Can fish scales look dry and sort of flakey(not moist looking)?

Question

It seems that my fish has "dry skin" why is this? What is this? is this common? will she die? and how can i treat it?

mine is a goldfish. they live for about 15 years.
and yes some of my fish's scales are missing.

Answer 1

You are most likely seeing a parasite infestation on your fish and while not exactly common, it's not uncommon either. Several different parasites can cause this appearance and also cause the missing scales, but luckily a good broad based parasite medicaiton can treat any of them. I would suggest Clout as the best choice followed closely by Paraguard.

The other potential cause would be a bacterial skin infection. If you treat for the parasites for 3 days and the problem only seems to get worse and not better, I would then recommend you change treatments to an antibiotic. Several large water changes and a few hours with fresh carbon back in your filter should be done between the different treatments to remove the parasite medication before adding the antibiotic. For skin infections some of the better treatments would include Maracyn TC, Maracyn 2 and Furan-2

Hope that helps and feel free to email me if I can help further

MM

Answer 2

Common goldfish can easily live for 30 years or more with good care and plenty of water volume. It's common for koi, the same species, to live for 80 years with proper care.

It does sound like dropsy. Check the water parameters, put in some FW aquarium salt. You may have to treat for internal bacterial infection like septicemia. I also recommend Maracyn 2 for an aggressive treatment. For a safer, less effective treatment, Melafix will do. Melafix can be used in main tank. maracyn must be used in quarantine, it will kill all beneficial bacteria in main tank--big mess.

Answer 3

If the scales are raised, this is an almost always fatal condition...dropsy is it called...anyway, its due to too much ammonia. If that's not it, it sounds like another sort of infection. if its a freshwater fish, one of the best remedies is adding some aquarium salt to the tank-can be purchased anywhere. Hope for the best. i had a fish swim listlessly upside down for two days and make a complete recovery.

Answer 4

Well, the lifespan of tropical fish isn't that long. I am talking about freshwater fish, although it is true of saltwater as well. I don't know what kind of fish you are talking about but I have had Angel fish, Bola [sp] sharks, Chinese algea eaters that have lived for about 18 months to 2 years and I guess some live longer than that it depends on how old they were when you got them. Before they died, they started looking a little rough, and their scales looked messy--best way I can think of to describe them. Also, they had other places on their bodies where color was missing. Sometimes, if they've been fighting, like my Oscars, they'll have places where skin is missing or tears in their scales.
Make sure that their environment is clean and their water is tested regularly. Don't overfeed!! And don't over crowd their tank. Fish are very territorial.
Good Luck!

Answer 5

Well, it might not look moist but it is. You should be careful on any medications you put because the fish is missing scales and can easily be infected.