There are a lot of responses to this article – I’m very happy to have helped so many sick goldfish.
If you notice goldfish disease symptoms and need help, please scan the comments/replies already posted (click the link at the very bottom of the page to view previous comments). Your question might be answered already! And always test the water before writing a comment.
This is the first part in the goldfish disease series. In this three-part series, you’ll learn…
- How to tell if your goldfish is sick (we’ll look at 14 goldfish disease symptoms)
- How to treat 7 of the most common goldfish diseases in aquariums and freshwater ponds
- How to keep your aquarium completely disease free by solving common tank problems
Goldfish are remarkably hardy creatures and don’t often fall prey to goldfish diseases. You just need to maintain good water quality, keep up with tank maintenance, feed your goldfish a varied diet, and test the water regularly. In fact, chances that you’ll find goldfish disease symptoms are slim if your goldfish are kept in a healthy aquarium environment with proper goldfish care.
You may be surprised to find out that most experienced aquarists have very little experience treating fish diseases. This is because they are experts at keeping their fish healthy. – David E. Boruchowitz, author of Aquarium Care of Goldfish
But even under the best conditions, goldfish aren’t entirely immune to diseases.
When you have sick goldfish, you want to catch goldfish disease symptoms early on to prevent goldfish diseases from spreading and infecting other fish in the aquarium.
Some infections are even fatal and can quickly kill your goldfish in a matter of days. This makes it even more important to have a medication like this on hand and treat goldfish disease symptoms quickly.
Treat Sick Goldfish Early
There are two types of goldfish diseases: those that are contagious and those that aren’t. Even if the infection isn’t contagious, you should still put your goldfish in a “hospital tank,” a smaller tank separated from the other fish, so that your goldfish can recuperate without being stressed out.
Separating infected goldfish prevents your healthy fish from receiving medication they don’t need (what is called being “over-medicated”).
First, we’ll look at abnormal behavior signs that could hint that something’s not quite right in the aquarium. Next, we’ll dive into the visual signs of diseases on the body and fins. Later, I’ll walk you through your next steps after you’ve discovered potential problems.
Let’s take a look at a few goldfish disease symptoms to look out for. If you notice any of these symptoms in your own aquarium, it might help to write them down on a notepad. This will make it easier later to determine what caused the goldfish disease and how to treat your sick goldfish.
Goldfish Disease Symptoms in Behavior
- Gasping for breath, rapidly breathing, or hanging at the water surface – One or more of your goldfish might be gathered at the surface of the water, noisily gobbling up packets of air or sucking in oxygen just below the surface. This usually happens when the water isn’t oxygenated enough for your goldfish to breathe comfortably (poor water quality). So sick goldfish will try to find any means they can to get more oxygen. If water quality doesn’t improve, the stress of not breathing in enough oxygen will lower the immune system and cause other goldfish disease symptoms to develop. If you notice gasping at the surface, test the water with a freshwater test kit immediately.
- Refuses to eat or losing weight – This is another goldfish disease symptom you should catch early. Goldfish are naturally ravenous creatures and will eat just about anything if given the chance. So a goldfish refusing to eat or showing noticeable signs of weight loss should be a warning sign that there’s a problem that needs closer looking into. Your goldfish might be suffering from internal parasites or poor water quality.
- Erratically swimming or swimming upside down – Erratic swimming is a sign of buoyancy problems. Trouble swimming could be caused by swim bladder disease, dropsy, or improper feeding (and sometimes feeding peas will help). Poor water quality might also be the culprit (or a result of overfeeding). If you look closely, are there other goldfish disease symptoms you may not have noticed?
- Listless or laying at the bottom – Healthy goldfish actively swim around and interact with their environment. If you have a sick goldfish that never gets up from the gravel, something is seriously wrong and you should take immediate action to find the underlying cause. Usually sick goldfish that are listless are also suffering from poor water quality or an infection.
- Slow to react to disturbances and stimuli – Are you about to feed your goldfish, only to find that one of them doesn’t seem to notice the food until it’s smack against his nose? Sick goldfish often have trouble reacting to certain things in their environment. Look for other goldfish disease symptoms, test the water quality, and do an immediate water change if test results are less than ideal.
- Rubs against the aquarium glass and other surfaces – This could be a sign of parasites, like ich, or even a fungus infection. At least, something is making your goldfish very itchy. If your goldfish is just rubbing his nose on the glass whenever you come nearby (what I like to call the “goldfish dance”), it could just be a friendly greeting and a demand to be fed (of course, don’t give in to those demands if you already fed your goldfish just moments ago). 😉
Goldfish Disease Symptoms on the Body or Fins
- Clamped or folded fins – Maybe your goldfish constantly holds his fins close to his body or he’s lethargic and doesn’t move around much. There are actually a few potential goldfish diseases that can cause your fish to act this way, and your job is to look for other goldfish disease symptoms that might give the disease away. It might just be a case of poor water quality or parasites. Testing the water with a freshwater aquarium testing kit will give you a better idea of what is causing the problem and how to make the aquarium environment healthier for your goldfish.
- Torn or frayed fins – This is often a sign of stress, especially if you notice little red veins branching out in the fins. Simply changing the water and separating your goldfish from more aggressive fish can quickly solve this problem. If you find that the fins are actually starting to deteriorate into a stump, your goldfish may be experiencing fin or tail rot, which is caused by bacteria (and could attract fungus infections).
- Fluffy patches, discolored spots, or raised bumps – Do you notice a slight fuzz in some areas that shouldn’t be there? If your goldfish has discolored patches on the body or fins, chances are that he’s suffering from fungal or bacterial infections. Hospitalize the goldfish immediately and run some water tests on the main aquarium to determine what caused the goldfish disease symptoms. If the discolored patches actually look like little white specks of salt, your goldfish is suffering from ich, often known as white spot disease. Ich is fairly contagious (even common) in aquariums. If black spots are visible, your sick goldfish have an ammonia burn or parasite infection (this parasite is very rare in aquariums).
- Bloated or has raised scales – If one of your goldfish is abnormally round, large (be careful not to mistake this for a maturing female goldfish), or even resembles a pine cone, he may have dropsy (often caused by bacterial infections and sometimes incurable). A bloated sick goldfish might also be overfed or, if your goldfish have buoyancy problems, filled with packets of air after extended periods of time gasping for breath at the water surface.
- Pale gills – Pale gills can be caused by a number of goldfish diseases, including parasites. Salt is a popular treatment in this case, though you should also consider medications. Medications will depend on the type of parasite that is infecting your fish and can be determined by other goldfish disease symptoms.
- Noticeable lumps or parasites – External parasites are usually visible on the body or fins, and many will cause ulcers and lumps along the scales. Such parasites include ich (white spot disease), anchor worms, fish lice, and flukes. There are many ways you can get rid of parasites, ranging from medication to salt baths. You can even have them manually removed (though I don’t recommend this unless you know what you’re doing).
- Protruding eyes – If one or both eyes of your goldfish are abnormally large (don’t mistake this for natural characteristics in black moor or telescope goldfish), this could be early goldfish disease symptoms of pop eye or a bacterial infection.
- Bleeding wounds, sores, or missing scales – Do you have aggressive or territorial fish in the same aquarium? Solving this problem could just be a matter of finding a separate tank to house your goldfish. Your goldfish could also be infected with parasites, causing him to rub on gravel or other sharp objects.
By catching goldfish disease symptoms ahead of time, you can prevent infections from getting worse, spreading, and taking over the aquarium. And by taking immediate action to treat the disease, your sick goldfish has a better chance of surviving through the infection.
It’s always a good practice to watch your goldfish on a daily basis for signs of abnormal behavior or growths. A good time to do this is right before or during feeding.
Once you’ve noticed signs of a potential disease, you’ll want to put the sick goldfish into a hospital tank as soon as possible so that other fish in the same tank don’t get infected. Then you’ll need to determine what caused goldfish disease symptoms (so that you can effectively treat the disease) and identify problems running rampant in your tank. We’ll discuss more about this in the third part of the series.
You’ll then be able to take measures to ensure your other goldfish don’t get similarly infected.
Test the water with an aquarium test kit will help you identify tank problems. Also think back to events that led up to this point. Did you recently just introduce a new goldfish to the aquarium (without quarantining him first)? Did you just add new water to the tank without letting it adjust to room temperature?
Instead of looking for terrible diseases, you should concentrate on keeping your fish healthy. – David E. Boruchowitz, author of Aquarium Care of Goldfish
Remember: the best cure for any disease is prevention. By keeping your goldfish in a healthy environment, you reduce their chances of getting fatal goldfish disease symptoms. And it’s much easier to care for healthy fish than it is to treat sick goldfish.
How About You?
What sort of goldfish disease symptoms have you noticed? How did you treat your sick goldfish? Are there any goldfish care tips you can offer to help prevent infections? I’d love to hear from you!
194 comments
Hi Christina,
NO i dint quarantine. I should have at least bought them from a good shop,later i heard most of them who buy from this guy have lost their other fish too.. Yeah my goldy was fine until i had put the telescope, after which it had developed a red mark below one of the fins. I thought it may be its changing color, i should have treated it, or at least should have did my research before buying any other fish.. I have 12 gallon tank. I just had my common init. And later wanted to add one more. Now i guess il not bring any other fish. Il just keep him till he grows a bit then my tank would become small for him. Thanks a lot for the reply christina, il go and buy he medicine immediately.
Sri
Happy to help, Sri! You definitely shouldn’t buy any more goldfish until you can upgrade the tank. I recommend a 40-gallon aquarium before buying an additional fish (20 gallons should be fine for just the one fish). Commons and comets can grow very large – some reaching over a foot long, though a foot is about average (whereas most fancy goldfish stay at around 6 inches). I hope your goldfish gets better!
hi remember me? well my sick goldfish was back to normal for a few weeks but then he started doing little somersaults and now he keeps going up to the surface and floating around the surface. i am watching him, he is doing normal goldfish things but every now and then he keeps floating around. I have been giving him some of the peas ad some fish food for about one week but I stopped giving him the peas for just one day and have given him fish food and now he is floating around. also, we havn’t been able to change his water for about 3 days because we got some water and boiled it (we boil it instead of using the chlorine drops thingy) , then we let it cool. it takes about 2 days. anyway, when it was done someone got the water and poured it down the sink! so now he has another 2 days with dirty water. that’s not going to make him any better. I have been watching him for a while and he seems to be getting worse. also the smaller fish that he lives with seems to be getting happier and healthier the sicker he gets. in fact, it’s thriving now. when we got them the fish that’s sick now would bully the other fish and gobble up a lot of the food. the smaller fish would live of the rest, and some of the muck one the bottom of the tank and even fish poo. now the sick fish doesn’t seem to have to have the heart to bully the other one. I also thing his colour has gotten a little transparent, but i might be imagining it. also i have a friend who has a few fish. four of them have died. she says they just die suddenly and the rest of the fish eat the body, which i don’t think would be very healthy for them. she also says they’re just goldfish, but they hardly move around at all, they just hide behind the tanks. she says she’s never seen them floating upside down before. there is a fair amount of sun shining on them she says. i was wondering wether they don’t like the sun, because goldfish are cold water fish so maybe the sun is making the water too warm for them.
Hi Alannah,
Were you able to upgrade the tank? Sounds like your goldfish is suffering from poor water quality again. As mentioned in a previous comment, you should test the water with a freshwater test kit and let me know the results. It’s hard to treat your fish without knowing exactly what’s wrong. So definitely get that water tested as soon as possible.
What kind of fish is the smaller one? Many tropical fish can do fine in smaller aquariums, while goldfish need a lot more space to stay healthy. That might explain why the smaller fish seems a lot healthier than the goldfish. Floating problems are also common for fancy goldfish, since they have very bulky bodies.
To help with your fish’s floating problems, you can reduce feeding. How often do you feed your goldfish? You could be feeding too much food, so your goldfish might be constipated (and is now having trouble swimming). I recommend to fast your goldfish for 4 days (don’t feed any food!) to see if this fixes the problem. Don’t worry! Your goldfish will be just fine without food for about 4 days. There might be food stuck in the intestines of your goldfish, causing it to swell up and float, so a little fasting might help.
There’s a possibility that the sun could be making the water too warm for your friend’s fish. Has your friend checked the water temperature? I recommend not to place any aquariums directly beneath a window for this reason, since frequent temperature changes can stress out fish. Also, what size aquarium does your friend have? There’s a chance that your friend’s tank might be too small as well.
One or two goldfish should really have a minimum of 20 gallons (or 75 liters) of water to stay healthy. For each additional fancy goldfish, you’ll need to add 10 gallons (40 liters) of water per fish. So for 4 goldfish, your friend should have at least a 40-gallon aquarium (152 liters).
But you’re right – dead, possibly infected, fish shouldn’t be consumed by healthy goldfish. You should remove any dead fish as soon as you notice them. I hope your goldfish starts feeling better!
my fish has been acting funny, he floats upside down and then after 1 hour he starts swimming normally. then after about an hour he goes upside down again. I am still giving him the peas without the skin.
Hi Alannah,
How long have you been feeding them peas? Don’t feed too many veggies. Don’t forget that your goldfish need meat too. 🙂 There’s a chance your goldfish might be constipated, so you can try fasting for a few days to see if this straightens him out. Then you can continue with your stable diet.
I feed my goldfish dry food in the mornings and then in the afternoon, I might give them some bloodworms, shrimp, or fresh veggies as an afternoon snack (or I might feed them another portion of dry food). You can also give your goldfish a treat every week.
Peas might be good for a few days if your goldfish are floating upside down, but if your goldfish are still floating after a week of a pea diet, you may want to fast them for 4 days since they could be constipated. Once the problem straightens out, you can go back to a meat/veggy diet.
We bought 2 Fantails and before we could upgrade to a bigger tank 1 died, most likely because of too little oxygen. We now have a bigger tank and decided to get more fish friends for the lonely Fantail. One of my friend gave me 4 Telescope goldfish as she had used them for a function and was looking for homes for the fish. At first it looked like the Fantail wanted to eat the Telescopes, and I figured he has been alone for a while and had to get used to them, but by the next day the Telescoped had started chasing the Fantail around the tank. It is like they ganged up against him, so I separated him from the others as I’m scared that they might now tire him out up to the point where he might die. It also looks like they are nipping at him the whole time, I don’t know how it looks when they bite, but I don’t want to take any chances.
I am concerned that the tank might once again be too small, but my main concern now is just getting the fish to get along…
Do Ammonia burns ever go away? As the Fantail does look like he has a small black spot on his nose. Although the water in the tank has been treated.
Hi Marcelle,
Are you sure your goldfish aren’t just getting ready for breeding? Do all the telescope goldfish chase the fantail or only a select few? Look closely at the gills on the telescope goldfish. Do you notice little white dots or pimples there (also known as breeding tubercles)? If so, these goldfish are male. If your fantail is female (the body is rounder in appearance and the goldfish doesn’t have breeding tubercles on the gills), the chasing is probably harmless.
Goldfish are normally peaceful, so unless one goldfish is significantly smaller than the others, they should be fine. Sometimes more active goldfish will nip on flowing fins and in those cases, if the nipping is causing stress, you may want to separate the fish.
Keep in mind that 5 fancy goldfish should have a 60-gallon aquarium at the very minimum, preferably larger. If the telescope goldfish are causing problems (and you don’t think they’re just getting ready for breeding season), you can keep the fantail in a 20-gallon aquarium and the four telescope goldfish may do well in 50 gallons or higher. As for ammonia burns, it may take a week or two to heal, as long as water conditions stay healthy. If ammonia continues to be a problem and you’re doing your weekly water tests with a freshwater test kit, you can try changing 25% of the water until ammonia levels drop. Ammo Lock will also detoxify ammonia to make water conditions more comfortable for your goldfish, but keep in mind that it will not remove the ammonia. You’ll need a good power filter, an appropriate-sized aquarium, frequent water tests, and daily water changes to reduce ammonia back down to 0ppm (after ammonia goes back down, you can continue routine water changes as usual).
Hi Christina,
Yea.. My goldfish is swimming at the surface of the water most of the time.. just floating and not moving. will try to let it fast for 3 days and see wad happen… =D
Hi Jessie,
The fact that your goldfish is spending most of his time at the surface might indicate that something is wrong with water quality. Have you tested the water recently?
If you put your goldfish in a new tank with fresh water before the water could go through the nitrogen cycle, this might be part of the problem.
Let me know if you notice signs that your goldfish are getting worse.
Hello,
One of my goldfish was lying at the bottom of the tank and has bloated belly, great difficulty in breathing,and it actually didn’t react when I picked with my bare hands while moving it outside the tank (and into a large plastic bowl that serves as a hospital tank). Do you have any idea what is wrong? There are no visible signs of skin infection or parasites. My fish was fine when I left for work earlier in the morning. I feed my fish only goldfish flakes and have an air pump for their tank.
Many thanks,
Stella.
Hi Stella,
Have you tested the water recently? How are water conditions?
Your goldfish might be suffering from a bacterial infection or even internal parasites (though bacterial infections are more common under poor water conditions). If your goldfish had been spending a lot of time at the water surface, it might also be bloated from sucking in more air than it should have (flakes can also cause bloating for fancy goldfish, so many hobbyists recommend sinking pellets instead – I personally also use sinking pellets).
If you haven’t tested the water with a freshwater test kit, I’d do so as soon as possible as poor water quality could very well be the problem. If water conditions are healthy, your goldfish could be just constipated (constipation might be more likely with dry pellets though). If you suspect your goldfish is constipated, you could try fasting your goldfish for 3 or 4 days to see if this solves the problem.
If your goldfish appears to have raised scales (similar to a pine cone in appearance), your goldfish has dropsy. Dropsy can be caused by a number of things, but poor water quality is usually the culprit. You may want to treat the water with aquarium salt (1 teaspoon per gallon or follow the directions on the carton). If your goldfish is suffering from dropsy and poor water quality is the culprit, it’s more likely that your goldfish developed a bacterial infection. In this case, you may have to treat the water with an anti-bacterial medication (I recommend Maracyn-Two).
If a combination of Maracyn-Two, aquarium salt, and healthy water conditions does not solve the problem, it’s likely that your goldfish is suffering from internal parasites. Treatment can vary depending on the parasite. If you suspect parasites though, I’d first try Prazi Pro (very good treatment and doesn’t stress out the fish or harm biological filtration). If this doesn’t work, you can try Parasite Guard.
I hope your goldfish feels better! Let me know if conditions worsen.
I have an oranda goldfish that I purchased a little over a year ago from petsmart. It’s still small, what you would consider “medium” from their stock. A couple of weeks ago I noticed a black spot in one of his nostrils (he’s white with a red wen) and didn’t think much of it since I thought it might have been his change in coloration as he grew. Today after I did my water change, I noticed that the spot had grown more, but this time it was actually something coming out of his nostril. I’m not sure if it is a fungus or a worm or something else all together. I’ve looked around online but can’t seem to find anything on the subject. I’m tempted to try and pull it out of him, but I don’t want to hurt him.
Hi Miriam,
How is water quality? Black spots might be signs of ammonia poisoning. Goldfish will sometimes develop black patches on the body while healing from an injury or ammonia burns. Do you notice any other signs of disease?
Is your goldfish scratching against objects? If you have aquarium snails in the tank, the black spots could be cysts from cercariae. This is highly unlikely though, since these parasites depend on both snails and a fish host to complete their life cycle. To solve the problem, just remove any snails in the tank and the black spots should go away after a week or two. Then you can re-introduce the snails back into the tank after the black spots have disappeared.
If poor water quality is not the problem and you have no snails in the tank, your goldfish might be just trying to heal from an injury. As for the worm hanging from the nostril, what does it look like? Is it white or greenish in color? Does it move around? has the condition spread? I suggest treating the tank with Prazi Pro just to be on the safe side, until you know what is hanging from your goldfish. Many hobbyists actually use Prazi Pro as a preventative against parasites, since it’s very safe and doesn’t impact the biological filter.
If the parasite is white/green and thin (like a small strand of hair), you could have anchor worm. These will likely spread to other fish in the tank and cover other parts of the body if given enough time. You can treat anchor worm with aquarium salt and medication. I recommend Parasite Guard in this case. View more information here.
My water quality is fine. He doesn’t scratch up to anything, and I have no sanils either. The growth hanging from his nostril was a greenish black, but two days ago as I was cleaning the tank, his growth fell off. He still seems to have the black spot within his nostril though. Is it possible that maybe a pebble got in there and it’s caused him that problem?
Hi Miriam,
Sounds to me like a parasite. The black spot around the nostril (where the parasite attached) could be your goldfish’s attempt to heal from the attachment wound.
Did you recently purchase live plants or new fish? A parasite could have hopped a ride. If the growth was long and thin, your goldfish probably has anchor worm. If the growth was round (disk shaped), the parasite could have been fish lice.
The fish lice life cycle can take longer than other parasites, which could be why you may not notice other signs of fish lice yet. The life cycle also depends on how warm the water is. So the warmer the water, the faster the life cycle. Since you mentioned the growth fell off, I’m guessing the parasite has reached its reproduction stage where it will then multiply into several other parasites. You might start noticing an outbreak within the next few days (if the problem is parasites), depending on water temperature.
For now, I’d continue maintaining water conditions. It is possible that your goldfish could have had a grain of sand stuck on his nostril (and that might have caused the wound). That happened to one of my goldfish once (though substrate was stuck in his mouth instead). After a few hours, I had to physically remove the rock and he turned out just fine after a few days of healing. If this is the case, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about. Your goldfish will soon heal and the black spot should disappear within a week or two.
Keep an eye out for parasites though. If you do notice other similar black/greenish spots suddenly sprouting on the body or fins, you’ll want to treat the aquarium for parasites as soon as possible – before more can reproduce.
Hi could you please help, my bubble eye fish ( you know the ones with the bubbles under its eyes) has just got its second bubble ripped of by the filter and we had to cut it free again, the first time within 5 minutes he was fine but this time he won’t eat and just lies at the bottom of the tank please help as I don’t know what to do 🙁 thank you x
Hi Lauren – I’m so sorry to hear about your bubble eye goldfish! If you haven’t done so already, I’d change the filter as soon as possible (or reduce the currents if you can). Bubble eye goldfish like soft currents and can’t swim very well with powerful filters. You also don’t want the sensitive eye sacs to get stuck in the filter again.
Have you tested the water recently to make sure water parameters are safe? If water conditions are poor, this could be why your bubble eye won’t eat. Your bubble eye could still be hurting from the would to his eye sac. Eye sac rips can also attract secondary infections, like fungus or bacterial infections. Do you notice any discolored spots or fuzzy growths around the wounds?
It’s possible that your bubble eye may just need time to heal. Make sure there’s nothing sharp on the substrate that could possibly puncture healing eye sacs. Some goldfish enthusiasts like to use Melafix to help heal injuries, so you can try this. You should also keep a close eye on water conditions and stay on a lookout for secondary infections that might develop while your goldfish is under stress.
Hi,
I won three goldfish at the fair in early August. Our fish were put in a five gallon aquarium tank and they have been doing great up until about 3 or 4 days ago. When we got them, one fish was all orange and another was all orange with a black racing stripe that went all down him from the front to the back. Those two fish are now turning black all over. The one with the racing stripe became bloated yesterday really bad and he is turning black much more than the other. We figured it may be from over-feeding so we’ve cleaned the tank and have been fasting him. The bloating has decreased but is still visible. The black remains on those two fish and does not appear to be going away. The third fish doesn’t seem to be having either of these problems but he is a grayish color which is what he was when we got him. Oh and we also got aquarium salts to treat the sick fish and followed the directions. We also got drops for them to treat parasites, ick, etc. Any other suggestions for our fish? Thanks!
-Trisha G.
Hi Trisha,
It sounds to me like you might have an overcrowding problem. A five gallon aquarium is much too small for three goldfish. Goldfish excrete a lot of waste, more waste than most other species of fish. This waste can lead to ammonia poisoning if you aren’t too careful. It sounds to me like your goldfish are suffering from serious ammonia burns. Black patches may appear on goldfish when they’re trying to heal from ammonia burns or other injuries.
How often do you change the water? Have you tested the water recently? I’d recommend changing 25-35% of the aquarium water as soon as possible to remove some of that ammonia. You should also test the water with a freshwater test kit so that you can monitor ammonia levels. Depending on test results, you may have to change 25% of the water every other day until you can upgrade your aquarium.
Depending on the type of goldfish you have, the aquarium size you’ll need may vary. To keep one adult goldfish, you’ll need a minimum of 20 gallons (goldfish are VERY messy fish!). For three fancy goldfish, you’ll need at least a 30-40 gallon aquarium (add 10 gallons for each additional fish). For three comets, you’ll need an even larger aquarium – 60 gallons at the very minimum. The larger the aquarium, the better.
Another option is to upgrade a little bit at a time – so, for now, you can probably get away with buying a 10 or 20-gallon aquarium until you can afford a 30 or 40-gallon aquarium for fancy goldfish. If you do this, keep in mind that you’ll need to upgrade to a 30-gallon aquarium once your goldfish mature. You’ll also need to do more frequent water changes to maintain safe water parameters (keep that test kit nearby – you’ll want to test the water weekly if possible). Upgrading a little at a time will also be more pricier in the long run.
Since you most likely have an ammonia emergency, you can use Ammo Lock to detoxify harmful ammonia so that it’s safe for your goldfish until you can get ammonia levels back down to 0ppm. Ammo Lock will detoxify ammonia for about two days before you’ll need to give the tank another dosage, so keep changing 25% of the water every other day until you notice an improvement. Keep in mind that Ammo Lock won’t remove ammonia, but it will make your fish more comfortable until your filter can get levels back under control.
i recently bought goldfish,they have parasites they look like small round spots on skin, they also can float in water. i use tap water but source of water is underground source of water so no amonia,
how to treat them
Hi Arvind,
Are the small round spots green or white? How large are the spots?
If the parasites look like salty white grains on the body, you most likely have ich. You can read more about how to treat ich here.
If the round spots look green in appearance and are more disk-shaped, you probably have fish lice. Read the bottom of this article for more information on treating fish lice.
If the problem doesn’t match either of those descriptions, can you describe the parasite for me? There are other parasites that can infect freshwater aquariums, so it’s important that you treat for the right one!
I hope your goldfish starts feeling better! Let me know if the problem gets worse.
they are lice for sure. one of my fish is dead, i can not get parasite guard in my town and online order will at least take 10 days to arrive. i am feeling horrible please tell me what can i do for them??
I’m sorry to hear about that Arvind. Unfortunately, parasites are common on new goldfish so it’s nothing that you did! That’s why it’s always important to quarantine new fish for at least two weeks before introducing them to their new home.
If your local pet store doesn’t have Parasite Guard, you could try picking up a bottle of Mardel CopperSafe. It also treats external parasites, though I don’t know how effective it is against fish lice specifically. You should remove any snails or invertebrates before treating though, since copper-based medications can be harmful for them. If you can’t find CopperSafe either, you can try looking around for another anti-parasite medication.
If access to a medication won’t be possible for the next couple of days, I’d recommend gradually lowering the water temperature to about 60°F (15°C). This will slow down the lice life cycle and give you more time to find a treatment or wait for treatment to ship (before the fish lice multiply). According to this source, any eggs laid can take up to 60 days to hatch at this temperature. If temperatures fall below 50°F though, your goldfish may start hibernating. When goldfish are in hibernation, they’ll appear lethargic and won’t eat, so you may want to keep the temperature above this mark.
As soon as you receive medication, you can then gradually raise the water temperature back to normal or to 80 °F (26 °C) to speed up the life cycle so that you can treat the fish lice quickly. Only raise the temperature 2°F or 1°C every hour to prevent further stress (so your goldfish can adjust slowly to the temperature change).
You can also hold your fish gently with your hands, dab the visible fish lice with a medication (killing them), and then pull each parasite from your fish’s body with tweezers. Some sources recommend Potassium Permanganate for dabbing onto the fish lice before removing them with tweezers (if you don’t have access to another medication). Make sure you gently place your goldfish underwater every so often so they can breathe while you’re doing this. This method might be more stressful, and you may need to dab the wounds on your fish with an antiseptic after you’ve pulled the lice out (to help prevent infection). More lice may also pop up within the next few days as the other parasites that haven’t yet attached to your fish mature. When this happens, just follow the same process with tweezers.
Overall, I’d recommend treating the aquarium with medication if at all possible, since using tweezers will stress out your fish. Also, depending on how deep the parasites are attached, you may accidentally hurt your fish while you’re trying to pull the fish lice out with tweezers.
As another note – you can rinse out any aquarium decorations with hot water to get rid of some fish lice eggs. This might help prevent some re-attachments.
Thanx a lot this is a great help for me.
please tell me one more thing what good can salt treatment can do for me in this case?
Hi arvind – aquarium salt will help your goldfish rebuild their slime coats after the parasites have irritated the skin. Some sources also claim that aquarium salt helps ease stress, so I always try to use a touch of salt whenever my goldfish might be faced with a stressful situation (right after a purchase for example, when goldfish are placed in a quarantine tank). Some salt will also help kill certain parasites (like ich), though salt won’t affect fish lice. In this case, it’s just for the benefit of the goldfish. Whatever you decide to do, it’s completely optional to use salt. You don’t need it specifically for treatment, but it will help your goldfish replenish their slime coats.
i know u specialize in gold fish but i have i
1 giant sucker fish and the rest are gold fish. Two o
gold fish that i have had for more than 15 years have died and i think from ich but now my sucker fish has ich then his eyes bugged out so much I thought they were going to pop what would you recommend.
Hi Beverly,
How are water parameters? It sounds like your sucker fish might have some sort of bacterial infection. Are both eyes swollen or just one?
Your fish might have pop-eye disease, an infection that can be caused by injury to the fish or bacteria.
If both eyes are swollen, you’re probably dealing with a bacterial infection. If bacteria is the problem, you might have an issue with water quality. You should test the water with a freshwater test kit to find what could be making your fish sick. The faster you deal with the water quality issue, the faster your fish can heal. To treat the bacterial infection, you should move your fish to a hospital tank before medicating. I recommend Maracyn-Two. It works well for both internal and external bacteria.
If only one eye is swollen, your fish might have accidentally scraped his eye against something to cause injury. In this case, try to find what caused your fish the wound. Look for sharp objects in the tank. Some goldfish fascinated by your fish’s eye could have nipped on it and caused a problem. If you notice your goldfish constantly picking on your fish, you might want to separate the two to prevent further problems. If the swelling is caused by injury, the eye will likely heal on its own. A bit of aquarium salt will help your fish fight off infection.
I’m so sorry to hear about the fish you lost. It’s always painful to lose a pet, but I’m glad your goldfish were able to live long lives. I hope the rest of your fish pull though – good luck with treatment!
Hi, I have had my Black Moor for about a year and I’ve felt with other sick fish. I just noticed the other day that his one eye looked a bit larger than the other. Tonight though it looks like it may have popped and may have blood in it I am guessing as there is now red. I feel bad, I don’t know is there anything I can do or is he going to die? I have a 4year old and these are his fish (obviously I do the water changes and such). We just did as change tonight, maybe a rock hit it while they got stirred up a bit during pouring new water in the tank. I don’t have a great income at the moment but if I can do anything I will try. Thank you in advance for any help!
Hi Lisa,
Cloudy eyes don’t sound good. How are water conditions? Have you tested the water for ammonia, pH, or nitrite recently?
Your goldfish could have bashed his eye against an object. Since only one eye is affected, the eye could have just been injured. Are there sharp objects in the aquarium? Sometimes artificial plants will have sharp leaves or spikes that can scrape on the eye. I recommend removing any sharp objects that might have caused the problem.
Do you keep your moor with any other fish? Sometimes aggressive tank mates like to nip on the protruding eyes on black moors. If you notice other tank mates constantly picking on him, you might want to move him or the culprit(s) to a separate tank.
Once you’ve removed any culprits or sharp objects in the tank, I recommend sprinkling in some aquarium salt to help your goldfish fight off infection and rebuild his slime coat. Likely, the eye will heal on its own and you won’t need to use any medications. Sometimes secondary infections like fungus might develop when your goldfish is stressed from injury, so keep an eye out for other developing problems.
The swollen eye could also be caused by a bacterial infection, though a bacterial infection would probably infect both eyes. If the swelling gets worse or both eyes get infected, you may have to treat the aquarium with a medication like Maracyn-Two. I would wait before using a medication though since the problem might not be bacteria. If the swelling worsens, you might want to start medicating. Make sure you fix any water quality problems first or it will be harder for your goldfish to heal. You should also put your goldfish in a hospital tank before using any medications – you don’t want to treat your other fish unnecessarily.
I hope your moor starts feeling better!
Okay so the eye doesn’t look popped my bad. It just is very large, red inside and looks maybe foggy white on the outside. It’s late so it’s hard to get a good look. I am currently trying to get them a bigger tank again due to our Other large tank was too tall to reach for water changes. Could it be stress?
Hi! So I’ve had my goldfish for a few months now and they were both doing great until one got stuck to the filter. Once I noticed I took him off and put him in my makeshift hospital tank, a large bucket that I usually use for water changes, for him to rest for the day. He was swimming and eating the next day so I put him back in. After about a week he was still doing good and black had appeared on the side that was stuck to the filter and I read online that it was just him healing. A few days after that the same fish got stuck on the filter again but worse. It’s been a day and he’s still alive but just sits at the bottom of his bucket breathing slowly. He ate some pellets this morning but I later found them on the bottom of the bucket. I’m just wondering what could have caused him to get stuck to the filter the first time and if me putting him back in to quickly is what caused him to get stuck the second time. The two goldfish are in a 29 gallon tank and they’re still small. They get regular water changes and there are live plants in the tank. I tested the water and everything was normal except for a slightly high alkalinity and pH. The ammonia levels in the tank are good as well. The other goldfish is perfectly fine and swims around constantly and is eating normally. He swims past the filter and shows no signs of not being able to swim away. Although he does tend to swim against the glass so I’m leaning strongly to their being some sort of parasitic infection. Would a good idea be to treat for parasites, external and internal, and put a little salt in the tank since my ammonia is good?
Hi Gislaine,
You were correct to assume the black marks on your fish was him healing after the accident. Though, I definitely recommend changing filters or else moving your fish to a new tank with a different filter.
What kind of goldfish do you have? Since your goldfish are still young, it’s possible that the water flow might be too strong. You may need to use a temporary filter until your goldfish mature and grow larger. Stress or disease can also make goldfish weaker, so that might be why your goldfish sometimes gets stuck in the filter.
I definitely recommend aquarium salt for the little guy – this will help him rebuild his slime coat and ease a bit of his stress. You can also use Prazi Pro. It works great for both internal and external parasites. It won’t negatively impact biological filtration and it can be used safely on healthy fish. Many fish enthusiasts like to use it as a preventative once per year. You can use this in conjunction with aquarium salt and your other fish should be fine.
However, you may want to quarantine the injured goldfish if your other fish start picking on him or he can’t compete for food. Also make sure your aquarium is well oxygenated and there’s plenty of surface agitation. You may want to throw in an extra air stone or reduce the water line (to increase surface agitation) if your sick goldfish isn’t getting enough oxygen.
Good luck – I hope your goldfish starts feeling better soon! Keep an eye on him. He may start developing secondary infections since he’s under a lot of stress. You’ll want to treat these quickly.
hi i have two gold fish in a tank one is pure gold and the other silver with black and gold on i have notice then silver one is thinner then the gold one and also when ever i change the water the silver fish always swims/floats on its side and floats towards the top of the tank but it still swims i have also noticed its not eating as much as the gold one anyway. what is the cause of this and how can i treat it ?
Hi Jessica,
Have you tested the water with a freshwater test kit? What are water readings?
Poor water quality may be the culprit and usually happens when your fish are overfed, the aquarium is overcrowded, or you miss a water change.
If water parameters are fine, your goldfish might have an internal parasite infection. This could be the reason for his weight loss or loss of appetite. Do you notice any other signs of sickness?
The fact that you mention your goldfish often floats to the water surface hints that maybe there’s not enough oxygen in the water or something is impeding oxygen intake. You can try increasing surface agitation by lowering the water line. Poor water quality can also reduce oxygen levels. If there are parasites in the gills, your goldfish might have more trouble breathing. An air stone in the water might also help.
Definitely test the water if you haven’t done so already. You won’t know for sure if water quality is a problem until you test for ammonia, pH, nitrate, and nitrite. Water quality problems are also simple to fix and will be much better than adding medications to the tank. If water conditions or oxygen levels are fine and you notice no other signs of sickness, your goldfish could possibly be infected with internal parasites. In this case, I’d recommend Prazi Pro, since it won’t harm biological filtration. It’s also very useful as a parasite preventative and can be used once per year for this purpose.
If you keep fancy goldfish, you may just have a floating-sensitive fish. You can try feeding your fish peas or fasting your fish for a couple of days if your goldfish have constipation. It might also help to soak dry food for a few seconds in a cup full of water before feeding them to your fish (scoop the food out – don’t pour the water in the aquarium). This will help dry food expand before it enters your fish’s body (if dry food isn’t given time to expand beforehand, it might expand in your fish’s digestive tract and put pressure on the swim bladder, causing swimming problems).
I hope your fish start feeling better. Let me know if the problem gets worse!
Thank you for the advice. I usually put the aquarium salt in with fresh water during water changes. We had already removed everything but a always dinosaur skull. He is with with other fish. He is with 2 regular goldfish, a fancy goldfish, an angel fish (which we only have because my sister was going to get rid of her tank, it’s survived fine with the goldfish, we wouldn’t have taken it but didn’t want to see it flushed) and a pleco. Now I think the pleco may be picking on him while sick but usually there is no other problems. I haven’t been able to check water levels yet as I just gave 1000$+ away for moving but I think part of the problem is the tank size. They have a big tank but because we moved here and have to move on the 15th we had moved them into the old 20gallon we had and were hoping to hold off until the 15th so we didn’t have to replace them for another move. Our big tank will be here in a week so I think just putting them in it even to have to move on the 15th would just be better. I do put aquarium salt in every water change with the fresh water. I am doing a water change tomorrow and will add some, should I add it more frequently to try to help Mordecai (the Moor)? I admit I am one of those people who didn’t quite do all the research before I got fish but I did afterwards and try to learn everything I need to now. I hope moving them into their bigger tank (I believe it’s a 60gallon) will hopefully help some. If not as soon as I can get that medicine you said I will try that. I really hope he gets better. I think it was probably poor water quality mixed with stress, because after this short move I forgot a water change and it did get a little bad. Hasn’t since but still. Thank you again for all of your help. I am very glad I found this page and now have it bookmarked for the future.
I’m happy to help, Lisa!
Keep an eye on that angelfish though – they can get quite territorial. I’m happy to hear that your fish are getting along fine together though. 🙂
Have you filled the 20-gallon aquarium with part of the old tank water? If not, the problem might be the new tank water. Water that hasn’t gone through the nitrogen cycle can easily run into ammonia or nitrite spikes, since the water hasn’t had time to produce beneficial bacteria to convert these harmful toxins. Daily water changes, at least until the aquarium is cycled, can help reduce ammonia or nitrite if these are a problem.
When your larger aquarium does come in, I’d recommend cycling it first before re-adding your fish.
As far as aquarium salt goes, it sounds like you’re adding the right amount. You should only add more aquarium salt if you do a water change. It seems to me that your fish are just under a lot of stress from the move and new tank environment. If you didn’t cycle the tank beforehand, the problem probably is ammonia or nitrite. Overcrowding might also be boosting those ammonia levels, but you won’t know for sure unless you run a water test. For now, I definitely recommend changing 25% of the water every other day (or daily if the problem is really bad) until you can get the new tank set up and cycled. Make sure any new water you add is at the same temperature as your tank water though.