# Red sores



## swoopusa (Dec 5, 2009)

I have a 55 gallon tank that I recently cleaned and prepared for goldfish. I removed everything, cleaned the gravel, refilled the tank and used a goldfish water conditioner for four days. I purchased four fancy tails, two red caps and one calico goldfish. I placed the plastic bags containing the fish in the tank water so they would get used to the temperature. Before I released the fish I noticed lots of small white worms in the tank. I don’t know where they came from. The only thing I could think of was maybe the outside of the bags. I filtered the water and then changed the filters. I released the fish after I did not see any sign of worms. 
It has been two weeks and all of the fish have red sores on the scales. Some of the red sores have a white center. The Petco guys said it was hook worms. They told me to treat the water with Melafix for seven days. It has been two days and the sores look larger. Please take a look at the picture. Any suggestions or information would be appreciated.


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## <3~Pleco~<3 (Jan 31, 2009)

Look up columinaris (something like that) and see if it matches.
I had a run in with red sores with my fish, and thought it was columinaris, luckily it wasn't. I treated them with melafix, and did more frequent water changes. It cleared up in a matter of days for me, but yours look larger than mine ever were. 
Hopefully if you continue to use melafix, it will clear up - depending on what exactly it is.
Good luck!


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

In regards to fancy goldfish, four days is not long enough to let the tank cycle. Goldfish are extremely dirty fish and you have to be sure the tank is cycled for them because they poop a lot which causes a lot of ammonia. I am not sure if they red sores are ammonia related, but I am sure the high amount of ammonia isn't helping. For your future reference, it takes about 4-6 weeks to properly cycle a tank that have you just cleaned from top to bottom. If all of your goldfish die and you decide to try again you'll know what to do next time.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Hookworms?
The Petco guys said it was hookworms? Then they recommended Melafix to get rid of the worms?

*sigh*
Somebody really needs to revoke their license. 
Morons.

The causes of open sores are many and hard to track down, but as it happens, Melafix & Pimafix & a bit of salt ( 1 tablespoon per five gallons ) used all together will help quite a bit.


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## betta0fish (Feb 16, 2009)

i thought the only way to treat hookworms were to pull them olut with tweezers or something like tht


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Hookworms aren't even a problem in FISH. Mammals, yes, but not fish.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

well.......a hook and worm could be a problem for a fish...

thank you petco wizards..................


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