Why Do My Goldfish Keep Getting Dropsy And Popeye?

400 gallon pond with 2 6-inch koi 4 comet and 3 fantail. Water is pristine and I filter it with a bog filter with a beneficial bacterial bed with plants. I change the water monthly and test it weekly, all levels are perfect.

The fantails get afflicted the most so I have to keep moving them to the quarantine pond and treat them, their issues subside and sometimes will return. I keep getting popeye, dropsy, and stringy poo with them.

I have 2 other 40 gallon ponds with 3 goldfish each and never have issues (except when I had platies in one of them)

Pond is heavily planted and I have 3 large filters in it. Why are my fish having these three issues sporadically? The 2 koi are fine and robust

It got up into the 90s (water is 80s) and the pond is shaded, I lost 3 goldfish when it started to get hot (I live in FL) I have all kinds of fish (tetras, betta, german blue rams, WCMM) outside in the porch and they NEVER die. I have had it with these goldfish dying. What do I do?

400 gallon has nothing but the goldfish and koi, why is it the only pond where the goldfish are always getting these infections?

 

What are your test results?

 

How do you know your water is "pristine"? What does that mean?

Pristine meaning the nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia always read as zero, when I keep testing for them. Could my water be polluted with lead or something? I don't know why they keep getting sick, like I said, my 40 gallons never seem to have issues, and one of them is inside. The 40 gallons have no koi either. 400 gallon is such a huge pond, why the heck are the golds there always getting sick?

 

Pristine meaning the nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia always read as zero, when I keep testing for them. Could my water be polluted with lead or something? I don't know why they keep getting sick, like I said, my 40 gallons never seem to have issues, and one of them is inside. The 40 gallons have no koi either. 400 gallon is such a huge pond, why the heck are the golds there always getting sick?

Nitrates are zero? That's odd.

 

The fact that your other goldfish in the other ponds are fine and the fact that the koi and other fish in the 400g are fine as well, I suspect they're just sickly. This is of course conjecture. I can't give you a definitive answer, but that seems most likely the case. The other possibility might be the result of overfeeding. Then again, you have other tanks and ponds with no issues. Whatever the case, fancy goldfish can be particularly delicate as a result of line breeding. Many don't even live past 3-4 years.

 

is it just the fantails or the comets as well?

nitrates can be 0 in a pond, planted bog filter. my 150 gallon is now 0,0,0 with Pond Matrix in the SunSun canister.

 

Yeah, I didn't really question the water chemistry because of the bog filter.

 

I was confused about the nitrates being zero but found out that it was because of the plants. I suspect that perhaps my goldfish may be getting stressed from the koi? The line breeding is definitely the issue, all my prettiest goldfish die first, they are so sensitive to the heat, I moved some of the other fantails indoors, hoping they will get better. Should I adopt out the comets and fantails and just stick with the koi? Should I just let them pass away naturally? I am considering putting in one more koi once the goldfish die. The koi are beyond robust! I just want to give up on goldfish (except the ones indoors).

 

I don't believe stress from being kept with koi is a factor. I can't really say without observing them myself. The thing about overfeeding I mentioned before, and should explain a bit more, is that I was not concerned about water quality, but that overfeeding is one of the causes of dropsy-like symptoms and can happen very quickly, especially to goldfish. I suspect many well-intentioned goldfish keepers actually kill their fish prematurely by pampering their fish too much by feeding. Contrary to popular belief, goldfish should not be fed too much in a captive environment. Not saying you are, but when you mentioned dropsy that has occured to me as a possibilty. I've seen goldfish eat too many pellets, get floaty, and pinecone before my eyes. Yes, it can happen that quick.

As far as keeping goldfish or not, I personally try to stick with the non-fancy varieties like commons as they don't have the myriad of issues their fancy counterparts tend to deal with. Nothing wrong with sticking with koi, though.

 

That could be it?! I fed them today and the symptoms did show up in them after the feeding. They got about 3 pellets each, maybe they are eating too fast? They do eat all their food and none goes to waste, what kind of food is best for the goldfish? Maybe I could also switch their diets?

The koi love to eat a lot but the goldfish are probably gorging themselves?

I feed them shrimp pellets, cichlid pellets and hikarI sinking pellets

 

Just stop feeding for a couple of weeks and see if that makes a difference?
They will all be fine living on forage and bugs for a couple of weeks, if the problems continue then you know it's not diet related

 

Just stop feeding for a couple of weeks and see if that makes a difference?
They will all be fine living on forage and bugs for a couple of weeks, if the problems continue then you know it's not diet related

Do you think if I give them only some broccolI once in a while during their fasting, that it would help?

 

That could be it?! I fed them today and the symptoms did show up in them after the feeding. They got about 3 pellets each, maybe they are eating too fast? They do eat all their food and none goes to waste, what kind of food is best for the goldfish? Maybe I could also switch their diets?

The koi love to eat a lot but the goldfish are probably gorging themselves?

I feed them shrimp pellets, cichlid pellets and hikarI sinking pellets

Is it only once a day? I don't see feeding them a few pellets each would cause this much harm, even if it's not the most appropriate diet you're feeding them, but who knows? It doesn't hurt to switch to something else. Unfortunately many goldfish are genetically predisposed to a lot of issues simply eating, particularly floating issues. But as far as I know, this isn't the case for you? Even harder to believe since you also have comets, which are generally quite hardy. Perhaps you simply bought sick or sickly fish.

I personally prefer to feed my goldfish diets actually meant for goldfish and koi. I feed mine HikarI Wheat Germ goldfish formula mixed with HikarI Gold for koi. I feed once a day, sometimes twice, but only what they can finish within 30 seconds or less.

I agree with the above comment. Try fasting for a week or two and see if they improve. I wouldn't feed them brocolli. If you really must, I'd toss in aquatic vegetation for them to consume, instead of land-based plants as it's better for them. I feed duckweed, Amazon frogbit, and even hair algae to supplement their diet, something more of what they'd forage on in the wild.

 

The comet goldfish in my patio pond munch on the algae all day. I only feed them Omega One goldfish pellets once per day.

The goldfish in my aquarium get Omega One goldfish pellets in the morning and Omega One Kelp Veggie (Spirulina) pellets in the evening.