Struggling Goldfish

[PatrickB]

Derpy is a Black Moor that we purchased from a chain about a month ago. Unfortunately he went downhill fairly quickly. He has developed some kind of white coating with a pronounced streak down his side. I've been battling this for the past four or five days. I've added salt at a little over 1TB/gal and given three treatments of Ich-X with small water changes. He doesn't seem to be improving. At this point he is very lethargic. Water parameters are good. No heater, so water temp fluctuates a bit from 68-70.

I don't have access to an antibiotic currently, so I'm not sure what else to try. More salt & hope for the best?

[KBOzzie59]

Do you happen to have the actual water test results?  From this picture that plant don't real healthy either.  Why treat for ich with no signs of ich?  Does he eat?

[Colu]

What are your water parameters because it could be damage to the slime caused by ammonia

Edited March 17, 2021 by Colu

[PatrickB]

pH is 7.4-7.6. Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate are all at 0. The tank is fairly heavily planted for it's size.

The Ich-X was used because I know it works for some other external "stuff" and this fella is going downhill pretty rapidly. He also hasn't eaten in 4-5 days.

[Colu]

The only thing I could suggest is treating with antibacterial treatment such as maracyn or maracyn2 or furan 2 that would be the next step 

[Ro B]

And it was a fully cycled tank before adding him-seems odd that nitrate would be at 0? Poor little guy 

[PatrickB]

Yeah it was cycled. It's just him in there with plants & he hasn't been eating. That along with the water changes I imagine is why I'm not seeing any Nitrates.

I was able to get some Erythromycin and started him on that this afternoon.

He is a little more active this afternoon after another ~30% water change + 1 TB of salt earlier this morning.

[Ro B]

Oh great I’m glad you got some meds for him, fingers crossed that he gets better

[Brian]

I was wondering a couple of things.

Diet?

Are you using carbon in a filter?

What is the substrate?  Looks kinda like Aqueon Plant and Shrimp substrate.

Have you tried using a little API Stress Coat?  The Aloe Vera may help with slime coat....

 

Good Luck 

[PatrickB]

Just a quick update, I've had him soaking in Erythromycin the past 3 days, as well as General Cure for the past two.

He seems to be slowly pulling through. Really nasty infection. I'll definitely be dosing with the trio a couple of more times to make sure whatever this was is gone for good.

[quikv6]

Thanks for the update. Please continue to keep us posted....I hope he pulls through.

[GardenStateGoldfish]

I have seen this before in goldfish and have had success with melafix and aquarium salt, fixed them right up. (i know people hate melafix, but it worked fantastic for me with the aquarium salt) 

 

[PatrickB]

Unfortunately the goldfish died yesterday. The infection was steadily clearing & he was more energetic, but in the afternoon I suddenly found him motionless on the bottom.

Fishkeeping sucks sometimes! Worse is I don't even know what it was. I tore the tank down completely, threw away all the plants & sterilized everything with bleach.

[Lifeisgood]

I had three goldfish get sick recently.  Lost one and the other two pulled through and are doing well now.  I had at least three stress factors going on, too cold of temperature for fancies which stressed them all out, gill flukes and then a heater malfunction.  My Moor was getting a hazy white slime coat.  It appears to be that they produce more when stressed and it sure shows up on the black colored scales. He looks fine now.  
I examined the one fancy that died and it had lots of mucus around the gill area.  And the Oranda got sick and listless but is doing fine now.
After doing what research I could and learning from people on the forum,  from now on I will keep temps low to mid 70s all year.  If I were to do it over I would purchase larger goldfish.  They seem to be more fragile when they are small.  I have had goldfish before which grew to large sizes in my tanks  but most of them were not fancies.

Anyhow, each time we learn something that can make the experience better for the fish and for ourselves in the future.  It’s rewarding when it works well but it stinks when disaster strikes.  So sorry.