Accidentally Poisoned My Goldfish

[Ellie325]

I have a 130litre filtered tank with three fish in, one oranda and a black moor and a weather loach.

My black moor has had fin rot since I bought it from the pet shop. I left it for about a year as it wasn't getting any worse, but it never healed naturally. Finally decided to try treating with anti fin rot and fungus. Read the instructions it said one capful per 50litres so I put 2 and a bit capfuls in.

Left the goldfish without checking them for about 12 hours. When I returned I couldn't see my black moor in the tank at all. It had somehow managed to hide right underneath my filter. So straight away I knew something was wrong. It had little wounds all over its body especially on its head and back. I knew it must be the meds so I lifted my filter to put a carbon pad in. Found my weather loach upside down. I have scooped it out and put it in a jar of water from my other goldfish tank, and it seems to be recovering.

I changed about half the water, but then noticed the oranda has a blood streaked tail and freyed at the ends. I knew I must have somehow overdosed them on the fin rot meds so I read the carton. For some reason the size of the cap that they provided with the medication dosn't coincide with the instructions on the carton. So when I put one capful in, it was 20ml instead of 10ml. So they suffered double the dose of medication.

I put some stress coat in because thats the only thing I could think of to soothe them because of the aloe vera and slime coat repair in it.

I don't know what to do next. The ulcers obviously need treating before they get infected, but should I risk putting more medication in the water when they are this weak? I have left it a day, but my black moor is starting to get little fluffy patches of fungus on its tail. Its eyes seem to be full of little bubbles and also it has little spots on its body that look like white spot, but when you look closer they are more like clear bubbles trapped under the skin.

I heared that red streaks indicate hemorrhagic septicemia which is really serious. Could my oranda have this?

This is a picture of one of the wounds.

Please can someone suggest a medication if any, or should I just keep the water clean?

Also is it posible that the med poisoning has killed of my filter bacteria?

 

[nosoup4you]

The lesions in the pic look to be caused by the fish scraping himself on something probably due to the irritation of the med overdose. You should get some Maracyn I and II if you can get it and dose according to the package instructions.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I agree with nosoup4you in that the goldfish probably caused its injuries by itching itself against stuff in the tank because its skin was irritated by the excessive meds, however personally i would hold off adding any meds for a couple of days and just do small water changes over those days before adding any meds to the tank, as simple clean water will do a lot in itself for de-stressing the fish and helping heal their injuries.

 

[nosoup4you]

I only suggested the meds because of the mention of fungus on the tail and septicemia-like streaking on the fins. Any update? How's he doing now?

 

[Ellie325]

Thanks for both of your help so far.

I went to the pet shop to try to buy some maracyn, but i don't think they sell it in the uk. I couldn't even get it online.

Both fish are acting really sluggish and stay at the top alot taking in air at the surface. The black moor isn't eating. I can't see any physical deteriation, in fact the blood streaks in the orandas tail have started to clear.

How fast does fungus kill? I want to know how long I can hold off using medication because they both still look to weak to add any more meds, but the fluffy patches on my moor are worrying me.

The weather loach has made a miraculous recovery in my other tank, considering it was floating upside down when I found it!

I'm thinking of adding some general medication tomorrow. I am reluctant to use anti-fungus medication because it was Anti Fungus and Finrot medication that they got poisoned by.