My fish are dying! I had 3 fancy goldfish and one tropical fish. 2 died 2 goldfish left.?

Question

I have a 40 gallon tank. I have had 3 fancy goldfish for over 2 years. I moved and lost them once, and when those people left they left my tank with nothing when i found them they survived abt 10 inches of black water for for over a month with no filtration. I live in the country with well water chemicals not needed to maintain tank. I had water cked. abt 6 months ago bought a blue gourami fish. lived well with them. 2 weeks ago I bought 2 SAE fish. 5 days ago my blue gourami and one of my longtime fish died. I have 2 goldfish left they are abt 2 inches and always healthy. they are lethargic, fin and tails are weathered, and skin seems to be coming off. I have done a 25% water changed and treated water for ick and put melafix and stress salt. They will eat some move around for a minute then drop to bottom and lay there. I am at a loss. I have been treating them for 3 days and no results. please any suggestion would help. they have survived so much. Please help

Answer 1

What are your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate readings? Do you perform frequent water changes? Maybe the fish are being poisoned by bad parameters, IDK. Sounds like a disease but it helps to have the parameters anyway.

Answer 2

You can't keep goldfish with any other fish, they put off high levels of ammonia waste that will poison tropical fish. Also, goldfish need cold water to survive- no heaters at all- while tropical fish need a heater to keep the water 72-82 F.

It sounds like the new fish may have brought in a disease. I would try looking online to see if there's a picture of what your fish look like, and treating your tank for that. Ich is usually small white spots, not losing scales and damaged fins. Treating for it is probably not going to help whatever's really wrong. Try talking to the store you bought the fish from, they might be able to help you.

Answer 3

This sounds like columnaris (flexibacter), which is gram negative.
Melafix primarily affects gram positive bacterial infections.
Pimafix by the same company as Melafix would be a better organic choice for this.

However the best treatment for this would be Kanamyacin or Kanamyacin with Nitrofurazone.

Changing 10-20% of your water before each treatment would help too.

Another point is electrolytes and calcium. Make sure your kH is above 80 ppm (160 is better for goldfish). Aragonite or Wonder shells can help here.

And this is very important, especially considering the previous pollution problems; I would definitely prepare a double strength bath of methylene blue (32 oz of water should work OK) and place each fish in this for 30 minutes each. Methylene Blue is a Hemoglobin transfer agent and will help with ammonia or nitrite poisoning, it also will kill most bacteria and fungi as well as many parasites.

Also please note that gouramis and goldfish are best not kept together, goldfish are much more dirty and require a different diet.

For a picture of this disease and more about it, please see this article:
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Columnaris.html

For much more up to date aquarium info, including information about kH and electrolytes, please see this article:
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Information.html

Answer 4

you are putting too much 'stuff' in your tank!
do a 50% water change, and use only MELA-FIX as per directions!

and have a tropical tank only or a goldfish only, the 2 don't mix well.

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Answer 5

they might have a disease called fin and tail rot but i don't think it's fatal, go to these websites for more help
http://www.fishdoc.co.uk/disease/diseasehome.htm
http://www.fishyfarmacy.com/symptoms.html
http://fins.actwin.com/mirror/disease-fw.html
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0140-7775&site=1
http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/information/Diseases.htm
http://www.tropicalfishcentre.co.uk/Diseases1.htm
http://www.lsc.usgs.gov/FHB/leaflets/index.asp
http://www.afip.org/vetpath/POLA/99/Diseases_of_Fish.htm
http://www.mypets.net.au/flex/fish_diseases_and_treatments/83/1
http://www.klsnet.com/files/fishchart.htm