Help with my fish

[Bellasea]

I have a goldfish. He is one of those cheapy 10 cent feeder fish. And I think he may be sick.

Some background info on him...He is about 5 yrs old, maybe 4. He lives in my pond all year. Usally he is very skidish, just glancing at him sends him swimming for cover. He has a buddy (another feeder fish) who is like 3 yrs old. There are one or two frogs in the pond, and two snails. The pond is one of those plastic ones from Lowes. It is two ponds, a small top that waterfalls into a larger bottom. I cleaned out the ponds two weeks ago. All I did was empty them and scrub them clean with well water.0

I was out of town this past weekend. On Monday my mother said that he had a slime on him. Today (Wedensday) he had no slime. I called the vet to ask if they treated fish, they don't. So I called PetSmart. The lady told me he probably has a disease. So, I brought him in, cause I wanted to make sure that I got the right stuff for him. I put him in a cooler with water from the pond. The pets store lady was able to put her hand in the water and pet him, he did not even twitch. She looked at him and didn't see anything that made her think that he was sick. But she still gave us some stuff to put in our pond just in case. He doesn't look lke he has anything wrong with him, he jsut isn't swimming. There are a few scales that are white near his gills, but I don't know if those have always been there.

Does anyone know what could be wrong with him? I will put up some pictures of him tomorrow, for it is too dark tonight. Any help would be greatly appreaciated!

[New York Mermaid]

hmm It can be anything,

I need to get a better look at him, has he been eating well, any changes in the pond besides cleaning it, when did you notice he was acting awkward?

[ShyMer]

Aww, sick fish
What kind of stuff did she give you? You wanna avoid medicating unless you have an idea of what's wrong, if she gave you medicine. Also, is your three year old acting differently?
Have you noticed anything different about your fish yourself besides lethargy? Based on your post it almost sounds as though your mom told you something was wrong, you didn't see it, but you looked into what might be wrong anyway. I'm not trying to make that sound like a bad thing, I'm just trying to understand the story.

As for the white scales, goldfish scales sometimes turn white as they get older. I had one for a couple years that had a patch on his head, his back, and cheeks. If they're actually white scales and not something like ich or a parasite, it might be normal.

Other info- do you have filtration, and do you do water tests?

[Bellasea]

Here are some picutres:
Around the red is where the scales are white. Also, I took that picture today. and when i move the net so that he could swim away, he just floated/sunk to the bottom of the pond. I am going o go check on him now to see if he has moved at all.

[Bellasea]

I completely missed ShyMer's post. My other fish is ok, he acts the same, except that he is sticking extremly close to my fish. He didn't even move when I looked over to look at my fish. But he was sdimming for cover when I got the net into the pond. So he is ok.

I put in Tetra Pond: Pond Fish Treatment, b/c it also prevents, so that way if there is nothing wrong with him it is ok to use. The bottle recomends dosing twice, once in spring and then later in the summer.

There is a filter attached to the pump that moves the water from the bottom pond to the top, but I think the filter is only there so nothing gets sucked into the pipe and clogs it.

My mom called the pet store to ask what could be wrong when she noticed the slime,and they said he might be sick. This was Monday. My mom wasn't able to check on him at all Tuesday b/c of work, children, etc. So on Wedensday she checked him again. He had no slime but was still acting different. So we put him a fish cooler with pond water and took him to the pet store.

We tested the water at the store and it is ok.

[Bellasea]

So, he is more active today. He is swimming around, but still not like how he used to.

[ShyMer]

I'm not really sure what to tell you. The scales don't look bad to me in the picture, so I don't know what's going on there. Anything else about his appearance? Clamped fins, swelling, fuzzy stuff, anything?

How would you describe the way he swims now and the way he swam before?

[Bellasea]

He use to be very skitish. If I just peered into the pond he would swim for cover. Today, he only did taht when I put te net to close to him as I was cleaning the pond. And he was not moving quite so fast.

[New York Mermaid]

Do you have a quarantine tank (like an aquarium you can place him in.). I wish you could get some video of him.. I noticed he has a piece of his tail missing and looks like at certain areas like some scales missing, it could be that he's being bullied by the other fish.. though it sounds funny, it does happen. I suggest for the moment seperate him and keep a close eye on him.

btw it seems like thats his coloration, Goldfish do begin changing color as they get older.. thats true. my concern isint however his color but the state he is in. Get him out asap and into an aquarium, make sure you keep a bubbler on hand..

[Bellasea]

So here is a video:
Also, I don't have an aquariam, but I do have a cooler, which is what I put him in, with water from teh pond. I have a bubbler somewhere, b/c we have some live bait things. So I will put him in one.

Yesterday, he would not move at all. He was somewhat on his side all day at the bottom of the pond. Today, he is moving. Not much, but still moving.

[Bellasea]

when I put my finger in the water by him, he didn't react.

[MermanJesse]

I have a 25 gallon pond similar to yours that I got from Home Depot, and this is what I have learned over the last few months.

You do not need a filter for feeder comets, shibunkins, or koi.

You may have too much ammonia in the pond... caused by over feeding. (If they don't eat, it decomposes in the water) It burns their gills and they become lethargic.

Only replace HALF of the water. Not the whole thing. If you do, you eliminate beneficial bacteria that the fish need. If you clean the entire pond, place the fish in a container with some of the old water. You want to add the old water with the fish to the new water.

Go to Jack's Pets if there is one near where you live. They will be more helpful than Petsmart.

I have 3 shibunkins, 1 butterfly koi, and about 4 or 5 feeder comets, and they are doing great!

[ShyMer]

I dunno, Jesse, carp are awfully poopy fish and can dirty up their water pretty quickly. I'm a little surprised you have that many fish in so small a pond and are as successful as you are with it. I think they say that to comfortably house those kinds of fish you should have around ten gallons per inch of fish ? Of course, I have tanks, not a pond, and for all I know things may work a little differently because of that. Anyway, you do have good points. Any plant matter breaking down in the water can also add to the ammonia levels, as well as fish poop.

She did say they checked the water when they went to the store. I assume they would have checked the ammonia levels as part of that.

I don't think he's missing any of his tail, I think he just had it tilted in movement when the photo was taken. His body shape looks okay to me otherwise.


I did a google search a little while ago and one thing that came up was the ph levels. Some of the symptoms they described sounded like your boy. Do you know what yours are? I would also assume they checked for that when you took a sample in to petsmart. By the way, I don't remember if you check your levels yourself, but considering you did a strip not too long ago on your pond you may wanna do that every once in a while just in case.

[MermanJesse]

I do plan to install a larger pond in the back yard in the future.

I also have a 20 gallon tank for winter housing.

[ShyMer]

Ok, gotcha, they're mostly still little guys. Is that really just 25 gallons? It looks bigger than that to me. Looks nice by the way. I've always wanted water lillies.

[Bellasea]

we did het the water tested, and the strips tested nitrate, nitrite, hardness, alkalinity and pH. All levels were normal. To the feeding bit, I don't feed them fish food. Sometimes, when we have left over bait from fishing, they get that.

[Bellasea]

MermanJesse: Jack's Pets is only in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. So, the closest woould be like 3hr away.

[MermanJesse]

Ok, gotcha, they're mostly still little guys. Is that really just 25 gallons? It looks bigger than that to me. Looks nice by the way. I've always wanted water lillies.

Home Depot has them in the garden section. They actually came back after being frozen!

MermanJesse: Jack's Pets is only in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. So, the closest woould be like 3hr away.

Good to know....LOL

[Coradion]

I wouldn't worry too much, the video shows normal movement with no clamping of the fins. I work at the Waikiki Aquarium under the fish medicine and disease specialist. While most of what we deal with is Marine Fish disease my specialty is actual in pond and freshwater medication. I've been a koi and goldfish person for maybe 15+ years. If you can take a clearer picture it would help. Especially if you can take it against a blue background bucket or tub. It's a photographic neutral with most fishes and makes it a lot easier to see details. If you have a microscope and want to get really into it I can walk you through how to take slides of your fish. If not and your water params appear normal my next guess would be the weather. If you want friendlier fish then feed regularly. As far as a blind medication regiment goes just raise the salt level in the pond to three pounds per 100 gallons. Salt kills 7 of the 9 major parasites of freshwater fish. Most water plants will tolerate a low salinity level, you can buy 40 or 50 pound bags of rock salt at home depot or jerry's for 4-6 bucks.