Black Moor in a very bad way

[Jaded_Pulse]

Hi everyone,

My grandma has a couple of black moors, goldfish, & apple snails in her pond - not perfect conditions, but they've been doing alright. The problem is her smallest black moor, she says, seems to have had parts of his skin eaten away, as if by a small snail. I'm figuring 2 apple snails have happily multiplied and, well, fish slime coat probably does taste fairly good to the young'uns, lol.

So now, for want of a better placing, he's in isolation in a large bowl with some Melafix-type stuff, although she doesn't have a filter for it. I've told her to get one of those oxygen block things from her LFS, & do 30% water changes daily (using dechlorinator, of course), seeing as even though it's big for a bowl, it couldn't be much larger than 3gallons The poor guy's eating and swimming happily, but I don't want an infection to set in or anything, so I thought of aquarium salt, but not sure if that can be used for black moors? Anyways, I'm trying really hard to get him into a better situation, but she lives quite a distance from me, and she doesn't have anything better for him at the moment.

So yeah.....any advice would be very much appreciated - I've never kept coldwater fishies before so I'm at a bit of a loss about what to do for the poor fella........

Thanks muchly

 

[black angel]

hi queengumby

the bowl he is in will probably do more harm than good as it is too small and she will have to replace the water every day. can you get your grandma a rubbermaid tub? ten gallons would be ideal and a small heater and filter to keep the water clean?
to get the fish well again, clean water is vital and in a bowl it isnt going to get it im afraid.
if you get the heater then slowly raising the temperature to around 74f will kick in the fishes immune system.
as for the salt then this will help the coat to recover. you will only need to get it to a .2% solution. get proper aquarium salt and add 1 level teaspoon per gallon on day 1, and dissolve it in a little hot water first. then on day two add another 1 level teaspoon to get to the .2% and leave him like that for a week. unless the fins are really ragged and he has red streaks, etc then you shouldnt need any meds for him.

 

[Jaded_Pulse]

Thanks, Black Angel.

Unfortunately, there seems to be little chance of the poor guy getting a bigger tank, or a filter for that matter - I'm working on it, but she doesn't "see the need" On a happier note, she has promised me she'll replace all of his water every day. I know this means the tank won't cycle, but something that small probably wouldn't anyway, I guess. She's also following your salt directions (with aquarium salt), and heat's such a non-issue at the moment because it's been like 35 Celcius (not sure what that is in Farenheit, but it's pretty dang hot), and my tanks have been getting to about 30 . Apparently he's very active, though, and eating like a pig. Do you know if it's normal for the skin under the missing black scales to be orange? I don't think it's like red streaking or anything, she just says it's orange ("maybe he's a black moor crossed with a goldfish," she says, lol). His fins are in okay condition, I think, too. Anyways, thanks a lot for the advice.

 

[black angel]

hi

im glad he is doing ok. as for the orange colouring, most black moores that arent of show quality breeding will go orange or a brassy colour over time. this usually starts from the bottom of the fish and so you will see mostly black on top and the brassy orange on the bottom. its nothing to worry about as black isnt a stable colour anyway for fish.

 

[Jaded_Pulse]

Wow, that's awesome, lol. Guess that explains why he's not seeming ill then. Thanks for all the help!