Unknown problem with fancy goldfish

[ukchickk]

Hi, i have 2 ryukin, and the one is gasping, flicking on gravel, and has clamped fins. I have tried water changing, and a dose of melafix to de stress it, also have added extra oxygenation, it has no signs of ick, or other parasites. I have had same problem with EVERY fancy goldfish i have purchased, no matter where i get them, they always get the same problem which i treat as the pet shop describe but the fish keep dying, does any one have any advise for me... I really am getting frustrated. my tank allows 15gallons per fish and only 2 fish are in the tank.

[Sable]

What are your water parameters? (These include temperature, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, hardness, etc.) We need more information before we can help.

[emc7]

Is your tank cycled? Nitrite spikes could cause those symptonms, especially if they appear like clockwork a 4-8 weeks after you add the fish. Alternatively, if you water parameters turn out ok, you might want to bleach the tank, nets, and everything and start over. This a "nuclear" solution for a medicine resistant pathogen (yes they are out there). If you do this be sure to "cycle" your tank again. Read the stickeys.

[harif87]

Could be symptons indicating high levels of nitrite. Melafix wont help out with any of the symptoms you described so i would stop adding it. The problem sounds like it reigns from your water so youll need to let us know your water params.

[TheOldSalt]

My first guess is flukes and secondary infection resulting from them. You won't be able to see gill flukes without actually inspecting the gills, and even then you have to know what they look like anyway.

If your water is fine, and al the fish you get have the same problem, then I'm pretty sure it comes down to this:

Almost all of the petshops in any given area buy their fish from the same small handful of suppliers, which in turn get their fish from the same few places. It makes perfect sense that the goldfish coming out of one of those wholesale places area all messed up, and it is going to be a chronic problem for quite awhile before being fixed.

By the way, there is a nasty new hemmoragic virus going around in goldfish right now, and indeed, many countries have banned the import/export of them as of just a few weeks ago. I'm not yet intimately familiar with the symptoms of this new virus, so I can't guess whether the fish in your area are affected, but they certainly have something wrong with them, as most goldfish do. Again, my first guess is flukes.

[Sable]

Originally Posted by TheOldSalt

If your water is fine, and al the fish you get have the same problem, then I'm pretty sure it comes down to this:

We have no idea what the poster's parameters are, however, and it's quite possible that an ammonia or nitrite issue is at the root of all this. I encourage the poster, if s/he ever comes back, to check his/her water parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, temperature, hardness) before assuming it's an actual disease.