Goldfish has red bump and white dot appearing.

[Supermassive]

I thought my goldfish just had an injury from scraping a rock. Its a 29 gallon with 3 common goldfish only. They get quite aggressive with each other when they are rooting through the substrate. Its like a goldfish tornado when they go at it. I just assumed he got pushed into a rock but it hasn't healed in a week or two and now there is a white dot appearing where the bump is. It also seems like there is another bump coming up on the opposite side in the exact same spot but it hasn't really developed yet. He is acting totally normal too.

Parameters are good except nitrate has been consistently around 40ppm. I cant get enough plants to absorb nitrates without them being eaten. I do weekly 5 gallon water changes. I'm going to start doing 10 gallon changes from now on. GH is ~120ppm, KH~40ppm, PH ~7 temp is ~68-70. 

The photos aren't great but that's the best I could get at the time. I can try to get some better ones if necessary.

[Guppysnail]

I’m sorry it’s taking a while and no one has been able to help. Maybe @Colu or @Odd Duck can. 

[Odd Duck]

It does look like an injury.  Since goldfish can act like they’re in an Aussie rules football scrum when going after food, they need to have decor that’s as smooth as possible.  Goldfish like a bit of salt in the water, so I would add at least 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons all the time.  Since you don’t have live plants, for now, do 1 tablespoon per 2 gallons until the wound(s) heal.  Once healed, go back to 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons so you can grow some emerse plants like pothos or lucky bamboo.  They will help your nitrate issue a lot, but you’ll have to protect their roots.  I’ve gotten the tall lucky bamboo and planted the base in pots and you can support the top with various things.  I’ve used kitchen sponge holders with holes drilled in the bottom.  Others have used lighting egg crate grid.  There are various 3-D printed gizmos you can find online, etc.  You can put the base of the pothos into a sponge packed HOB filter so the goldfish can’t get to them at all, or use the sink sponge caddy.

Check my signature link for my 75 G Jack Dempsey tank for a bit more info on emerse growing plants.  There’s lots of other info on the forum on emerse growing a wide variety of plants.  Someone (I can’t remember who) used a perforated, floating container to grow either frogbit or dwarf water lettuce that the fish would chase around and play with (probably trying to get to the plants/roots) but it still worked for removing nitrates from their water as they would harvest the plants when they got too dense in the container.

[Supermassive]

@Odd Duck Thank you for the response. I'll remove the rock tomorrow and add some salt. I actually do have some plants. I just meant they are constantly being grazed on and they don't seem to want to get well established. I have some pothos but the roots are being eaten so I will probably look for something to protect them like you said. Also that floating container idea sounds kinda cool. Might give that a try some time too.

Thanks again.

[Supermassive]

@Odd Duck I removed the rock and added 5Tbsp of salt. The white area has gotten a lot bigger. Is that normal for an injury or could it be a sign of some sort of infection? I also got some pictures of his other side.

[Supermassive]

The white area has almost completely disappeared after only 2-3 hours of salt being in the tank. That kind of amazed me.

[Odd Duck]

On 12/14/2023 at 2:16 PM, Supermassive said:

The white area has almost completely disappeared after only 2-3 hours of salt being in the tank. That kind of amazed me.

Yes, it could be a sign of infection but it sounds like it’s going the right way already.

[Supermassive]

@Odd Duck @Colu I think something else is wrong. The side that seemed injured looks better sort of but not really . The other side has continued to swell up. I saw him laying on the substrate today which I've only ever seen him do at night. I also saw him rub his face into the glass and then he sorta darted/thrashed away. And I see a couple small pinholes in his scales near the swollen area and he has some bits of dirt and stuff stuck to him.

Idk what would be causing this. I haven't added anything new to the tank in months but I've been feeding them my plant trimmings from my other tank. So maybe something was on the plant?

[Colu]

Rubbing on objects can be a sign of flukes or poor water quality if you have no ammonia or nitrite and low nitrate you can rule out poor water quality could be a bacterial component what I would do is leave the salt at the level it's at and do a course of maracyn2 or kanaplex which every one is more readily available give us an update after the course of antibiotics before then if it get worse @Supermassive

Edited December 19, 2023 by Colu

[Supermassive]

@Colu What could the swelling be from? The side that wasn't injured has been getting more and more swollen over the past few days.

On 12/17/2023 at 5:45 PM, Colu said:

Rubbing on objects can be a sign of flukes or poor water quality if you have no ammonia or nitrite and low nitrate you can rule poor water quality could be a bacterial component

I think it could be because of poor water quality. My nitrates have been pretty high for a while. Maybe that plus the injury has him irritated.

I only have regular maracyn. Would that work?

[Colu]

On 12/17/2023 at 11:00 PM, Supermassive said:

@Colu What could the swelling be from? The side that wasn't injured has been getting more and more swollen over the past few days.

I think it could be because of poor water quality. My nitrates have been pretty high for a while. Maybe that plus the injury has him irritated.

I only have regular maracyn. Would that work?

High levels of nitrates can effect your fishes immune system leading to secondary bacterial infections that can cause localized inflammation of tissue kanaplex maracyn2 are preferred choices of antibiotics  as you have maracyn to hand I would do a course of that 

[Supermassive]

@Colu Quarantining isn't really an option for me so ill have to treat the entire tank. Is there something I should or can do to prevent ammonia since the maracyn will affect the beneficial bacteria? I have seachem stability. I could add that daily if it would help. Should I do a big water change before I dose it to bring down the nitrates first?

Also will I have to do multiple rounds of treatment like with a parasite? I only have enough for 1 full treatment.

[Colu]

On 12/17/2023 at 11:33 PM, Supermassive said:

@Colu Quarantining isn't really an option for me so ill have to treat the entire tank. Is there something I should or can do to prevent ammonia since the maracyn will affect the beneficial bacteria? I have seachem stability. I could add that daily if it would help. Should I do a big water change before I dose it to bring down the nitrates first?

Also will I have to do multiple rounds of treatment like with a parasite? I only have enough for 1 full treatment.

If your tank have been established for long time the maracyn less likely to harm your benefial bacterial I would Do a 50% water change before adding the medication and you can add stability daily during treatment keep a close eye on your water parameters during treatment test for ammonia and nitrite daily during treatment 

[Supermassive]

@Colu Okay thank you very much. Its been setup for 3-6 months, I cant remember exactly. I will do the water change and start treatment tomorrow. If I do start to detect ammonia or nitrite do I just do a water change, or should I add more medicine too?

[Colu]

On 12/18/2023 at 12:15 AM, Supermassive said:

@Colu Okay thank you very much. Its been setup for 3-6 months, I cant remember exactly. I will do the water change and start treatment tomorrow. If I do start to detect ammonia or nitrite do I just do a water change, or should I add more medicine too?

If you detect ammonia or nitrite and you had to do a water change  say you did a 10 gallon water change add one packet of maracyn back in  to keep the medication at a therapeutic level

[Supermassive]

@Colu The swelling on the side that wasn't injured has erupted. It looks like puss or something is coming out. Idk if that's a good sign or bad. Should I do anything else? I've been using the maracyn for the past 3 days. Today is day 4 of 5.

He also has a healthy size bowel movement. Its been very thin and stringy for the past week or so but now its how it normally would be.

 

 

 

[Colu]

Could be an abscess  that's reputed I would keep treating with maracyn and salt give an update after you have finished the first course of maracyn 

[Supermassive]

@Colu I finished the treatment. The swelling has gone down some. That white stuff has been coming out of both sides. I only have enough maracyn left for one more day and I cant get more. Should I do another day? Also it says on the direction to do a 25% water change after the treatment. Is it important to only do 25% or would doing more be okay?

[Colu]

On 12/23/2023 at 6:12 PM, Supermassive said:

@Colu I finished the treatment. The swelling has gone down some. That white stuff has been coming out of both sides. I only have enough maracyn left for one more day and I cant get more. Should I do another day? Also it says on the direction to do a 25% water change after the treatment. Is it important to only do 25% or would doing more be okay?

You can do a larger water after the first course if you need to no I wouldn't start another course of maracyn if you don't have enough to finish the full course that can lead to antibiotic resistant what I would do is try and get any of these medication just case you need to do another course of antibiotics API fin and body cure active ingredient is doxcycline seachems neoplex or kanaplex maracyn2 or jungal fungus clear fizz tabs containing nitrofurazone 

Edited January 27 by Colu

[Supermassive]

On 12/23/2023 at 8:17 PM, Colu said:

what I would do is try and get any of these medication just case you need to do another course of antibiotics API fin and body cure active ingredient is doxcycline seachems neoplex or kanaplex maracyn2 or jungal fungus clear fizz tabs containing nitrofurazone

I'm in Canada so I doubt I'll be able to get those but I will look. Thanks for the help.

[Colu]

On 12/24/2023 at 1:24 AM, Supermassive said:

I'm in Canada so I doubt I'll be able to get those but I will look. Thanks for the help.

What you could done is methylene blue baths 

[Supermassive]

@Colu Unfortunately he has at least two more abscesses coming up. One on each side. The maracyn seemed to help but it didn't solve the issue. I don't really know what I should do at this point. I can try and find some methylene blue but it wont be for at least a few days.

Does this seem like some sort of cancer or something? He seemed healthy up until 2-3 weeks ago when these pumps started showing up. He's also way smaller than the other goldfish we got at the same time. I just thought it was genetics but now I'm wondering if he has some kind of disease or parasite.

[Colu]

On 12/24/2023 at 8:31 PM, Supermassive said:

@Colu Unfortunately he has at least two more abscesses coming up. One on each side. The maracyn seemed to help but it didn't solve the issue. I don't really know what I should do at this point. I can try and find some methylene blue but it wont be for at least a few days.

Does this seem like some sort of cancer or something? He seemed healthy up until 2-3 weeks ago when these pumps started showing up. He's also way smaller than the other goldfish we got at the same time. I just thought it was genetics but now I'm wondering if he has some kind of disease or parasite.

Could have more severe bacterial infection caused by an infected abscess do you have a tank or tub you could quarantine him in and treat with aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 1 gallon for two weeks and methylene blue 

[Supermassive]

@Colu I probably have some sort of container I could keep him in but I don't have an extra air pump or anything for circulation and I wont be able to get anything until the 26th maybe the 27th. If I'm being honest idk that this goldfish is worth this much effort and cost. I already used my maracyn that I can only get when my family visits the US and that didn't seem to help much. If I can find some methylene blue ill see what I can do about quarantining him but it doesn't seem likely.

[Supermassive]

@Colu I have Seachem Stress Guard. I looked it up and it has methylene blue in it and glutaral. Would that be okay to use with the salt like you described?