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
Nemo cant swim down to the bottom of the tank,when he tries he just keeps floating to the top. can you help me with this please? 🙁
Go to the pet shop or local aquatics centre and buy “blood worms”- these help with them floating. I give them to my fish all the time and they love them. They are great for floating fish.
really informative thanks.
Glad to hear you enjoyed the article, Anurag!
my goldfish is upside down, treated him with antibiotic, for over ten days, he keeps close to the water filter , like that is is protected area, i feed him out of my hands, he cannot go down anymore, alone , he has a bump for a long time , he has red tummy , his poohp is going through the skin and so on , he does not want to die and i dont know how to help him
Hi, I don’t know if you can help me at this point. I have a 40 gallon coffee table fresh water aquarium I have 4 goldfish in it. I have had nothing but trouble trying to keep the water clear. It started with overfeeding, I have stopped. The water is still cloudy. I have my tank set up for about 8 months now, I have one fish (which I LOVE dearly), who has a buoyancy problem. I was told to put aquarium salt in the tank and feed him peas. I did it and occasionally he goes back to swimming upside down, gasping at the surface, etc. My problem now is I did a water change yesterday because I had a fish guy come in who was highly recommended to get rid of the cloudiness and he put in Indonesian Reef Rock, charged me 200.00 and never even rinsed the rocks well. I was told that real rocks can kill my beautiful fish. So I took out the reef rocks, cleaned the gravel and did a 40% water change. The tank is so cloudy I can hardly see the fish. There has not been one person who gave me the right advice. I was told to put Stability by Seachem in the water to prevent new tank syndrome. I was also told to put Prime in by Seachem to take out the chlorine etc. I am at my wits end , the tank looks horrible. Do you have any suggestions, I am not ready to give up just yet. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank You, Debi Reines
Try buying a bigger filter. Add water clarifying conditioner add ammonia remover and wen doing water changes u should use refergerated water then the solutions wait a couple min to put the fish back then if u still have cloudy water u need to dump out all the water scrub the entire tank do the process all over again and it should work and if its. Boy fish maybe its squirting its Milt hope this helps!!!
One of my fish has a red color on the one side of his body, what has caused it?
Hi Lee,
Red spots or patches might be the result of several different causes, including parasites and bacteria infections. It’s hard to know the exact cause without more information. Have you done any water tests recently? If so, how are pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels?
Poor water quality is the cause of many goldfish diseases, so fixing this problem first will help speed up recovery for your little one.
Hello there, all the info you posted was very helpful. so, thanx in advance 😉
I have 5 common goldfish in a 50 gal. tank and one of them has raised scales on one side. I noticed it two days ago. Now he is showing slight signs of buoyancy problems every once in a while. Then swims around fine. One of the larger goldfish has been picking at his raised gills sometimes as well.
what is the best way to do water changes? Because I’ve been using tap water, then using Tetra Aqua Safe Plus. and I know tap water is not ideal. Any info will be greatly appreciated. Thanks alot.
Hi Joe,
It sounds like your goldfish might be suffering from something in the water. How young are they? Common goldfish should really be kept in a larger tank once they get older. I would recommend a minimum of 20 gallons per common, since these guys can get very large as they grow (and require more space for waste). So overcrowding might be the main issue here. 5 commons would feel more comfortable in a 100-gallon aquarium or pond if you can set one up. If 100 gallons isn’t an option (I know how expensive tanks can be!), they might fair well separated into two 50-gallon aquariums.
How are water readings? Have you tested the water recently? Keeping pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels in the “safe zone” can help prevent any future problems. Ammonia spikes are one of the common causes of goldfish diseases in an overcrowded tank, so pay particular attention to those ammonia levels. Ammonia should always stay at 0ppm, or less than 0.50ppm if the tank isn’t cycled yet.
To help with buoyancy, try feeding your goldfish frozen peas de-skinned and sliced. This should help right them right back up. Raised scales (resembling how a pine cone would look) could be an indication of dropsy – which can be caused by internal parasites, poor water quality, or kidney failure if dropsy is allowed to worsen). Catching dropsy early is key, and many hobbyists recommend performing a salt treatment (1tsp of aquarium salt for every gallon – DON’T use table salt – for treatment).
Tap water shouldn’t be a problem as long as you use Aqua Safe (I use the same water conditioner myself). When I change the water, I simply position a bucket beneath the aquarium (holds about 3 gallons) and use a water siphon to sift through substrate as the dirty water pours through the tube and into the bucket. When the bucket fills, I take it to the sink, rinse it out, and repeat until 25% of the water has been removed (for larger tanks, 10 or 15% might be efficient). When I’m ready to refill the aquarium, I fill the bucket, pour in the appropriate amount of water conditioner, stir it around for a few minutes to make sure all of the tap water has been conditioned, and slowly pour the water into the aquarium. You can also use a water siphon for this if you have a big enough bucket and level surface to do so.
Now, this might not be the absolute best way to change water, but it has worked out well for me for over 10 years and my fish haven’t become stressed yet. I’ve gotten quite good at this to prevent spills, and as long as you don’t pour the water too quickly into the aquarium and make sure the bucket water is at the same temperature as the water in the aquarium, your goldfish should be fine.
I complete all water changes weekly, only because this seems to be appropriate as determined by my water tests. Depending on how many goldfish you have and what size aquarium you keep them in, you might need to do these water changes more or less frequently. Monitoring your water with testing kits should help in determining how frequently to change the water.
Also, I dont have a sub tank so what can I do to hospitalize the fish. And is this raised scale disease contagiouse to the other fish?
If you have a clean bucket lying around, this might prove to be a good hospital tank. I once used a bucket years ago for this purpose. You just have to know how much water your bucket holds.
Dropsy is not contagious but whatever could be causing the dropsy might be. It’s important to first figure out what might be causing the raised scales (water tests help with this) and then take appropriate action to remove the cause.
I’ve had my goldfish for three years (passed away yesterday ;-( ) I noticed there was blood coming out of his gills. Before that he had a bump on his mouth and he had some sort of fungal or bacterial infection. I had given him medicine for it and cleaned his bowl right away. What might have made my fish die & bleed after death?
I’m so sorry to hear that Sofia! It’s always difficult to cope with a lost pet.
The bleeding from the gills could have been ammonia burn. Ammonia burn affects the fish’s eyes, fins, and gills, causing red streaks as it deteriorates the protective mucus and exposed areas there. It’s caused by high ammonia levels in an aquarium (which is why it’s always good to test the water weekly with a freshwater aquarium testing kit so you can lower ammonia before it gets out of hand). Often, secondary infections will result after the toxic ammonia takes its toll on your fish.
The ammonia could have stressed out your goldfish to the point where he developed fungal or bacterial infections before the ammonia burns were even visible (sometimes it takes a few days to show). Then both the infection and high ammonia worked together to kill off your goldfish.
It’s sad to watch a fish go, but as long as you regularly monitor the aquarium water and actively work to make the tank safe for your fish, hopefully you can prevent the same infliction from attacking any more fish under your care.
HELP! I got my daughters some fish a while back mostly goldfish! Anyway all was well for about a month now all of the sudden the water went cloudy….i use distilled water to fill the tank and when i test it with the strips i notice nothing to be concetned with however now the water is still cloudy and all of the fish appear to have ich also one of the goldfish…hes a different kind then the others….has red spots showing through his body….any ideas? Suggestions? Anything??? My kids r so uoset and i have no clue what to do! I got some ich tablets and they dont seem to be working its only day 2 with them but the fish still look very sick! Please help!!!
Hi Renee,
I’m sorry to hear about your sick goldfish! For curing ich, I’d recommend the salt and heath treatment in my ich treatment guide (Treatment #1). If ich is still a problem after a few weeks, you can go ahead with medication. Mardel’s CopperSafe works great in these types of situations.
The red spots on your goldfish sound like it could either be a parasite or bacteria infection. Although it’s hard to know for sure without more information. I would continue with the heat and salt treatment as mentioned before to cure ich on the other fish and then see if the treatment solves the goldfish disease on this little guy.
Ich is very common in tanks where you’ve just placed newly purchased fish. If you just bought a goldfish a few weeks ago and placed him in the main aquarium without quarantining him first, that new goldfish could have been the culprit. It’s always important to quarantine new fish before you introduce them to your main aquarium. That way, if they have an infection that you cannot see, all of your other fish won’t get infected once the disease becomes visible.
Help! My family pet goldfish has a tiny bit of ? Plant Stuck under its chin?.. Got tank fresh plants today must be from that?..it’s on the surface of the skin not inside its mouth…what to do experts? I cannot pick up a fish though I will try !
Hi Louise – goldfish like to munch on live plants in the aquarium, so it might not be anything to worry about. 🙂 As long as you’re keeping up with water changes, testing the aquarium water every week, and maintaining good water quality, your goldfish shouldn’t run into any problems. You should also make sure that your filtration system is in good working order.
My Black Moor Bubble Eye has clear bubblelike growths. They are getting bigger.
Also seems to be bloated and swims upsidedown sometimes.
Hi GB – bubble-like growths are normal for a Bubble Eye goldfish. After all, that’s why they’re called Bubble Eyes! But because of their bubble-like growths, they need a lot more care and attention than other goldfish varieties. Bubble Eye goldfish are also poor swimmers and tend to spend most of their time sitting on the bottom of the tank, so make sure the gravel isn’t sharp or you risk puncturing his bubble growths.
However, the fact that you mentioned your goldfish is bloated could hint that your goldfish has Dropsy, which would be why you’ve noticed him swimming upside down. How many gallons is your aquarium? Have you tested the aquarium water recently? How is the ammonia, pH, nitrate, and nitrite levels? It’s always good to do weekly water tests so that you can avoid problems down the road.
Hi I have your standard goldfish which currently has some issues. He survived ick, and now has dropsy or the bloated issue. so He floats everywhere and now he’s got a large red puffy bump on his belly, which I just noticed today is spreading to his lower part of his fins. What the heck is going on? I just gave him his first blood worms, not sure if he’s ate them yet then completely sank and he has trouble getting to the bottom. My poor fishy.. help
Hi Jennifer,
I’m so sorry to hear about your goldfish! It sounds like there might be a problem with water quality. Often the stress caused by ich alone (along with poor water quality) can cause secondary infections. The fluffy bump, especially after how you described how it was spreading, sounds like a fungus infection.
Is your goldfish new? Your tank might not have been through the nitrogen cycle yet and that could be causing the problem.
I suggest testing the water (if you haven’t already) for pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. If you can’t test for the latter two, definitely test for pH and ammonia at least. The recommended pH for goldfish is 7.5, while the recommended ammonia ppm is 0. If ammonia is high, do a partial water change (25-30%) every other day (or daily) until the ammonia ppm lowers back down to 0. You can also lessen feeding a bit until ammonia levels go into the safe range – make sure your filter is working properly (and clean)! You can use Ammo Lock to detoxify ammonia so that it’s not as stressful for your fish. It won’t remove the ammonia, but it will make the aquarium safer until you can get those ammonia levels down. For raising or lowering the pH, there are conditioners you can use.
To help with your goldfish’s buoyancy problems, you can try feeding him green peas (they can be frozen or soaked in hot water for a minute or two). Just peel off the skin and slice them up before dropping them into the tank. There’s really not much else you can do other than monitor the water quality and try to keep the tank clean.
The fungal infection can be healed with medication. A lot of hobbyists recommend Methylene Blue – I looked it up and it seems to be very good for sensitive fish. Make sure you read the directions on the back of any medication bottles you buy, so that you don’t overdose.
I hope your goldfish gets better! Let me know if you need any more help.
I’ve had my tank since February, and he’s the only fish. The ick happened quite some time ago so I know that is not the problem. This morning I noticed that the dark red spot has subsided, and is now still puffy but the color has reduced. It is more light brown now. I did feed him peas and about 3 days after that is when I noticed the puffy red spot that looked like the blood blister. So I stopped feeding him those. I think I might wait a few days to see if the now light red spot goes away before giving him meds.
My water is right on the money. I’ve had it tested twice. I also give him stress coats as well that way when I do water changes and clean the rocks he will be ok. I’ve heard the floating problems can last a long time up to a year on some occasions. I’m trying to do very little to the tank since my water levels are perfect. I think he might of been overfed which may of caused the bloat. I’m feeding him blood worms now, which the petvet said might help. So we will see.
That’s good, Jennifer. Sounds like you’re taking good care of him. His intestines might have been clogged from the food you were giving him and maybe that caused the floating problem. I’d recommend just going easy on the food for a few weeks and the problem will probably straighten itself out.
Yesterday I bought a pearlscale goldfish and moved it into my tank, I did all the right procedures of leaving it for the temperature to adjust etc… But my bigger fancy goldfish started going up to it and nipping it, my pearlscale did nothing but just started floating and getting caught in plants, I moved it into a smaller fish bowl just for over night and he was just floating at the top occasionally flipping over. I then switched them both so the fancy is in the smaller bowl and now have my pearlscale in my larger tank so it has more oxygen, but I have also noticed that every fin is fraying/shredded. Please help!
Hi Sophie,
Buoyancy problems can be caused by a number of different things. Often times, it’s just a matter of what’s being fed to the goldfish. Some fancy varieties, especially the bulky ones, are more susceptible to buoyancy issues than others (because of how their internal organs are positioned in the body). The frayed fins could just be a sign of stress (how is the water quality?) and isn’t necessarily resulted from fin nipping, though you shouldn’t rule that out either.
My guess is your new fish is confused and doesn’t know what to do with the new water he was introduced to.
Every aquarium has bacteria and pathogens healthy goldfish (who have already acclimated to the water for at least a few weeks) have built resistance to (and therefore don’t get sick). You just bought your pearlscale, so he’s probably very stressed out from the move. This stress can lower his immune system and, because he wasn’t first quarantined before being introduced to the main aquarium (and so he wasn’t allowed to to adjust to the various bacteria and pathogens in your water), he’s probably now in shock which could explain the frayed fins. He’s also not used to the diet you already feed your other goldfish and, combined with the move, new tank, new pathogens, and fin nipping, he doesn’t know what to do with all this stress that keeps getting piled on.
How big is the smaller tank you originally put him in after the fin nipping? If he’s still young, you can probably get away with a 5-gallon quarantine tank, as long as you change the water daily. If he’s full adult sized though, I would keep him in a 10-gallon quarantine tank at the very minimum. You’ll want to fill the quarantine tank with 50% fresh water (treated with a conditioner) and another 50% water from your main tank to give your little guy time to adjust. Keep the quarantine tank bare with a hang-on filter, maybe a few plastic plants to make him comfortable, and small heater. Keep the temperature at about 75 degrees Fahrenheit. If your goldfish has ich, which is common for new fish, the warmer temperature will help speed up the life cycle so that you can treat him in time before you move him back to the main aquarium.
Acclimate your goldfish to the water before moving him into the quarantine tank – put him in a bag (keeping it shut with an elastic band) and float it in the quarantine tank for an initial 15 minutes. Then, every 5 minutes, trickle a little bit of water from the quarantine tank into the bag. After it’s been 45 minutes or so, open the bag and let him swim into the quarantine tank.
Since he’s having floating problems, you can try fasting him for a few days. His intestines might be clogged from the new food he’s getting and that could be causing him to float. Another alternative would be to feed him green peas (de-skinning them first and then slicing them up before feeding). In the very beginning, only feed him a small amount of food to let him get used to the new diet. If you only feed your goldfish canned food, I really recommend feeding a varied diet – you can view my goldfish food guide here if you’re not sure what else to feed. Goldfish are omnivores so they enjoy both meaty foods (like bloodworms) and veggies. I also recommend only feeding sinking pellets instead of the floating variety, since floating pellets can cause goldfish to suck in air while they feed and this can also cause a floating problem. Commons, comets, and shubunkins shouldn’t have a problem with floating foods. It’s usually only fancy varieties that need to be watched.
Keep your little one in the quarantine tank for a few weeks (2 at the very minimum, though preferably 3 or 4 weeks) to give your goldfish enough time to adjust and watch for sickness. It’s not uncommon for new, stressed out fish to get sick and you don’t want to pass anything on to your other fish. After about three weeks, you can turn down the heat and acclimate your new fish to the other tank. He should have grown a bit in the time during quarantine, so he might not get picked on as much. The quarantine will also give his fins time to heal. If your fish has advanced forms of fin rot, you might want to look into commercial medicines. But if the fins are just a little frayed, they’ll probably heal on their own once your fish isn’t as stressed out.
I hope your new goldfish gets better! Let me know if you start noticing other problems.
Hi my Goldfish has got a red bump on its side near its eye. Does any one know what that might be?
Hi Liam,
What kind of goldfish is it? If it’s an oranda or lionhead for example, it could be just developing a wen. If this is the case, it’s nothing to worry about – your goldfish is just maturing.
The red bump could also be a sore, ulcer, tumor, or the beginnings of a fungal infection (if the bump is fuzzy). How is your goldfish behaving? Is it listless and resting at the bottom of the tank? Or is it actively moving with a nice appetite? How about the water? Have you tested it? It’s hard to be sure exactly what the problem is without more information.
Hi Christina,
No I do not no what kind of Goldfish he is he is orange. He is behaving normally. He rests at the bottom of the tank sometimes but most of the time he is swimming about with the other fish. No I have not tested the water the other fish seem fine in the water.
Thank you for your help Christina
Hi Liam,
You should definitely give your water a test, especially when keeping goldfish because these can be very messy fish. Even if your other fish don’t show signs of sickness, their immune system could weaken and they might get sick in the future if you don’t monitor your water. A simple water test will indicate when things go downhill before diseases occur, so I really recommend it.
I’m glad your goldfish is feeling better though. Since he still rests on the bottom occasionally, you know something has to be making him uncomfortable. If he’s stressed, his fins will often give it away (look closely to see if you notice tearing or redness).
Best of luck!
Hi Christina,
how do I test the water ?
Hi Liam – Testing the water is very easy. Many testing kits come with detailed guides to simplify the process for you (with instructions on what to do if water readings are poor). I personally use the API Freshwater Testing Kit for all of my tanks (the liquid version, as these are usually more accurate than strips). The kit should last for months as well – a good $20 spent in my opinion.
Hello,
Please help my goldfish. It began to stay at the bottom of its bowl 2 days ago. Today he began to swim upside down and its gills are swallow and red. I put it to another bowl and gave it some salt and antibiotics. I don’t know how should I do now? Please save my goldfish!
Thanks a lot!!!
Hi Qian,
What are water readings? The first step is to figure out what caused your goldfish to float or sit at the bottom, and then you should start treatment. If the water quality is poor, your goldfish could be under a lot of stress. Floating is also often caused by foods being fed. I recommend sinking pellets for fancy goldfish, instead of the floating variety. You can also try feeding your goldfish green peas, de-skinned and sliced, to help keep your goldfish upright. But limit feeding for a while until your goldfish can swim without flipping over. You may also want to fast your goldfish for a few days.
On a side note, goldfish bowls are terrible for your fish! They’re much too small and often a power filter is much too powerful to use in a goldfish bowl (if you can even attach one to the bowl). I’d recommend using a quarantine tank (not a bowl) or even a food-safe bucket if you have to. Test the water with an aquarium testing kit and work on getting those ammonia, pH, nitrite, nitrate levels safe. Change 25% of the water daily until you know what is causing your goldfish to behave strangely. Once you get water conditions under control, your goldfish will be less stressed and can begin the healing process. Make sure you have a filter set up in your quarantine tank and feed your goldfish a small amount of green peas to help the floating problem.