Fancy Goldfish Ammonia burns & Swim Bladder issues

[Carley]

Our goldfish has ammonia burns & it's swim bladder is causing it to float upside down! 

We have been changing the water every 2 -3 days and nitrate levels are in safe zone. I have also been using salt 1 tbsp for a 10 gallon tank. Plus medicated tablets from our fish store. This is now 2 weeks and it's condition is not improving. What can we do? 

[Colu]

What are your ammonia and nitrite  what are you feeding and how often any rapid breathing 

[Carley]

I currently don't have a test for ammonia, nitrates are 20 mg/l.

Breathing is fast and labored and belly underside appears sunken.

Just changed the water this morning. Haven't fed anything for 2 days. When we do feed gets 2 -3 peas, high protein flakes. 

There is another fancy goldfish & pleco in the tank that don't show any signs of burns or issues. 

[Colu]

On 12/10/2023 at 7:58 PM, Carley said:

I currently don't have a test for ammonia, nitrates are 20 mg/l.

Breathing is fast and labored and belly underside appears sunken.

Just changed the water this morning. Haven't fed anything for 2 days. When we do feed gets 2 -3 peas, high protein flakes. 

There is another fancy goldfish & pleco in the tank that don't show any signs of burns or issues. 

Swim bladder  caused by a number of things. constipation bacterial infection fish  over eating and the stomach putting pressure on the swim bladder. parasitic infections. what I would do Epsom salt baths 1 table spoon for 1 gallon for no more than 15 minutes for 5 days as Epsom salt acts as a muscle relaxant to help relieve pressure on the swim bladder what medicated tablets were you treating with 

Edited December 11, 2023 by Colu

[Carley]

Thank you we will try the Epsom salts. 

I don't know the name of the tablets but here is a picture of them. I believe it's a methylene blue and salt. 

[Colu]

On 12/10/2023 at 10:46 PM, Carley said:

Thank you we will try the Epsom salts. 

I don't know the name of the tablets but here is a picture of them. I believe it's a methylene blue and salt. 

 methylene blue isn't effective at treating swim bladder it treats external issues such as fungal and  bacterial I would do a course of maracyn2 it's a broad spectrum antibiotic treatment just in case there's a bacterial component if your seeing no improvement after 5 days of epsom salt baths

Edited December 19, 2023 by Colu

[quikv6]

We really need to be able discern ammonia and nitrite levels before throwing the kitchen sink at them.

[Carley]

On 12/10/2023 at 6:38 PM, quikv6 said:

We really need to be able discern ammonia and nitrite levels before throwing the kitchen sink at them.

The nitrite level is nearly zero. I don't have an ammonia test kit currently 

[GardenStateGoldfish]

Ammonia usually can be smelled, does your tank smell like dirt or does it have a foul odor? 
 

like colu said swim bladder can be caused by many things. 
 

what type of food are you feeding and is this a Thai goldfish? 

[Carley]

It does have a dirt smell. 

We have been feeding krill & bloodworm flakes, shelled peas and the occasional algae wafer that is supposed to be for the featherfin. They were getting just a small pinch of flakes and a few peas once a day. Nothing appeared to be left over. 

[Carley]

On 12/10/2023 at 4:36 PM, Colu said:

Swim bladder  caused by a number of things. constipation bacterial infection fish  over eating and the stomach putting pressure on the swim bladder. parasitic infections. what I would do Epsom salt baths 1 table spoon for 1 gallon for no more than 15 minutes for 5 days as Epsom salt acts as a muscle relaxant to help relieve pressure on the swim bladder what medicated tablets were you treating with 

We tried the Epsom salts. He was swimming upright & breathing good. Now after, his breathing is now super fast and he is tail up. Is this to be expected or did we just severely harm our fish?

[Colu]

On 12/12/2023 at 12:57 AM, Carley said:

We tried the Epsom salts. He was swimming upright & breathing good. Now after, his breathing is now super fast and he is tail up. Is this to be expected or did we just severely harm our fish?

Some fish will be less tolerant to salt from my experience epsom salt shouldn't harm your fish  you could lower the level of salt to 1 table for 3 gallons for the next bath and add an extra air stone he could be stressed due to the salt bath and that's why your seeing the rapid breathing 

[Carley]

On 12/11/2023 at 11:55 PM, Colu said:

Some fish will be less tolerant to salt from my experience epsom salt shouldn't harm your fish  you could lower the level of salt to 1 table for 3 gallons for the next bath and add an extra air stone he could be stressed due to the salt bath and that's why your seeing the rapid breathing 

Update: unfortunately our goldfish did not make it. 

One day after loosing Gizmo our other goldfish had shredded fins! Now we really started questioning what was going on. 

It turns out that the fish that was sold to us as a corydora turned out to be a featherfin catfish! It was the cause of 2 deaths and now another injured goldfish. 

The featherfin has been removed and we are treating the goldfish with API Melafix. 

[Colu]

Sorry hear he didn't make depending of the severity of the damage I would keeping treating with Melafix if the injury isn't serious if it's more severe i would treat with a broad spectrum antibiotic treatment such as maracyn2 or kanaplex if you can post a picture to see what's going on 

[Carley]

On 12/18/2023 at 7:15 PM, Colu said:

Sorry hear he didn't make depending of the severity of the damage I would keeping treating with Melafix if the injury isn't serious if it's more severe i would treat with a broad spectrum antibiotic treatment such as maracyn2 or kanaplex if you can post a picture to see what's going on 

 

Hope you can see. He's missing some scales and very lethargic 

[Colu]

His tail look pretty shredded and bit of hemorrhaging to the tail fin what I would do is a course of kanaplex or maracyn2 which ever one is more readily available to prevent any secondary bacterial infections @Carley

[Carley]

On 12/18/2023 at 7:27 PM, Colu said:

His tail look pretty shredded and bit of hemorrhaging to the tail fin what I would do is a course of kanaplex or maracyn2 which ever one is more readily available to prevent any secondary bacterial infections @Carley

Thank you, I'll see what I can find. I haven't seen Maracybn2 anywhere. I'm in Saskatoon, Canada not much here for decent aquarium supplies. 

[Colu]

On 12/19/2023 at 1:31 AM, Carley said:

Thank you, I'll see what I can find. I haven't seen Maracybn2 anywhere. I'm in Saskatoon, Canada not much here for decent aquarium supplies. 

As your in Canada none of the medication I recommended are available  Melafix and aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 3 gallons is what I would treat with for one week if he gets worse I would up the level of aquarium salt to 1 table spoon for 2 gallons 

[Carley]

On 12/18/2023 at 7:51 PM, Colu said:

As your in Canada none of the medication I recommended are available  Melafix and aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 3 gallons is what I would treat with for one week if he gets worse I would up the level of aquarium salt to 1 table spoon for 2 gallons 

Thank you again! Is that the ratio? So 2 tbsp for a 10 gallon tank? Or should this be a bath?

[Colu]

On 12/19/2023 at 1:58 AM, Carley said:

Thank you again! Is that the ratio? So 2 tbsp for a 10 gallon tank? Or should this be a bath?

No 1 table spoon for 2 gallons 

[Carley]

On 12/18/2023 at 8:15 PM, Colu said:

No 1 table spoon for 2 gallons 

Sorry, is this meant to be as a bath or add the salt directly to the tank? 

[Colu]

On 12/19/2023 at 2:22 AM, Carley said:

Sorry, is this meant to be as a bath or add the salt directly to the tank? 

Added directly to the tank I usually dissolve it in a small amount of warm water then add it to the tank