hello,
I have two goldfish in a 30 gallon tank. They are waiting for our pond to be finished. The tank has two penguin filters enough for 60 gallons as goldfish are messy. One of the filters also has a biowheel. I do water changes once a week. That includes gravel vaccuming. I do keep three tablespoons of salt in the water that I replace only when I do water changes. I also change or clean the filters when needed. My 11 inch goldfish is the one that is sick. The other is 9 inches. I believe they are both comets. The sick goldfish is laying on his side at the bottom of the tank. Where he leans on the glass or lays on the gravel he gets red sores. He also has red streaked fins. In other words you can see the blood vessels. I put him in a QT and treated him with Maracyn-2. I did two treatments which took 10days. All the red spots disappeared and he was upright although he could not swim very well still. Now back in the main tank he is deteriorating again. Through this whole time his appetite is good. I have been told he has septicemia, but after searching the internet for answers, I am starting to think tuberculosis or Mycobacterium marinum. Can anyone offer advice? I hate to lose this fish. I have had him for two years. OH, and in the early days I knew nothing of keeping goldfish. He was in a very small pond outside with little filtration, probably overfed and terrible water conditions. Probably why we are in this predicament today. I have learned a lot, but not enough at this point to deal with our current problem. Thank you so much for any advice.
It sounds like septicemia to me. While he could have an internal bacterial infection, I think being in a 30 gallon tank is not helping. He can't do the exercising he needs. Once in a pond, he should get better. Perhaps even with your good system, the water quality is still not optimal since you have two big goldfish in there. You tried Maracyn II but you might try Maracyn I. You can increase the salt to a tablespoon per gallon. MelaFix by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals probably wouldn't hurt either; it's a natural healer.
Thank you for the information. I have done a water change added more salt and started the Melafix. I will begin Maracyn I today. I have heard it is OK to do Melafix and Maracyn at the same time. We will work on getting the pond in ASAP. I really appreciate your help.
Yes, it's ok to use them both. The most meds I used at once were for some rosy red minnows sold as feeders that had severe septicemia (their bodies were red!) and who knows what. They were anorexic and in poor shape. I think I used salt, Aquari-Sol (for ick and parasites), MelaFix, Maracyn I, and Maracyn II all at the same time. Nobody died! In fact, they were all alive when I cleaned the pond the next year and now I have a ton of babies.