Diagnose and Treatment help needed!

[Petrie_O]

My goldfish tank had a sudden outburst of these white substances that look like flakes of skin falling off the fish.
I've got no idea whether it's Ich (cause Ich usually looks less severe than this) or its fungal (cause fungal is usually concentrated and not spread out like this) or some disease that's uncommon in goldfish.
Tank: 200 litres
Occupants: 4 goldfish of around 5 inches in length
I've currently only dosed the tank with 15 teaspoons of aquarium salt to act as a stress reliever.
Advice on what this is and methods to treat are urgently needed !

 

[Petrie_O]

More information on the tank
Size: 200litres
Water parameters: unknown
Type of tank: freshwater goldfish aquarium
How long has it been set up: 1 year
How many fishes : 4 goldfish of varying sizes 5inch and up. Oldest was purchased 2 years ago latest was purchased around 9 months ago.
Were they quarantined: no
Temp of tank water: 25 degrees Celsius ( about 77 degrees Fahrenheit)
Live plants: no
Filter: overhead drip sump (no brand)
Receive natural sunlight: no
Water change schedule : 50% every 5 days
Food : hikari lionhead
Unusual signs : swim bladder issue
White flakes on its entire body

 

[kno4te]

Would start with testing ur water.

 

[fishhead0103666]

Go_redfish she’s the goldfish person here so she should be able to help you.

 

[skjl47]

Oldest was purchased 2 years ago latest was purchased around 9 months ago

Hello; Have you added any snails or other new things to the tank? Do you use any equipment with another tank? If most recent addition was 9 months ago then this would suggest to me it is not ick.

Temp of tank water: 25 degrees Celsius ( about 77 degrees Fahrenheit)

Hello; I think this is a bit warm for goldfish.

Water change schedule : 50% every 5 days

Hello; Decent WC schedule.

Hello; I agree that results from a water test kit can be a big help but if you do not have such that is that.

My initial suggestion hinges on the filter. Have you cleaned the filter lately. If not, then over time filters can become what is called "a nitrate factory" by some. If the filter has not been cleaned that may be a place to start. A word of caution - Take care to preserve the beneficial bacteria (bb) which often live in a filter. If you do not know what I mean by this then do not clean the filter until you get some more information.

Hello; my other observation is that 200 liters is around 50 gallons. Some think 75 gallons is needed for just one such goldfish and you have several. Goldfish are also considered to be messy fish. So my main guess is the tank may need more often WC. At least that is my suggestion for now. maybe twice as often or perhaps more than that for a time. This is just a guess however but is what comes to mind.

 

[phreeflow]

That looks quite alarming and I hope your fish make a good recovery. I can’t tell well from the pics by zooming in on my phone screen but it reminds me of either a costia or columnaris outbreak. Both can present white patches on the body and are quite virulent. Costia is a parasite and columnaris is bacterial so you’ll have to do some research on them and see which symptoms best match your fish so you can pick the right meds. Based on that ranchu pic, it looks like there is some fin deterioration, leading me to think it’s bacterial (columnaris) but then again, that could be a secondary infection.

First course of action if you see something odd with your goldfish is to do some water changes, vacuum the gravel, clean up the filters, and add salt. Then do some research and figure out what it could be. It may be one of two I mentioned, but there may be others I’m not aware of. Hopefully others can jump in

 

[Petrie_O]

Update:

One of the fish has significantly deteriorated. Hopefully someone viewing this is able to get a better look and a more detailed diagnosis. Personally it's not a disease I'm familiar with.

 

[Go_redfish]

Colmaris would be my bet. Parasitic infection would have mainfested sooner within the nine months since you purchased the most recent fish.

Colmaris is a regularly present part of aquarium bacterial fauna. It becomes problematic when fish have compromised immune systems. Stess and long term exposure to poor water quality and raised temps will do it.

I house GF at around 20 gallons per fish and tack on another 10 gallons for each fish over 5-6 inches. Filtration runs at 10x the tanks volume every hour. So for example a 30 gallon tank would have 300gallons per hour turned over. Water changes are 100% a week. I test parameters daily.

If these fish were in my care I would disperse them to appropiate volumed hospital tanks. Cool them down a few degrees coz 77 is a little warm for them. Add salt to the tune of .3ppm over the course of 36 hrs. And beef up my filtration. Test water parameters regularly and change accordingly

 

[skjl47]

http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Columnaris.html

Hello; Not saying this is the disease your fish have but here is a link to colomnaris.

 

[Petrie_O]

Hi thanks for all the responses so far. Unfortunately the medications for columnaris are rare in the local fish stores of Singapore. However a common anti bacterial treatment called Japanese yellow powder is widely used here which is what I'm gonna use to treat the fish with one by one in a hospital tank (kills beneficial bacteria hence unlikely to dose main tank) . Will update soon whether treatment is successful.