# Goldfish with Eye Growth, any clues or cures??



## malloyd1 (Oct 24, 2014)

I am new to keeping fish of any type and now have 2 Goldfish in a 120ltr Tank. It was cycled and the fish then introduced. They are both happy and feeding well. I have routinely checked the water quality and all is fine. The only thing is the GH is is very low. I use the Tetra 6 in 1 strips which are probably not that accurate but it looks to me like GH is somewhere down around 0 (zero0) I do live in avery soft water area. Bluewave 05 filter unit and aerators installed. The problem I have is that one of the fish has developed a Lump on the front of one of her eyes. Can anyone identify the issue and give me advice on a resolution. Asked a Vet, he looked at the pictures and said ask online forums. Don't think it is "Pop Eye" as the eye itself is not bulging it looks more like a water blister with a little brown tisue inside. Picture attached I hope.

Many Thanks in adavance.

Mal.


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## Fishyfins (Feb 28, 2009)

Hi there!

Im sorry to hear you are having issues with your fish, but hopefully we can be of help to you.

From the description and the photo, it looks like an ulcer. These are caused by bacterial intrusion into the skin of the fish. You can use many types of treatment for this, commonly available from pet shops. In my opinion, melafix is probably the best.

However, ulcers are usually caused by poor water quality, and so it would be an idea to perhaps see if there is an issue there. You mention using the strip-tests, however, as you say, they are far from accurate, and i would suggest using a liquid drop test instead, which are far far more accurate. I wouldnt worry about GH either. Unless you are keeping highly delicate fish such as Discus, testing for this is pretty much useless. Goldfish will live and thrive in a wide range of conditions. To keep things simple, you only really need to be testing for (in order of importance, most important first) ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Everything else can be ignored.

I will say that the tank sounds a little overstocked. I can see from the photos that these are standard goldfish, which most experts would recommend at least 100L per fish for (so 200L for the two you have). This is even when they are small, as they still produce a huge amount of waste. The filter you mention is also not really adequate enough for goldfish. With the waste levels goldfish produce, you really should be using an external filter (far far more efficient than internal units), with an hourly filtration rate several times the volume of the tank.

You say you are new to fishkeeping, and cycled the tank before adding the fish. I dont suppose you can tell us exactly how long the tank has been set up, how long fish have been in, and the process you used to cycle the tank? There is quite a lot of cycling misinformation out there, so knowing this will help us see if there are any other issues here. 

Hope this helps
Fishy


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## NaomiM (Sep 22, 2012)

Excellent advice there from Fishyfins  I agree it sounds like there may possibly be a water quality issue that your test strips haven't picked up - get a liquid test kit (API master kit is good, and around £20 from ebay/amazon) and test for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, and post your results on here 

I'd also agree with melafix as your first port of call for treating the immediate problem - it's a gentle wide-spectrum antibacterial treatment that won't harm the good bacteria in your filter. You could also try crushing a clove of garlic and adding it along with its juices, as this helps to boost the fish's natural immunity. If you do this, leave it in for 24 hours or so, then remove the leftovers so that it doesn't start to rot and contribute to any water quality issues.

Good luck and please keep us updated on how it's going


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## magpie (Jan 3, 2009)

Nothing to add to the excellent advice above... though I would argue that it is worthwhile testing your GH & KH too, particularly as you've said you live in a soft water area.

Only reason being I also live in a very soft water area and had a big problem with my GH & KH being so low that the pH in my tank crashed, which subsequently crashed my cycle and I lost two of my goldfish 

Just fyi


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## malloyd1 (Oct 24, 2014)

Hi,
Many thanks for your advice. I have to admit I do not know how the cycle was actually set up. I had it done by a friend who keeps all sorts of fish in lots of tanks. I take on board the overcrowding problem. Originally I planned to have just one fish but then inherited the second from my Daughter who was keeping it in a 20ltr tank. I figured that 2 fish sharing 120ltr in a filtered tank was better for the second fish who was living in a none filtered or aerated tank which looked quite dirty. Asked my local Pet Store and they said 2 was the absolute max in the 120ltr tank.
One thing I forgot to mention my tank also has this under substrate filter bed. Plastic grids with air risers along the back. This came with the tank and the guy who set it up for me said it would work alongside the bio filter system. Let me know if this is correct.
The fish that has the eye problem is the one that came from 20ltr tank so it may have had the issue prior to the move but it was not noticable.
I have now moved the ill fish into a smaller tank to administer medication and keep it away from what appears to be my other healthy fish. Have ordered some Melafix and will see how/if she improves.
Should I also treat the healthy fish incase I have cross-contamination?

Mal.


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## malloyd1 (Oct 24, 2014)

magpie said:


> Nothing to add to the excellent advice above... though I would argue that it is worthwhile testing your GH & KH too, particularly as you've said you live in a soft water area.
> 
> Only reason being I also live in a very soft water area and had a big problem with my GH & KH being so low that the pH in my tank crashed, which subsequently crashed my cycle and I lost two of my goldfish
> 
> Just fyi


How do you improve the GH in a soft water area? I read a little but could not find anything that said add this or that to the water/tank.


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## Spiderrr (Oct 28, 2014)

You can add some crushed corals to help raise GH.


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## NaomiM (Sep 22, 2012)

I wouldn't do anything to alter the GH at least until you have the appropriate test kit, and even then only very slowly if at all. Coral sand/crushed coral can indeed raise GH and pH, but in soft water the pH is liable to swing quite rapidly if you start messing about with it, and sudden swings in GH and pH will stress the fish out far more than keeping them in non-optimal parameters. As FishyFins said, goldfish can adapt to a wide variety of water conditions, and magpie's comment related to the GH crashing the cycle, which would show up in positive ammonia and/or nitrite tests. So as I said, the first thing is to test the water. If you do have positive readings for ammonia/nitrite, then we can work on determining the cause in order to work out the best course of action.


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