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Goldfish with infection on eye


tubbylardo
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pH: ~6.8

Nitrates: ~100

Hardness: ~200 (florida water)

Nitrite: 0

Ammonia: 0

KH buffer: 0

Temp: 70 F

This is my friend's fancy goldfish, he's kept with a mystery snail in an under maintenanced 20 gallon. Sometime several months ago he bumped his eye against the walls of the old (10G) tank, and developed a small white growth above his eye. I convinced him to get a bigger tank, and told him to do more frequent water changes, and look into dosing erythromycin (my best guess based on how it looked). He never dosed the medicine, but did up his water change schedule. The growth didnt really get better, but it didnt get worse either.

Two days ago he asked which medicine to get because he thought it looked a little worse (it looked the same to me), so I recommended erythromycin again. I told him to do a water change, then start dosing based on the instructions on the package. This morning, the infection is both larger and has spread ONTO his eye as well as above it. He's asking for advice, and beyond doing more medication rounds/water changes, I'm not sure what to tell him.

The growth is mostly transparent/white, and looks bumpy rather than fuzzy.

fish.jpg

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On 2/7/2022 at 12:45 PM, tubbylardo said:

pH: ~6.8

Nitrates: ~100

Hardness: ~200 (florida water)

Nitrite: 0

Ammonia: 0

KH buffer: 0

Temp: 70 F

This is my friend's fancy goldfish, he's kept with a mystery snail in an under maintenanced 20 gallon. Sometime several months ago he bumped his eye against the walls of the old (10G) tank, and developed a small white growth above his eye. I convinced him to get a bigger tank, and told him to do more frequent water changes, and look into dosing erythromycin (my best guess based on how it looked). He never dosed the medicine, but did up his water change schedule. The growth didnt really get better, but it didnt get worse either.

Two days ago he asked which medicine to get because he thought it looked a little worse (it looked the same to me), so I recommended erythromycin again. I told him to do a water change, then start dosing based on the instructions on the package. This morning, the infection is both larger and has spread ONTO his eye as well as above it. He's asking for advice, and beyond doing more medication rounds/water changes, I'm not sure what to tell him.

The growth is mostly transparent/white, and looks bumpy rather than fuzzy.

fish.jpg

To me, it looks more like a growth rather than a bacterial infection. From this photo, I would first guess it to either be scar tissue build-up, or a tumor. 

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Looks like Papilloma they can often develope after an injury treatment wise you could try a course of maracyn2 active ingredient minocycline is effective at sinking some types of lumps i would add maracyn2 to food he's how I dose it i use a quarter of a packet of maracyn2 1 scoop of seachems focus 1 table spoon of pellets one cap of garlic guard a few drops of water mix well and feed a small amount twice a day for 7 days store any leftover medicated food in the fridge

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I also think it would be wise to try to get the Nitrates down a bit, as that can, and probably has added to the the stress level of the fish if it has been at that level constantly.

KH is 0, which can also be concerning, as it can result in rapid PH fluctuations, or a PH crash.

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On 2/7/2022 at 4:23 PM, Zenzo said:

To me, it looks more like a growth rather than a bacterial infection. From this photo, I would first guess it to either be scar tissue build-up, or a tumor. 

That was my second guess, but I'm not sure why it would double in size over night. He might've aggravated it during the last water change, but I wasnt there to see.

@Colu, papilloma being an external benign tumor? Would you stop dosing erythromycin, or dose both?

And as for the nitrates and kh, unfortunately our tap water is very strange. GH is high, but there's basically no KH. And there's about 2ppm ammonia out of the tap. His nitrates are high because he did a water change. Normally the duckweed I gave him keeps that in check, but I guess it's taking awhile to process that. I can get him seachem alkaline buffer for the KH, that's what I use every so often for my tanks. But right now my main focus is saving the fish's eye if possible.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

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On 2/7/2022 at 9:06 PM, Colu said:

I would just dose maracyn2 in food following the recipe I mentioned you could add crushed coral in media bag in your filter to raise your kH gradually

I noticed the mystery snail in the photo's shell was showing signs of lack of calcium which could be a result of letting the water go to long between water changes, even though the water is hard, it could eb lacking calcium, I think adding crushed coral would be a good option to help stabilize the PH and help the snail. 

The water is pretty cloudy as well, which isn't necessarily a big deal (I have 6 filterless aquariums so I am used to that sometimes) but it can also mean that the bacteria is starting to build up and he may want to do a larger water change just to try and clear some of that out, adding live plants would be great as well. 

But for treatment, it looks like a tumor/growth to me, likely will be there forever. I would recommend salt baths outside the aquarium in a buck with 3 tsp per gallon for 2 hours (with supervision) and I would peroxide with a qtip the growth if there is an open wound parts to it but if not I wouldn't try because its so close to his eye. 

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