Goldfish Disease Identification ?

[evansena]

Hi! I’m new to the forum. I’ve been using an other forum for 5 years but we can’t seem to figure out this problem with my goldfish. Thanks in advance for any help and advice.
I’ve had this common goldfish for 6 years. Currently in a 20g cycled aquarium alone with a filter and aerator. Ammonia and Nitrite are 0 and Nitrate is between 10-20ppm. I do weekly water changes and when I’m away at college my mom cleans the tank twice a month. He’s been healthy but on December 1st his fins started turning red on the tips. It looked like hemorrhagic septicemia (i think that’s what it’s called, might’ve spelled that wrong). I treated with aquarium salt first, increasing the dose over a couple days. No change. I ordered Kanaplex to use and while I was waiting for it to come in, a red patch appeared where his pelvic fin connects to his body. It was bright red and very concerning. I did water changes constantly since this started. Right before dosing the Kanaplex, the red patch went away but there was still red, vein like streaks on his tail fins. Treated 3 doses of Kanaplex. No change. It’s been about a week since then and the red patch has come back today. It looks really concerning… I tried to get a good pic of it. He had his fins clamped and was slightly lethargic. Still had an appetite and ate. I did a 25% water change today too.
Last thing I want to mention is stringy poop. I noticed clear stringy poop with bubbles and chucks of brown (same color as food). I honestly just think it was because the Omega One Sinking Pellets don’t actually like to sink and he ate some air, had trouble digesting. Anyways I started soaking the food before feeding now and i’ll look out for poop lol. When I cleaned the tank today I noticed what seemed to be white poop. Just wanted to mention in case this might be parasites. Wouldn’t explain red fins and patch tho.
Second photo is the best I have to show the red tail fins.

 

[Colin_T]

The red in the fins is blood and you can see the blood flowing through the veins (wavy lines in the tail). This is normally caused by poor water quality and the recommended treatment is water changes and salt.
The blood in the tail isn't a major issue.

It's too hard to work out what is what on the picture showing the belly of the fish. It might have an infection are the base of the fin or something else. Again salt and water changes usually do the job.

Stringy white poop is either an internal bacterial infection, internal protozoan infection, or intestinal worms. It could be related to the blood in the fins, ie: the fish has a bacterial infection that is causing the blood and white poop. Anti-biotics can be used as a last resort, however you have tried them with the Kanamycin.

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The following link has information about stringy white poop and might offer some info to you.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

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How much salt did you use?

What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

What do you normally feed it besides the pellets?

Without better pictures and maybe a video, I can't offer much more help.

 

[evansena]

The red in the fins is blood and you can see the blood flowing through the veins (wavy lines in the tail). This is normally caused by poor water quality and the recommended treatment is water changes and salt.
The blood in the tail isn't a major issue.

It's too hard to work out what is what on the picture showing the belly of the fish. It might have an infection are the base of the fin or something else. Again salt and water changes usually do the job.

Stringy white poop is either an internal bacterial infection, internal protozoan infection, or intestinal worms. It could be related to the blood in the fins, ie: the fish has a bacterial infection that is causing the blood and white poop. Anti-biotics can be used as a last resort, however you have tried them with the Kanamycin.

-------------------
The following link has information about stringy white poop and might offer some info to you.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

-------------------
How much salt did you use?

What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).

What do you normally feed it besides the pellets?

Without better pictures and maybe a video, I can't offer much more help.

Normally feed pellets and occasionally frozen emerald entree. PH in the tank is 8.0. I live in FL so that’s just how it’s always been for them. I have a GH and KH test but just went to use it and it’s expired. I can order more if it’s that relevant? The red spot has gone away. It literally disappears overnight and then reappears days later. I’ll try and get a video if/when it’s back. The red tail fins are a symptom and they have just appeared this month; I’ve had this fish for 6 years so the tail fins turning red like that aren’t normal. As mentioned, I tried a salt treatment and it didn’t cause any changes. I mean my best guess at this point would be parasites maybe.

 

[Colin_T]

The red isn't parasites. It's blood and either from a water quality issue or bacterial infection. Increasing the salt level might help with bacteria.

Don't bother buying a GH/ KH test kit. Just check your water company's website or phone them. The GH and KH don't change much and is normally constant all year round unless they change water sources.

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SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium 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, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then 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.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.

 

[evansena]

The red isn't parasites. It's blood and either from a water quality issue or bacterial infection. Increasing the salt level might help with bacteria.

Don't bother buying a GH/ KH test kit. Just check your water company's website or phone them. The GH and KH don't change much and is normally constant all year round unless they change water sources.

----------------------
SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium 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, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then 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.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.

So the first time I treated with aquarium salt for this issue (beggining of december), I dosed 1 tablespoon for every 5 gallons. First time using salt on this fish so just wanted to start out low. Waited about 4 days, no improvement. Dosed again so it was at a ratio of 1 tablespoon for every 3 gallons. Waited another 3 days, no change. I did everything you mentioned above such as dissolving salt first, treating new water with salt, and then afterwards did about 25% water changes over the course of 2 weeks to get the salt level down slowly.
Are you suggesting I try this again?
I’ll try and figure out GH and KH tmrw morning. Thanks for all the help. I suggested parasites because of white poop and since it’s the anal area that keeps getting inflamed. I just thought that might be it but I read that “Essentially when poop is pale or translucent it means there’s not enough food in it. At this point, you’re not actually looking at poop but rather the mucus coating that’s inside all goldfish.” What do you think, could parasite be causing the inflammation?

 

[Colin_T]

GH and KH isn't that important at this stage, I was just curious because they do better in hard water. It has no bearing on the red spot issue. Just try to find out what it is sometime in the future. Goldfish do best in water with a GH around or above 200ppm.

Post some more pictures and video of the fish. Make sure they are in focus and clearly show the issue.