My Goldfish's Finrot won't go away... HELP?

Question

I have a fancy oranda goldfish who I thought had finrot and the guy at the pet store reccommended Melafix. I removed the carbon from my tank and have treated him for a week, and it started to look better, but now it seems to have come back. Should I get a different kind of medicine and is it safe to treat again right away or should I do a total water change and thoroughly clean the rocks, etc... I don't understand why it keeps coming back and I really want to make sure my fish gets better. He is a small goldfish (only about an inch and a half) in a 5 gallon tank with a live plant that he is eating like crazy...

Answer 1

First of all, your tank is way to small for a goldfish, they need a minimum of 10 gallon to start with, the finrot is due to bad care
Here is a site that explains symptoms and treatment
http://www.kokosgoldfish.com/disease.html


Hope that helps
Good luck


EB


For live expert help follow the link in my profile

Answer 2

My first thoughts on why you can't seem to get the finrot cleared up is poor water quality. This would be brough on by him being housed in too small of a tank.

Melafix is a good medication for finrot, and every goldfish I have used it on has tolerated it exceedingly well.

I would start right away doing more frequent water changes ( at least once a week, twice being ideal, as your tank is too small) and give one more treatment with the Melafix. Definately do a water change before continuing treatment.

Other than this, I would strongly recommend getting your fish a larger tank and filter(along the lines of 10 gallons) and I can almost guarantee you that you will not have further problems with finrot.


Take a minute to look at this site, it is excellent. www.kokosgoldfish.com

Answer 3

Hi Emily, first off DO NOT do a complete water change & scrub your rocks or you will cause your tank to cycle again causing him further stress & lowering his defences which is probably why the condition has recurred.

. Generally you need to be doing regular partial water changes of same temperature treated water-perhaps 30% & keep a close eye on your parameters in your tank & small tanks like yours are particularly hard to stabilise-they need to be spot-on, any ammonia spike can be diluted with further partial water changes.The link below tells you about this in more detail.

I would suggest doing the treatment again but first replace the carbon in your filter to remove any old medication& do a partial water change. Ensure you follow exactly the instructions on the pack, with the water conditions perfect you should have a far better chance of fixing the fin rot. I also recommend you get at least a 10 gallon & even better a 20 gallon lidded, filtered tank as soon as possible

Answer 4

Do a 50% water change and treat it with Maracyn 2. That is what I used on my goldie and it cured it pretty quickly. Also, goldies are supposed to be housed 10-20 gallons each.