I just noticed something, help!

[mj19]

Hello its me again. I just noticed something on one of my goldfish that is rather alarming. One of his gills has turned bright red! I am the one who posted "my new goldfish(pictures included)" recently. After I got all that information I decided to bring them home and move them into a nice big tank right away. I don't have much money so I got them a 10 gallon tank, since its the cheapest, they will only be in it until the end of the year so don't get too worried, and they are still very small. I'm asking for a large tank for chirstmas. I have everything sitting here ready to go, and I was going to move them into the bigger tank when I got back to school tomorrow then I saw this. Does anyone know what it is? I know the tempurature is fine but I haven't tested the water yet, I am going to buy testing supplies tomorrow, what should I test for? I also have a other animals in my room (betta, guinea pig, leopard gecko, yeah i'm nuts) could they have gotten something from one of them? Should i seperate the two goldfish until it clears up? I don't want anything to happen to them, I know I didn't get off on the right foot, but now that I know what I should be doing I want to do everything right, thanks in advance for any help.

**edit** I just noticed they both have it also I have amquel plus, accu clear, and stress coat, would any of these help?

[Beerleader]

Is it breathing differently, having difficulty breathing, clamping fins, laying on bottom or at the top mostly etc? Definitely need to get some means of testing your water because lots of gill problems are due to poor water quality such as high ammonia, nitrites, or nitrates. So definitely get something to read your water parameters asap!

[mj19]

I wish I had noticed this earlier so I could have gotten something to test the water with, but I will have to wait until the stores open tomorrow. As a matter of fact they are both acting fine, as loopy as ever. Since they are in a small tank i've been adding amquel which I thought would keep the water from getting bad until I got them into a bigger tank. I hope they will be ok, what should I buy exactly for testing supplies, everything?

[Beerleader]

Well goldfish are really dirty fish so it might be the water quality if they are in a smaller tank that hasn't been changed lately. The smaller the more you'd have to vacuum the gravel and replace the water with new fresh water. You can buy any test kit at any local fish store, I prefer to use the test tube w/ liquid drop kit rather than the strips but the strips are MUCH cheaper. It just depends on the person as to which they prefer, but any is better than none. So whichever your budgets allow go ahead and purchase that one. Most strips or tube kits allow you to test at least the ph, nitrite, nitrates, and ammonia which is really important. Good luck!

[MyCometGoldfish]

It sounds like gill rot ! They say to treat it, you should stop feeding them for 2 weeks, because gill rot is caused by decaying matter, probably food. They also say to give them a salt bath, and to drain 1/3 of the water every day and replace it with tap water, and to make sure that your filter system works properly. Sorry, that's all I know! Good luck!

[mj19]

Boy do I feel like a bad fish mommy...It was too much ammonia, I can't figure out how it got that bad that fast. I had just taken out most of the water and replaced it on tuesday. Oh well, at least I have them in a bigger tank now. And I learned my lesson:

big giant tank = happy goldfish

man they are going to get a palace of a tank for christmas

[Georgia Peach]

I was going to say it sounded like ammonia poisoning to me.. your readings can be low one day and off the charts the next. You need to keep thier water as clean as possible especially in light of the fact that goldfish are so messy

[MyCometGoldfish]

Great job! You can have happy (not to mention healthy) fish again!