sick red cap oranda?

Question

i have a red cap oranda and she has a trail of clear slime and she lies at the bottom in the same place for hours and only comes when theres food
plz help

Answer 1

Your fish doesn't have SLIME disease. A few things first, what size is your fish and what tank is it in?

Also, are you salting the tank? STOP. Salt forces fish to create a thicker slime coat than they need an with fish like goldfish this is not healthy nor is it healthy when it comes to their swim bladder.

Slime coat is produced by your fish for a number of reasons the main being swimming ability and the second to ward off diseases. Stress from poor water or food can also cause the fish to "ditch the slime coat".

Be sure your fish has good, clean water with lots of dissolved oxygen in the tank.

Food should be varied since Goldfish need a balanced diet. When choosing a fish food choose one with high protein (48% or better) and low fat (5% or less)

You can supplement their diet with things like Lettuce, mustard greens, turnip greens, collard greens, spinach, peas, endive, seaweed, cukes, kale, chard, broccoli, lima beans, green beans, etc. and feed aquatic plants (e.g. duckweed, azolla, salvenia, etc) or hair algae daily.

For their Carotenoids which are a family of pigments the fish can't make themselves and are obtained as part of the diet. These pigments result in red, yellow and orange colors. Fish have cells called chromataphores. Those cells convert lutein and carotenes into astaxanthin which is the red pigment.
sources include, brine shrimp, krill, spirulina, marigold flowers, paprika, sweet red peppers, yams, carrots, pumpkin

Watermellons and oranges are also good as well as proteins like chicken (chicken livers) beef (livers and parts) and pork as well as worms and bugs.

Need more help feel free to email me

Answer 2

Is the slime you're referring to her "poop"? The color and texture have meanings: http://www.mu.edu/~buxtoni/puregold/disease/technique/technique.html#JoAnns_diagnosis_by_poop

The fact that she's eating is good, because this would make an internal infection less likely, but wouldn't rule this possibility out entirely.

Do you know for certain that this is a "she"? Clear poop could mean she's been heavy with eggs, but has re-absorbed them.

Is the sitting at the bottom a new behavior? A place to start checking for a cause is with water quality. High levels of ammonia and nitrite can cause this behavior, but are usually combined with heavy respiration. Parasites can also cause the same two symptoms.

This could also be indicating a swim bladder problem to which fancy goldfish are prone because of their body shape. Try withholding food for a few days and see if this improves. If you feed primarily pellets or flakes, start soaking them in some tank water before feeding - also add a little fresh vegetables (peas, zucchini, and leafy greens which have been cooked or frozen briefly to soften them) to the diet.

If she did have eggs, were there other fish in the tank? If males were chasing her, she might be exhausted from swimming. If you've got a spare tank, you might try isolating her. The body shape isn't designed for a lot of fast movement. Even the flow from a filter may make them work hard against the current. If your filter has an adjustment on the uptake tube, try decreasing the flow a bit to see if she becomes more active.

See more in the links below about swim bladder disease and reasons why goldfish sit on the bottom of tanks:

Answer 3

My guess is that your red cap has got slime disease, it could be cause by various external protozoan parasites. The main problem is probably because your water isn't too good.

I would advise you to make 50% water change twice a week for the next two week to your main tank. Remove the sick red-cap and treat him in a hospital tank. You can treat it with Methlene Blue as it works with most protozoan parasites, some meds will claim that it's anti-slime disease (Interpet No. 7) so those will work too or any anti-parasites meds (formalin based). The reason I recommend you take the fish out to treat, is that these meds will usually destroy you beneficial bacterial in your filter and you probably don't want to go through another cycling process again.

Good luck.