Healing A Tank Jumper

Two nights ago, my son found his comet goldfish laying on the carpet next to his tank. Best guess, he was out of the water for 10 minutes or less. We immediately got him back in the tank, turned off the circulation pump, and got the air stone next to him. He perked up over a few hours. Other than clamping his top fin, he looked visibly ok yesterday (no scale or fin injuries). His mouth opens fully, and his gills move normally and are pink. He was maintaining depth so we turned the pump back on, and he's swimming well, albeit a bit sluggish. His appetite seems off, but he will eat smaller amounts. I made sure his tank chemistry was ok, and yesterday afternoon bought Stressguard and added it as I read his slime coat might suffer.

This morning he's still swimming well, and his top fin is much less clamped. But on one side it looks like his scales may be damaged? Or fuzzy somehow? Is this something the stressguard is likely to heal, or the early stages of a scale condition I should be treating in some other way? I've attached the best picture I could get of it.


Thanks for any thoughts. He's been with us for four years, and is my 4th grade son's only pet. He's very attached.

 

Two nights ago, my son found his comet goldfish laying on the carpet next to his tank. Best guess, he was out of the water for 10 minutes or less. We immediately got him back in the tank, turned off the circulation pump, and got the air stone next to him. He perked up over a few hours. Other than clamping his top fin, he looked visibly ok yesterday (no scale or fin injuries). His mouth opens fully, and his gills move normally and are pink. He was maintaining depth so we turned the pump back on, and he's swimming well, albeit a bit sluggish. His appetite seems off, but he will eat smaller amounts. I made sure his tank chemistry was ok, and yesterday afternoon bought Stressguard and added it as I read his slime coat might suffer.

This morning he's still swimming well, and his top fin is much less clamped. But on one side it looks like his scales may be damaged? Or fuzzy somehow? Is this something the stressguard is likely to heal, or the early stages of a scale condition I should be treating in some other way? I've attached the best picture I could get of it.View attachment 483709

Thanks for any thoughts. He's been with us for four years, and is my 4th grade son's only pet. He's very attached.

If he's swimming and eating normal then it should heal up and be perfectly fine, the side injury to the scales will heal fairly quickly considering the tissue wasn't damaged with red blood spots. Goldfish are very Hardy fish with quite the lifespan with some living nearly a century in home aquariums/ponds but that's under the right conditions and care.
And if you want to keep that little fella healthy and perhaps even speed up his healing process I'd suggest using freshwater aquarium salt.. just a thought, Good luck.

 

I agree. I bought 2 Albino Cichlids from my lfs and one of them jumped out the holding container, bounced off 3 steel steps from the step ladder and hit the floor knocking himself out. I brought them home and noticed it had a lump above his left eye and bruised up pretty bad. He was swimming all lop sided and I thought he was a goner. Some Aquarium salt and I just kept an eye on him.

Next day he was swimming normally, but still had that "black eye", lol! The Aquarium salt helped a lot and several days later was back to normal. The Sales girl and the lfs gave me another Cichlid for free incase he didn't make it.

 

He looks fine to me! Carpet can be scratchy so he may have scratched himself flopping around. But the good news is carpet is great padding so there's no way he suffered non-visible injuries. I've had a couple fish that jumped when I put my fish in bowls (without lids) while moving their tank. No one got hurt.

But if he's eating, swimming, and breathing, I wouldn't worry at all. He's probably a bit sluggish and not eating a ton because he's nervous! He went through something traumatic and it's going to take a while to get his personality back.

Good job resuscitating him! I hope you have a lid now!!!

 

UPDATE: and it isn't great. The injury to his side above hasn't spread, but its definitively got thin bits of skin? scales? starting to hang off it. His tail and one or two of his other fins have started visibly fraying at the ends. And of greatest concern, he is swimming weaker this morning and not eating. He's always been a surface feeder, and he is still gulping at the surface when I put food in, but it doesn't seem to be directed at food particularly. Worse the couple larger bits he does get he spits out.

I put in a shelled pea (a treat he loves) and while he seemed to sniff it as it fell through the water, he didn't go for it.

My fear is that he may have ingested carpet fibers as he was covered in them and some got back into his tank when we first rescued him. What are the signs of that, and what should I do?

 

UPDATE: and it isn't great. The injury to his side above hasn't spread, but its definitively got thin bits of skin? scales? starting to hang off it. His tail and one or two of his other fins have started visibly fraying at the ends. And of greatest concern, he is swimming weaker this morning and not eating. He's always been a surface feeder, and he is still gulping at the surface when I put food in, but it doesn't seem to be directed at food particularly. Worse the couple larger bits he does get he spits out.

I put in a shelled pea (a treat he loves) and while he seemed to sniff it as it fell through the water, he didn't go for it.

My fear is that he may have ingested carpet fibers as he was covered in them and some got back into his tank when we first rescued him. What are the signs of that, and what should I do?

Have you tried using aquarium salt?
It helps with Gill function and speeds up the healing process.

 

Haven't tried the aquarium salt, but I guess that's next.

I should add, the tank has a large number of healthy live plants, and I don't have a quarantine tank. Won't the salt kill my plants? Is any amount of salt safe?

 

I should add, the tank has a large number of healthy live plants, and I don't have a quarantine tank. Won't the salt kill my plants? Is any amount of salt safe?

It depends on what plants you have, and you just add a tablespoon of salt to each 5 gallons of water.

 

Aquarium salts not a magic cure, make sure you don’t put too much in or it’ll be counter effective, Ive found its only good purpose as a temporary antI bacterial/fungal.

 

Aquarium salts not a magic cure, make sure you don’t put too much in or it’ll be counter effective, Ive found its only good purpose as a temporary antI bacterial/fungal.

The way I use it I just need to put the right amount in per gallon and I don't need to keep adding anymore after that because the salt stays in the water until you do a water change.
I have a few different types of fish that are all living in tanks with aquarium salt, rainbow fish-african cichlids-river chub-banjo catfish.. and they're all in great health and spirits lol so I think it is a great product to use I'd put it up there with prime/safe imo

 

The way I use it I just need to put the right amount in per gallon and I don't need to keep adding anymore after that because the salt stays in the water until you do a water change.
I have a few different types of fish that are all living in tanks with aquarium salt, rainbow fish-african cichlids-river chub-banjo catfish.. and they're all in great health and spirits lol so I think it is a great product to use I'd put it up there with prime/safe imo

Yeah but these fish would be in “great health and spirits” in water without salt too, I’m not saying it’s bad, I just think it’s overhyped.

I’ve had plenty of experience with it also, at such a low dose like 1 tablespoon to 5gals. Surely there’s no visible difference? Placebo maybe?

Only time you can really see a difference is when you’re using it temporarily in high doses to treat something

 

Yeah but these fish would be in “great health and spirits” in water without salt too, I’m not saying it’s bad, I just think it’s overhyped.

I’ve had plenty of experience with it also, at such a low dose like 1 tablespoon to 5gals. Surely there’s no visible difference? Placebo maybe?

Only time you can really see a difference is when you’re using it temporarily in high doses to treat something

Understandable lol
Idk I've been using it and replacing lost salts in my biggest set up the 55 and adding 3 extra tablespoons of salt, it seems at least to me that it helps condition the water and helps to keep it clean amongst it promoting coloration and activity in those fish.
Just from what I've seen while using salts

 

I guess I should have been clearer: is any amount more than zero safe for the plants? I understand the recommended quantity for the fish. But at that level, do I risk killing my plants?

Put differently, have any of you successfully used salt in a planted tank? I have primarily anubias (which are thriving), with a few java ferns. I'd chuck the ferns to save the fish, but the anubias I'd like to save too.

 

Understandable lol
Idk I've been using it and replacing lost salts in my biggest set up the 55 and adding 3 extra tablespoons of salt, it seems at least to me that it helps condition the water and helps to keep it clean amongst it promoting coloration and activity in those fish.
Just from what I've seen while using salts

Africans are alright because they can be in brackish water. There’s lots of research saying freshwater fish, such as goldfish, don’t benefit at all from aquarium salt in the water, and long term can do more harm than good.

If it’s used as like an antI bacterial for a wound until the next water change, then it’s okay, but there’s a lot against keeping it in there 24/7 for most fresh water fish.

Personally I don’t really mind, if you’ve got it in there mildly I don’t think it’ll do much good or bad, so yeah.

I guess I should have been clearer: is any amount more than zero safe for the plants? I understand the recommended quantity for the fish. But at that level, do I risk killing my plants?

Put differently, have any of you successfully used salt in a planted tank? I have primarily anubias (which are thriving), with a few java ferns. I'd chuck the ferns to save the fish, but the anubias I'd like to save too.

1 tablespoon every 10 gal is max safe for plants

 

Back from the LFS. Added aquarium salt at 1 Tbps per 10g, and also Melafix as I really think from his tail fin that he's developing an infection. The little guy is increasingly listless, resting at times on top of the plants.

I've moved the air stone closer to where he seems to want to sit, to ensure oxygenation.

Anything else I can do other than wait? Also dosed with stress guard this AM, and will do that again this PM (as bottle says you can double dose).

Ugh, his health seems to be failing precipitously. He's laying on the bottom of the tank, on his side. Body isn't curved, and his gills are still moving. We'd turned the lights out in his tank to avoid over-stimulating him, and when we flipped them on he tried to come off the bottom, but sank back down. All signs point to a fish that's about to leave us? Is there ANYTHING we might try with a fish that's this sick?

 

I’d stop medicating with melafix and salt.

Personally I’d just keep him in clean fresh water.

Natural medicines like melafix are very mild and will stress fish out a lot.