# Poorly fish



## Blondefluff (Jan 15, 2019)

Hey, can anyone help.

I have a common goldfish in a filtered 18l tank. The fish has came down with what I've read is fin rot. 

I've been to my local pets at home store on numerous occasions they have checked my water. I've given 3weeks of metaflix which reduced the redness in his tail, tried salt with water changes 30% every 3-7 days Now I've been given plimafix to try and well this has made the fish worse and the other fins are getting affected now. Please help dedperate mum trying rescue him for my little girl!


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## NaomiM (Sep 22, 2012)

Hi and welcome.

Sadly this sounds like a case of bad advice from [email protected] (they have a bit of a reputation for it among fishkeepers). Common goldfish are high waste producers and can grow to over a foot long, so they need huge tanks with double filtration, or better still a pond. Their waste breaks down and releases ammonia, which will be more concentrated the smaller the tank is. What you're seeing is probably ammonia burns to his fins/tail. You may also have secondary infections such as fungus or fin rot, but the root cause of everything will be the poor water quality.

Your first step should be to do two 50% water changes today to get the ammonia levels down. Then ASAP you need to get hold of a bigger tank - ideally 150L or more for the long term, but if you can't manage this immediately then just get the biggest you can (second hand from gumtree/ebay/facebay etc is fine and a lot cheaper). Hopefully this will come with a decent filter. The filter needs to cycle (grow a colony of good bacteria) before it will be effective in removing ammonia. Put the media from your old filter into the new one to speed up the cycling process. Then get hold of a liquid test kit such as the API master kit, and test the water daily for ammonia and nitrite. If ANY amount of these toxins are present, they will be harmful, so any day you see a reading over 0.25 for either of these, do a 50% water change. If levels are very high, do more than one.

To protect the fish while the cycling is going on, you can add a product called Seachem Prime. This replaces your normal water conditioner as it removes chlorine and chloramine, but it also detoxifies ammonia and nitrite. Dose enough for the whole tank on a daily basis.

Finally, to help your goldfish's tail regrow, keep up with the melafix doses (I'd stop the pimafix for now unless you see clear signs of fungal infection, i.e. cotton-wool-like growths on the fins, tail or mouth).

I know this all sounds like a lot of expense and trouble, but if you really want to save your fish, this is your best hope of doing so. Good luck!


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## NaomiM (Sep 22, 2012)

Forgot to add, stop feeding your fish for a few days to help reduce the amount of ammonia being produced. Then feed him only once every other day until your test kit shows the levels are stable under 0.25. Even once you've got everything sorted, you shouldn't feed more than a small pinch once a day.


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## Guest (Jan 15, 2019)

Typical pets at home giving bad advice. A chap in my pets at home gives good advice. I’d do exactly as above too. While looking into a bigger tank.


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## Blondefluff (Jan 15, 2019)

Thanks for your advice. Wish I'd had of come here first for advise!!!

when you say continue with the melafix am I still keeping the carbon filter in or removing it still with the treatment? 


NaomiM said:


> Hi and welcome.
> 
> Sadly this sounds like a case of bad advice from [email protected] (they have a bit of a reputation for it among fishkeepers). Common goldfish are high waste producers and can grow to over a foot long, so they need huge tanks with double filtration, or better still a pond. Their waste breaks down and releases ammonia, which will be more concentrated the smaller the tank is. What you're seeing is probably ammonia burns to his fins/tail. You may also have secondary infections such as fungus or fin rot, but the root cause of everything will be the poor water quality.
> 
> ...


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## NaomiM (Sep 22, 2012)

Take the carbon out, it's only really useful if you need to remove meds from the water. Personally I've ditched the carbon from my filters and replaced with more of the normal media.


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## kittih (Jan 19, 2014)

Op in addition to the excellent advice above Google the following:
- The aquarium nitrogen cycle
- fish less cycling
- new tank syndrome

These will give you more detailed information about what Naomi has described above.


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