Medicine for my goldfish?

Question

I went to petsmart and described the black/brown like areas on my goldfish. I had 4 and 2 have died. One had kind of a white fuzzy type thing on the tail...and the other had the black/brown areas, this is the original fish with the brown/black areas. It seemed fine then I came home and it was dead. Anyways the people at petsmart said that it was probably a bacteria or fungus so I gave them medicine. I've treated them twice and after the first treatment and a partial water change the 2nd fish died. I treated them again because I do not think it was from the medicine. Could it be ich and if so what do i have to do since I added more medicine to get rid of it and add the ich medicine, and also if these fish die how do i clean my tank to get rid of any of the parasites in the tank before i add new fish...thanks

Answer 1

Nope, not ich, that produces small white spots on the fish. The fuzziness on the tail is a good indication of a fungus infection, but the black spots maybe nothing at all to worry about. Black on a gold fish that appears rather suddenly is usually an indication of healing damage from being mishandled during shipment. See if the black spots look like these and read about the cause here:
http://www.goldfishconnection.com/articles/details.php?articleId=143&parentId=12

Rough handling would also explain damaged fins that are now infected with a fungus.

Neither of these things would directly cause the death of your goldfish, so maybe that's due to a different cause entirely/ How long have you had your aquarium set up and what size is the tank? If it's fairly new, I would suspect ammonia poisoning and possible ammonia burns causing the black spots. If your tank is new check the ammonia or have it checked at the pet store. If this is not the case feel free to email me any additional observations about the fish and we can try to find your answer.

MM

Answer 2

Normally,b4 i add new fish to my fish tank,I'll quarantine my new fish for 3 days with table green medication n I do not feed them for 3 days,I make sure they flush everything out frm the stomach,Do u do that?I think yr fish is already sick when u buy,so i suggest u remove yr fish frm the tank n start medication. Change all yr fish tank water n wash all filter b4 u put anymore new fishes in. Run the tank for 3 days