Red spot on goldfish belly

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Looking for any suggestions as to what might be wrong with this goldfish I am watching while the owner is on vacation. The red spot on the stomach appeared out of nowhere. Otherwise he is active, eating and seems fine. But he is a very old goldfish - over 15 years old.
 

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Hi and welcome to the forum :)

The fish has a bacterial infection where the red patch is. Depending on how long it has been like that, will determine how bad the infection is. If it only just appeared in the last 24 hours, you can probably treat it with salt. If the problem has been there for a few weeks then it might need something stronger (broad spectrum fish medication or if that doesn't work, then anti-biotics).

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Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate. The water change and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Add some salt, (see directions below).

If there's no improvement after a week with daily water changes and salt, or it gets worse during that time, you will need a broad spectrum medication that treats fungus and bacteria. Do another big water change and gravel clean before using medications.

You can use salt and a liquid broad spectrum medication together if you need to.

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SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate (4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will affect some plants and some snails. The lower dose rate (1-2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will not affect fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.
 
Hi and welcome to the forum :)

The fish has a bacterial infection where the red patch is. Depending on how long it has been like that, will determine how bad the infection is. If it only just appeared in the last 24 hours, you can probably treat it with salt. If the problem has been there for a few weeks then it might need something stronger (broad spectrum fish medication or if that doesn't work, then anti-biotics).

-------------------
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate. The water change and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Add some salt, (see directions below).

If there's no improvement after a week with daily water changes and salt, or it gets worse during that time, you will need a broad spectrum medication that treats fungus and bacteria. Do another big water change and gravel clean before using medications.

You can use salt and a liquid broad spectrum medication together if you need to.

-------------------
SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate (4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will affect some plants and some snails. The lower dose rate (1-2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will not affect fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.
Thank you so much for this guidance. We are about 5 days out since we saw the red spot so I am going to head to an aquarium store for some antibiotic and try to get him straightened but. Thankfully he is still super active and eating. But sounds like we should also keep some of that acquarium salt around.
 
That's a BAD ulcer. The scales are even sticking out around it and it's a very angry red. I wouldn't play with this with just salt honestly... I would be concerned it may go systemic.
 
That's a BAD ulcer. The scales are even sticking out around it and it's a very angry red. I wouldn't play with this with just salt honestly... I would be concerned it may go systemic.
Thank you for the reply (and for the first person’s reply). After a week of treatment - both for bacteria and fungus - the goldfish looks completely healed. I can’t believe it. I will attach a picture but the water is so murky because we couldn’t clean it during treatment! We also used stress coat because that was recommended at the aquarium store where I purchased the meds.
 

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What medications did you decide to use for him? He looks MUCH better.
 
Melafix, Pimafix and Stress Coat. On day 5 I couldn’t see any evidence of the sore. But we kept going to the 7th day based on the instructions. It was amazing!
 

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