Need some assistance!Pond goldfish.. ASAP

[Racersk]

I was doing my regular water change on my 100+ gallon pond today and I was shocked to see a huge white spot on one of my original feeder fish, it's brown so the spot was clearly visible.

I can't have sick fish, so I am now draining the whole thing!

I have a couple juvinile Koi and 3 other little gold fish in there and I try to keep the pond well filtered. It is covered with a net and has a few water lettuce over the top so my local population of raccoons won't deplete my stock(happened once!)

NONE of the other fish have any thing wrong with them, they don't even have as much as a scale missing! I pulled all the fish out and the last one was the brown one that started it all...


This poor little guy is about 3.5" long (common feeder goldfish), and it has about a quarter sized hole just before the tail!!! flesh gone!, but no flesh eating bacteria, just a hole! It is also missing most of its lower jaw...Crap.

As I stated it is alive and swimming around normally, but it looks like crap! What should I do with it? euthanise? I mean it is swimming, but I'm not sure what caused it?!

Here's a pic...

Missing jaw

Oh and I just saw his buddy that I add at the same time, this other brown fish is about 3/4" bigger...Makes me wonder how long the other one has been like this?

Help please!

 

[macmilan]

dont drain yor pond dude you will lose al benifitial bacteria, maybe racoons got at this guy again euthanise do a small water changes every few days and look out for signs of any disease in the remainig fish

 

[bigbadfish711]

I have seen fish with this kind of wound on them in my pond a few years ago. You said you have neting over the pond. I had a small snapping turtle get into my pond. I think that it got into through the water fall. I would just check out the pond for unwanted pests.

 

[Racersk]

I have him on meds, in quarantine. I drained the pond and I know about the good bacteria.. The filter has that good stuff still in it and there is plenty of the good stuff in the substrate. No fungus or bugs that I could see.

Nothing in the pond but the trapdoor snails I put in months ago...The netting was secure and if a raccoon got to them this time, that suckers a fricken NINJA!

I did have another fish get through the hole a I made or the fountain style filter a ffew weeks ago, but he got out, nothing else has gotten in. But it really doesn't look like ich or nothing, just a hole! The mouth has me concerned that it won't live after a while...poor guy can't really eat.

Seems active though...Any chance he was eaten on by the other fish? They look real fat and happy...

 

[Twister]

Good to hear that you have him in a QT tank. It would have been a bad move to euthanize him, these types of goldfish are pretty hardy and can handle a lot, unlike the fancier varieties. What size is the QT tank? It's great that you took some cycled media for the QT tank!

Aside from keeping the water pristine, you should add some aquarium salt. Salt up to .1% which means 1 teaspoon per gallon of water. This will help the wound heal faster and also hopefully ward off any secondary bacterial infections which may occur. Salt and pristine water is all you will need, no meds are necessary in this case.

I hope he pulls through, keep us updated

 

[Racersk]

The QT tank is 5 gallons... um a home depot bucket, but hey it holds water!

Added about 2 teaspoons of salt already, but I will add more tonight when I get home if it'll help. I did medicate with Primafix for antifungal, cause I wasn't sure what had happened. Luckily I had an air driven box filter I just pulled out of a different tank that hadn't let dry off yet.

I know these guys are hardy...How long should I keep the little guy QT'd?

 

[Twister]

You should get him into at least a 10 gallon tank with a cycled filter or he'll never heal. Goldfish are extremely messy fish, so he'll quickly foul up the water, which will make it impossible for his wound to heal up. He really needs impeccable water quality even more than he needs meds of any kind.

Once in the 10g tank, melafix and pimafix won't do any harm, but don't use them for more than 8 consecutive days because they can clog the gills and impede breathing. These are safe to use with salt. Keep a close record of the salt level, you don't want to just add a couple teaspoons here and there. What you want is to keep it stable at .1% (one teaspoon per gallon).

I'd keep him QT'ed until you see definite signs of healing. I think once the wound starts to heal it will have a white-ish look to it. I'm not sure how long it will take to start healing, but hopefully within a week you should at least see sign of healing.

 

[Racersk]

Thanks Twister for the advice...

Unfortunatley, the little guy passed yesterday sometime, I guess I didn't catch the problem early enough...
I also think the damage to his mouth was too much-without the ability to eat it was just too weak.

I did however aquire 2 more 'patients', was 3, but the largest died today. I posted in the general section, but it's in the same topic of this thread...

I am currently caring for 2 Comet's that are about 5" long. They are the last of 8 that were very sick due to bad pond maintenance-fungus. They had a white coating of 'fur' covering their bodies-fins look bad.

They are doing way better now that I have them in my 10 gallon hospital tote! Not adding more meds now, just 4.5 gallon(50%) water changes x2 daily. I also added an airstone to circulate the water better and more oxygen.

They actually took pellets yesterday for the first time in a couple weeks. Not power feeding or anything, just a couple with a little bit of flake. And they have been getting more active too, always a good sign.

On the salt note, I have a salt tester, but it only reads as low as .004, is there a way to measure that low of a salt concentration?

 

[Twister]

I'm sorry he didn't make it That was a pretty nasty looking injury. I'm glad the two that you have are looking better, and hopefully they will continue to improve. Sounds like you are doing a great job. Extra aeration is always a good thing with goldfish Two water changes daily at 50% is excellent. With such good care, they should be all healed up in no time.

There is no way I know of to measure salt at such low concentrations. There may be a way, I just don't know of it. What I do is just keep a log of how much I added and when. Just remember that every 1 teaspoon per gallon you add will raise the salinity by .1. Sometimes if I have multiple tanks that I'm using salt in I'll just keep a little piece of tape on the tank with the salt concentration written on it. Just so I don't get confused.

 

[Racersk]

The 2 I'm caring for are doing very well, most of the 'fur' has come off and they are alot more active. I have missed an evening water change, but first thing in the morning I WC another buckets worth.

Forgot the salt, but I will make a note on adding and log it...I use a yellow grease pencil for my logs.

One is showing little black spots on scales, could be dirt, but something to note... Any thoughts?

Thanks again for all the good words!