# Odd Goldfish illness???? need help!



## goldfishworry

Well i had 5 goldfish one had died and the other are not quite right. 

one of them has a white lump on its head that has moved round to the side of its head, where it was before is a very red raw looking patch which looks painful. 

the others are fine just kinda sluggish, not to interested in the food. 

i dont know what to do, i went to a fish shop and they where not helpful at all! 

i have been cleaning out the tank regurlarly and changeing water but nothing seems to help, i think there isnt much more i can do but thought i should just ask people here as you probably know what you are talking about.

thanks for reading


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## pinetree

Can you post pictures of the lump?

How big is your tank? How long has it been set up and has it been fully cycled (ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate <40)? When you say you clean out your tank regularly, what specifically do you mean? Do you remove everything and wash it? Do you remove the filter media? How often and how much water do you change? Do you have any medications on hand?


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## goldfishworry

i dont have any medications or anything. it looks like this picture except te lump is on its head, it has moved to the side and left a big red sore patch.









i just replace the water with tap stuff but hae never had a problem so dont think its that. i emove and replace a pint every week. 

i have done one big reclean and whed everything. 

thanks


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## pinetree

Is the white spot fuzzy? I can't tell from the photo.

Can you answer the rest of the questions, please? It will help everyone figure out what is causing this (stress, poor water quality, etc).


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## goldfishworry

its the circled thing! except on the head!

i dont know about all of the ammonia stuff, we have always just put our goldfish in tap water and they have been fine. its only about a month ago we started noticing a difference just before i cleaned the tank completly. i cleaned the filter sponge and all the stones and ornaments. 

is that enough info? what ele do uneed to know?

Thanks


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## pinetree

I can't tell what it is from the photo - maybe someone else will jump in with a better idea?

I suspect it is parasitic or bacterial or both. If the fish will eat, I would suggest feeding them a medicated antiparasite food that contains both praziquantel and metronidazole, such as jungle antiparasite food. If they are refusing to eat, you can try treating the water itself with prazipro or something containing prazi and metro.

I would suggest changing out 50% of the tank water to start, and for goldfish it is a good practice to do approximately a 50% water change weekly. Goldfish make A LOT of waste. You never answered how large your tank is, so I can't say how much, but I would add aquarium salt to the water at a concentration of 1 teaspoon per gallon. This may help the skin heal. 

When you say you just add tap water, do you condition it with anything? Do you know if your tap contains chlorine or chloramine? Even if it doesn't, treating it with something like Prime will help protect the fish against some ammonia toxicity if your water is getting toxic.

From your first post you said you had 5 goldfish and now 4 I think? Keep in mind that goldfish should have at least 10-20 gallons of water per fish. You should also invest in a test kit that tests for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. If the tank is small or if you're overcleaning it (especially the filter media), you could be upsetting the cycle and the water could become toxic. Toxic water can lead to stressed fish, which leads to infections, lethargy, clamped fins, not eating, etc.

Also make sure you have good filtration and aeration for goldfish. Most advise a filtration rate of 10 times per hour the number of gallons. So if the tank is 30 gallons, the filter should turn over 300 gallons per hour.


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## TheOldSalt

It looks like Lymphocystis to me, since there isn't any redness around it.
It's a wart, basically.
It's caused by a virus.
It eventually goes away on it's own in several weeks, but you need CLEAN water for that to happen.


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## Peeps

> the others are fine just kinda sluggish, not to interested in the food.


Are they flashing? (Rubbing on rocks) Do they have stringy white poo? They are dying for a reason, that is a lot of fish to die. 

Have you tested your water? What size tank and how many fish in/were is there?

Sorry for so many questions but to get to the bottom of it we need more info on this.

I suspect a parasite as well.


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