Goldfish illness

Hi everyone, i appreciated everyones help and opinions regarding my unwell 6 year old female goldfish last week. I have tried everything possible to treat her, with weekly partial water changes and my local fish store checked water parameters and there were no issues found. None of my other fish are unwell. There are new symptoms and im really worried could this be Dropsy? I am currently trying Aquarium salt low dosage to see if it will help. Tank has been established for 7 years with no major changes to routine or equipment

What new symptoms?

If this is a continuation from another thread, post a link to the old thread so we can see what has happened previously.

This is the first thread.


That one was locked due to arguments, so the OP could not continue in that thread.

The new symptoms are clear bubble like balls on the top of her eyes and her scales seem more 3D and not flush like they usually would look

I'm not experienced with Gold fish, but what does the fish from a top-down view look like?


Similar to this?

The scales look similar but the eyes on my goldfish look normal and not deformed, they just have a clear bubble on the top of one eye, as seen in the photo i attached

The only thing I can think of when it comes to raised scales is that being a sign of dropsy which you have mentioned. But my knowledge of that is minimal too. The clear bubbles I have no clue on sadly. Colin and other members will have a much better understanding than I do. Hopefully, someone will have an answer Lovely goldfish fish too

edit- I have just seen something on gas bubble disease but that usually involves much larger clear bubbles forming around the goldfish. Too much-dissolved gases seem to be a cause. Some Reddit users also stated they got it on their fish including Dropsy as well. could be early stages perhaps? Don't take my word for it though. I'm only speculating.

MattW said:

The only thing I can think of when it comes to raised scales is that being a sign of dropsy which you have mentioned. But my knowledge of that is minimal too. The clear bubbles I have no clue on sadly. Colin and other members will have a much better understanding than I do. Hopefully, someone will have an answer Lovely goldfish fish too

edit- I have just seen something on gas bubble disease but that usually involves much larger clear bubbles forming around the goldfish. Too much-dissolved gases seem to be a cause. Some Reddit users also stated they got it on their fish including Dropsy as well. could be early stages perhaps? Don't take my word for it though. I'm only speculating.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your help and research, im hoping the aqaurium salt ive added will help, shes beating all odds though as shes been unwell for 3 weeks now and shes still fighting on, shes a tough girl hoping i can get her all better, shes so lovely with such a big personality

Essjay said:

This is the first thread.

Sick goldfish :(

Hi everyone, Please help with what this could be, ive tried treating it and she has her appetite back, but the spots are still there, shes swimming round the tank as normal and water change has been done with all parameters within range. Ive had her for 6 years and never had this issue

www.fishforums.net

That one was locked due to arguments, so the OP could not continue in that thread.

Click to expand...

LOL we didn't get far with that thread did we

Iamsophh said:

The new symptoms are clear bubble like balls on the top of her eyes and her scales seem more 3D and not flush like they usually would look

Click to expand...

Can you post a picture showing the entire aquarium?
Can you post a number of pictures showing the fish from different angles (side, above, behind, etc)? I want to get a better view at the scales on the side of the body and the bubble above the eye.

Maybe post a 1 minute video of the fish. You can upload videos to youTube, then copy & paste the link here.
If you use a mobile phone to film the fish, hold the phone horizontally (landscape mode) so the footage fills the entire screen and doesn't have black bars on either end.

Is there only one bubble above the eye?

Have you tested the ammonia level?
The fish looks a bit milky coloured too, as does the water. Is this correct or caused by the picture?
Milky coloured water is normally caused by uneaten food rotting in the tank or a filter that is not fully established.

A cream/ white film over the fish is excess mucous caused by something in the water irritating the fish. This can be from chemicals, medications, poor water quality (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH), or substances introduced to the tank from the air (smoke, perfume, etc) or from your skin.

Have you been doing big water changes to see if it helped with the little dots on the head?

Have you changed its diet?
Is it getting lots of plant matter in its diet?
Is it eating normally?
What does its poop look like?

Shes really lethargic, shes off balance, shes got multiple clear bumps on her head now, more since i posted this thread, ive put anti bacterial/parasite medicine in yesterday which is whats causing the milky water, sunday i did a 60% water change and to be honest it hasnt helped the situation, shes getting worse and not better. I had my local fish centre check water parameters and they are fine. None of my other fish are unwell or showing any symptoms of being unwell. There are 2 live plants in the tank, and they are also fed peas a couple times as well as the pellet food. I have never ever seen clear bubbles appear on a fishs head before. Her poop is non existent as shes not eating

I think there are 3 issues here and a couple of them have me stumped.

The fish appears bloated and looks to have an internal bacterial infection (red area) around the butt and rear part of the abdomen. This could be responsible for the swelling and lack of appetite.

The small white dots on the head could be Hexamita (hole in the head disease) but it hasn't gotten worse and normally would have after a couple of weeks. It's not normally found on goldfish but could be.

The clear bubbles on the head are different and I don't know what they are. They have a milky colour to them from the excess mucous produced by the goldfish, but the actual bubbles are from an unknown cause.

If you know a fish vet you might be able to get some help from them, however it will probably cost a bit. Outside of that I don't think the fish is going to live long with an internal infection and weird lumps and bubbles.

Maybe send pictures to a few vets, public aquariums, university biology lab, or contact your local department of agriculture and see if they have a Fish Health section. See if any of them can help identify the issue. Sorry I can't be of more help.

Thanks for your help and opinions, ive bought an isolation tank and shes currently in there, shes still worse for wear and to be honest i dont see a positive ending, but im trying one more treatment for bacteria infections and fungus and hope for the best, we will see.