My Goldfish- please help PLEASE!

[Seb R]

Well to be brief, my goldfish (in pond, sorry didn't know who or where to ask) has some kind of skin problem and is always swimming on his side. Think its his scales, should I remove him? Can it spread to the others? I've left him in there over British winter....

What should I do?

 

[WILDER]

Can the fish maintain it's balance in the water most of the time, are scales sticking out like a pinecone, and is the tummy look bloated.

 

[black angel]

can you bring it in to a tank for monitoring?

 

[OohFeeshy]

I'd say prehaps swim bladder, because of the swimming on his side, but the skin problem... does it look like grains of salt or cotton wool? Or something else?

 

[Seb R]

well the scale don't stick out too much, but he certainly can't maintain balance at all. The scales certainly look white from what I can see.

I would put him in a tank, but I dont have any to spare, also he too big for a 20L

 

[WILDER]

It sounding bad, do you have any of those plastic toy buckets you can put him in, do you have any antibiotic treatments on hand.

 

[Seb R]

Well I've got a bucket lol, but no treatment, I will look for some though.

Can any of the symptoms I've said spread? That really is my main worry, I've got about 30 fish, many wild and my Goldfish are pretty cool (would be bad to loose em!).

 

[WILDER]

Can you describe the skin condition is it fluffy in appearance.

 

[Seb R]

Well no, to be honest I can't see any 'fluff' Its like theres a large patch discoloured looking scales in the center. I don't know but it looks like the scales are 'dead' as they look really odd compared to the others.

Don't want to be crude but the only way I can properly convay was to use paint...

http/i2.photobucket.com/albums/y34/sebraaff/untitled.bmp

(it looks a bit whiter in real-life)

 

[WILDER]

It's sounding like this.
http/www.flippersandfins.net/flexibacter.htm
http/ukdiscus.co.uk/columnaris.htm#Ident...ng%20columnaris

 

[Seb R]

Hmm.. no its just not fungussy enough. Its the colouring of the scales thats white, but I see no signs of something on the skin

 

[WILDER]

Start a course of some salt baths, three aday, add some salt to the tank, and anti internal bacteria med, good luck.

 

[Seb R]

yer Think I will start this weekend (if I can catch him!!!!)

oh btw, you don't think it can spread do you?

 

[WILDER]

I would do some water changes in the pond if you can.

 

[Seb R]

Ha! I found the awnsers, a cold fish expert bubby o' mine came over today. We fished up tha fish and a few other ones. Seems I've got a few VERY lucky fish. A heron has been picking them out and dropping them. The wite marks were all scarred tissue (beak-sized). Seems my particular goldfish had his swim bladder peiced a bit too (dunno if that can heal).

Dammed British herons!