Goldfish each getting sick slowly one after another

I have 180 gallon cycled tank. 7 goldfish and one died a week ago. It had pine coned then lethargic then died. Now a second fish is lethargic and starting to pine cone. Water is ph 7.8, temp 78, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 10 ppm. I do weekly water changes of 20%. I use prime. I feed soilent green gel food only. Unless they seem sick then I feed peas. I am not sure what to do or why they are all getting sick it seems slowly. I understand dropsy is internal condition. Are they spreading to each other? How can I cute it before they all die?

 

It's probably because of the ph. Try taking your goldfish out and balancing your ph to 7 with whatever you have.

Also, goldfish are coldwater fish and need 60-72F. That's also probably your problem.

 

I disagree. The pH is fine unless it's fluctuating, which could be a result of a low KH. Have you tried testing the pH at different times of the day? What kind of substrate do you have? What kind of filter and have you performed maintenance on it recently? How long have you had the goldfish and are any of them new? Are there any other tank mates?

 

I don't have anyway to reduce tank temperature on a long term scale, my house is 76F and I assume the equipment adds the other few degrees. But I have never in 3 years been able to get tank lower fans only help a little, and can't justify a chiller. The ph is what comes out of my tap. and I have tried lowering it in the past just to get to a lower range(heard better for fish slightly), but was difficult to maintain. So have been at 7.8 for 2 years and problems only recently started. Will medicsated food help? I would have to find some but I would like to give that a shot. In other tanks I have never had success with treating the whole tank with a pour in medication. Thanks for help

 

Have you changed anything in the tank lately?

 

Unless you know what is causing the dropsy it's best not to medicate since not all medicines treat all diseases and adding the wrong one may only stress your fish making them even more susceptible to disease.

 

@aquaphobia

I disagree. The pH is fine unless it's fluctuating, which could be a result of a low . Have you tried testing the pH at different times of the day? What kind of substrate do you have? What kind of filter and have you performed maintenance on it recently? How long have you had the Goldfish and are any of them new? Are there any other tank mates?

PH is stable throughout the day, tested 3 times daily. I use caribsea cichlid sand.
I have a penguin 250 HOb running carbon and floss. I have a Aqueon Proflex 4 sump 33 gal wet dry, I run filter socks. It also has marine pure block under bio balls. sicce return pump 1400 gph no head no prob 1000 gph to tank. I replace carbon every 3 weeks. I have purigen 200 ml. Change socks and mechanical 1 per week. I also have an albino pleco, all fish have been together for 3-4 months. transferred them from my 90 and sold the 90.

Water changes, clean sand, and filter maintenance, but no new additions for 2-3 months, no filter overhauls. Just basic maintenance and feeding. No live plants. No driftwood. Rocks and silk plants.

the fish that is sick was fine 3 days ago, now it is red streak fins, they are tattered, and very pine coney and lays on bottom of tank.

 

By the description you gave, it sounds like dropsy. If that is the case, that is only a symptom to another problem. You don't just want to toss in medication or medicated food with out knowing what your battling. Is the fish showing any other symptoms before it pine cones? Hangs out in the back corner at the top or bottom? Rapid breathing? Stringy poop? Eats less or more then the others? Fins shredding? Any symptoms?

 

Can see other fish fine. The calico red fins and pine cone. He still eats peas, all I know to do now.

@

By the description you gave, it sounds like dropsy. If that is the case, that is only a symptom to another problem. You don't just want to toss in medication or medicated food with out knowing what your battling. Is the fish showing any other symptoms before it pine cones? Hangs out in the back corner at the top or bottom? Rapid breathing? Stringy poop? Eats less or more then the others? Fins shredding? Any symptoms?

3 days ago started hanging in back corner behind plants, but then would come out when time to eat, I assumed was sleeping or resting. Then last night didn't come out to eat but slowly swam around, had red streaks on fins, tattered fins, pine cone scales. poop seems normal on all fish I occasionally notice one or two of them long stringy or crinkly from fish. But most produce short thick green waste.






This is the waste in the bottom of the tank now, to give an idea of the poop consistency.

 

Red streaks in the fins suggests the problem is bacterial, I'm having trouble thinking of what it's called... septicemia maybe? With a symptom to diagnose with I think you can have a reasonable idea of what medication to use. It's 5am here and I'm not quite awake, but you've got a fantastic setup, I hope that means you have a great LFS with a wide selection of medications. Are you willing to make your own medicated food or would you prefer to have ready-made product? Will your fish accept other foods?

 

They will eat anything put in tank. I prefer premade food, but if I can put the liquid medicine in the soilent green gel pre mix that's easy too. or soak pellet food. I have a good LFS but they are 45 min away all others around me are petlands, pet super markets, and petcos. So I can buy supplies from them but not much for advice.

Should I try this: Maracyn Two. My concern is to treat the whole tank seems like dropping a bomb on the tank for hopes of getting rid of it. I rather try something they can eat since it is internal.

Also using a tablet or pour in treatment for 180 gallon tank can be super expensive. Marcyn 2 says would need 36 packets the first day, that's $30. So when a bag of medicated food is $15 I can't treat 180 gallon tank for 3 weeks with something like marycyn 2.

 

Maracyn 2 is the only named medication I was able to come up with in my search, otherwise the sites only called for a broad-spectrum antibiotic. Can you quarantine the affected fish and treat them individually, away from the biofilter? I agree that feeding is the best way to deliver the meds but they'll poop it out eventually so the whole tank is going to be treated regardless.

 

Yeah I don't have a quarantine tank unfortunately. So I will have to try some sort of food and hope then. I can't afford to treat my tank with marycyn 2. Even on Amazon a treatment for 3 weeks for my tank would be $100 or more. When the treatment costs more than most of the fish together is too much is all. I'll try nls Thera a+ and maybe a black water creek koi medicated food. Or medkintm

 

Also I have another question I only started using prime recently because I was using stress coat. And I don't know if the above pictures are from the stres coat or not. But there is what looks like fish slime and a film in my sump and floating in the tank. Is it from the stress coat? Or is it a side affect of the sick fish? Making more slime or sick film from fish?

 

Sick fish do usually produce a heavier slime coat so that is a possibility. The stress coat could be at fault, too. Especially as it contains Aloe Vera. I would stop using that and stick to Prime. Maybe try double dosing the tank and see if that helps?

 

Aquaphobia Double dose it with Prime? I also found peabody's medicated flakes thinking about trying them. Any ideas or experieence with it?



(This is a 10 gram pack of flakes. Used for systemic infections (septicemia), dropsy, whirling disease, kidney disease. It's an aminoglycoside that works on many gram negative and some gram positive bacteria. Especially good for aerobic gram negative bacteria like columnaris. It works well in saltwater and higher pH.)

 

Peabody's is good. The owner is actually a member here and I've heard nothing but good things about the quality of his products and service!

And yes, you can dose the tank with Prime to see if that helps at all. It encourages extra slime coat production without adding Aloe Vera. Worth a shot until you get the meds.

 

Ok cool thanks. I'll try that and the food. Just did a water change and double dose of prime

 

I'm gonna try nls Thera a too

 

So 4 of this fish swim normal and 2 are hiding and laying down. One this morning poop looks like above picture long white and stringy.

 

White stringy poop usually indicates internal parasites but I've never had to deal with those before.

 

Yeah I'm hoping 1 of the 5 kinds of peabodys flake food will work. I will read package one of them feed for 2 weeks should be right medication to kill internal issues.