth as she spit the food away. Couldn't get her to eat any medicated food. Now, when the second fish started to set itself apart at the back, when I 'woke' it up by feeding the tank, when it came to, it worked its mouth a fair bit, fast, as it got active. And we saw fibrous spit (best description) in pieces in that corner. DID that fish spit out clear, spit-looking stuff, with a bit of fine woolly fibers in it? I've not seen that particular rubbish floating in a goldfish tank before. It was different than the usual. Clearly, comes out of mouth if worked hard enough... but in the instances I have observed it, I can't be certain of its source (Focus? Happenstance?). FWIW. Thank you Folks