Will my goldie survive?

Question

Last night my beautiful blue butterfly tail goldfish was attacked by my bristlenose catfish. I have heard that some catfish are poisonous but I am not sure about bristlenoses. My goldie (whose name was recently changed to sicky-fish) has been floating upside down a little lately and seeking out the quiet part of the fishtank behind the plastic plants where the catfish normally hides. I caught the catfish beating up sicky-fish over and over leaving her in a real mess. She is missing half her scales on one side and on her belly and her tail and fins are shredded. I've put her in my hospital tank with fresh slightly salty water but don't know what else to do. She has survived 20 hours so far. Any hints of what else I can do to help her or am I just delaying her inevitable death. Needless to say, the naughty catfish is now up for sale.

Answer 1

No your bristle nose is not poisonous. When they say some catfish are poisonous, what they are refering to are their spike fins can cause an infection very few are poison.
The poison gland on a few cat fish is normally located at the base of the pectoral fin and secreted through the spine or its edges. Most noted is the “Fossil Cat”. This catfish is not found in stores very often and must be handled properly. They are very aggressive and will not hesitate to use their weapons. The sting from this animal will cause major swelling and illness to the handler. Most stings from the other poisonous catfish deliver the same effect but are rarely fatal. Some other fish have spines along the lateral scutes and these are combined with thick skin and armored plates, making them very tough customers to eat by other animals.

As for goldie, be sure her tank is cold around 55-60 and has pleanty of air. Is there a reason you were keeping them in the same tank? Bristle nose do best in 85-90 temps (even though the store tells you 78 that is too cool) vs. the 55-65 for gold fish.

It is difficult to say what beating she endured from your algae eater. As long as you have the Dissolved Oxygen and cooler temps in the new tank, give her time to heal on her own. Adding more medications or increasing the salinity too much will only stress your fish out farther.

Answer 2

That's why you should keep goldfish with only goldfish, including any sucker mouth catfish that supposedly are needed to "clean" the tank. Sounds like the fish got sick or either fell asleep in the wrong place and the hungry catfish attacked it because he is also omniverious and likes a little subdtanence in his diet, and yes you were supposed to feed it something besides the growing algae in the tank. By the way is good for the system and the goldfish would have loved to munch on and benefit from. Euthanise the GF by putting it in a zip-lock bag with water and put it in the freezer. Take back the catfish if you want to keep goldfish, or keep the catfish and feed it and get him a more suitable tank mate. I'd go with the latter though, I just don't like the catfish. That's how you learn. I did the same mistake when I first started too.

Answer 3

You need antibiotics. This fish was sickly before getting beat up and it sounds like an internal bacterial infection, which might well be deadly in itself. All sucker fish and catfish will eat a goldfish if given the chance. That is why they should never be together.
I don't know whats up with that previous person trying to tell you that goldfish should be in 55-60F water. Golds stop digesting at 50F and their systems are just barely getting enough nutrients to stay alive at 55F. Anywhere from 70-78F is a great daily living temp for a goldfish.

Answer 4

What are you treating them with precisely? and what's their housing? those form of issues are probably to have been prompted by ability of undesirable water high quality - actual happens in underfiltered tanks that are too small for messy Goldfish! The fungus would be a secondary bacterial an infection prompted by ability of the ich parasite burrowing into the physique of the fish, on a similar time as the tattered fins are additionally a bacterial an infection ensuing in fin rot. you are able to merely talk approximately treating a type of issues as you are able to no longer blend drugs. i could talk approximately killing the ich parasite.

Answer 5

Add some antibiotic like methylene blue and coat the area bleeding with vaselene. Goldfish are very hardy. I had my goldfish attacked twice. Once with my dog and once by a giant bird. It was laying on the grass for several hours with a gash in its side and bleeding. It lived for several more years. I didn't bother doing anything to help it along though.

Answer 6

I agree with slew. They make antibiotics to repair scale damage and infection. Goldfish can survive a lot. Talk to someone at your local fish/pet store and they'll show you the correct things to add to help your fish.