My comet looks sick…

A few days ago I noticed one of my comets looking quite lethargic and less active than usual. I then noticed a white spot on its side and immediately hospitalised it from the rest. I heard performing a salt dip might help, but two days later, it looks even more sick. Any advice on what I could do??

Here’s a picture of my comet. I placed it in a bucket to see what’s wrong with it.



The white spot has been there for a few days now.

 

A few days ago I noticed one of my comets looking quite lethargic and less active than usual. I then noticed a white spot on its side and immediately hospitalised it from the rest. I heard performing a salt dip might help, but two days later, it looks even more sick. Any advice on what I could do??

Here’s a picture of my comet. I placed it in a bucket to see what’s wrong with it.
View attachment 808334

The white spot has been there for a few days now.

I’m not sure what the picture shows?

Your profile says you don’t understand the nitrogen cycle. Any idea what your water parameters (ammonia, nitrite and nitrate) are? How long has the tank been running?

 

Sorry I should've taken a better picture but there is a random white spot on my comet that just appeared last week. I just started keeping goldfish at the start of this year so I'm quite new to this hobby, so I don't know too much about the nitrogen cycle. I keep 4 comet goldfish in a 30-35 gallon mini outdoor pond with a small UV pond pump/filter.

Parameters: (These are all my guesses, the test kit is hard to read)
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
pH: I don't have a test kit for it yet

Maintenance
How often do you change the water? I change once or even twice a week
How much of the water do you change? Around 30%
What do you use to treat your water? I use Seachem Prime when I do a water change
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? No

I hope I included all the necessary information. I'm not sure what could be wrong with my goldfish. When I spotted the white spot, I thought it might be an ich so I gave it a salt bath treatment for about 10 minutes and placed it in another tank to keep an eye on it. It looked to be fine after an hour so I placed it back into my pond. About two days later (which is today) when I checked on it, it hardly came to the surface and was hiding out of sight. The rest of my goldfish are active and immediately came to the surface when they saw me. I'm not sure if I should perform another salt bath or wait to see if it will eventually recover?

 

Sorry I should've taken a better picture but there is a random white spot on my comet that just appeared last week. I just started keeping goldfish at the start of this year so I'm quite new to this hobby, so I don't know too much about the nitrogen cycle. I keep 4 comet goldfish in a 30-35 gallon mini outdoor pond with a small UV pond pump/filter.

Parameters: (These are all my guesses, the test kit is hard to read)
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
pH: I don't have a test kit for it yet

Maintenance
How often do you change the water? I change once or even twice a week
How much of the water do you change? Around 30%
What do you use to treat your water? I use Seachem Prime when I do a water change
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? No

I hope I included all the necessary information. I'm not sure what could be wrong with my goldfish. When I spotted the white spot, I thought it might be an ich so I gave it a salt bath treatment for about 10 minutes and placed it in another tank to keep an eye on it. It looked to be fine after an hour so I placed it back into my pond. About two days later (which is today) when I checked on it, it hardly came to the surface and was hiding out of sight. The rest of my goldfish are active and immediately came to the surface when they saw me. I'm not sure if I should perform another salt bath or wait to see if it will eventually recover?

I’d suggest you click the nitrogen cycle link above and work to better understand it.

When a fish is acting unusual, I almost always suggest starting with water quality. Given the water parameters you posted, I’d treat your tank as not cycled and test the parameters daily. Do water changes (maybe daily) to keep the combined level of ammonia and nitrites below 0.50 ppm.

You also mentioned a “small pump/filter”. . . Daily testing should confirm or deny this, but it’s possible that the filter is too small, especially with your goldfish stock. If that’s the case, a full cycle may never be achieved and you should consider upgrading to a larger filter.

Finally, I’m not a disease expert but I’m pretty certain the white spot on your fish is NOT ich.

 

the white spot is not ich.

can you get a more close up photo of the white spot?

i believe salt baths are only used for a few minutes at a time.

 

I’d suggest you click the nitrogen cycle link above and work to better understand it.

When a fish is acting unusual, I almost always suggest starting with water quality. Given the water parameters you posted, I’d treat your tank as not cycled and test the parameters daily. Do water changes (maybe daily) to keep the combined level of ammonia and nitrites below 0.50 ppm.

You also mentioned a “small pump/filter”. . . Daily testing should confirm or deny this, but it’s possible that the filter is too small, especially with your goldfish stock. If that’s the case, a full cycle may never be achieved and you should consider upgrading to a larger filter.

Finally, I’m not a disease expert but I’m pretty certain the white spot on your fish is NOT ich.

Ok thanks for your advice, I'll look into the nitrogen cycle. As soon as my fish started acting unusual, I straight away performed a water change. Around the time when I first got my goldfish, I did perform water changes daily but my local aquarium (where I got my goldfish) suggests that I didn't need to do it daily but once or twice a week? So I changed my routine to twice a week based on what they told me, but now I guess I'll try to do it more regularly. If I get a bigger filter for my mini pond, I'm worried about the cost and space. I don't have any power points nearby so I have to get a UV pump/filter for the pond.

Today my fish seems worse, he's not eating and not moving much but staying at the surface of the water. Hopefully it's nothing fatal, but I'll continue to monitor how he's doing.

the white spot is not ich.

can you get a more close up photo of the white spot?

i believe salt baths are only used for a few minutes at a time.

Hi,
Yes thank you you're right, I guess I jumped to conclusion too soon. It doesn't seem like it would be ich, though my fish's health is drastically worsening. Today I found him floating sideways in my pond. At first I thought he was long gone, but when I went to scoop him up and separate him from the rest, he started to move a bit. I currently have him in a bucket and he looks in a very bad state. He briefly moves and breathes every once and a while but goes back to floating on his side at the surface. I'm beginning to prepare for the worse and might have to euthanize him if that's the only option left.

 

his belly is small, maybe even sunken in. did you quarantine and treat with a parasite medication?

 

his belly is small, maybe even sunken in. did you quarantine and treat with a parasite medication?

I am quarantining him right now but have not treated him with anything yet because I don't know what is wrong with him. But he had looked that way ever since I got him (which was the beginning of January) and he had always been the smallest of the bunch. He seemed fine throughout the year until just recently.

 

possibly an internal parasite(s). by the looks and sound of it, probably best to euthanize.

 

possibly an internal parasite(s). by the looks and sound of it, probably best to euthanize.

I see, I'm not sure if I will be able to euthanize him without feeling guilty. Is there a way to prevent this same thing from happening to the rest of my goldfish? I don't know how my fish even got internal parasites to begin with?