What's Wrong With my Fish?????

I've had this guy for close to two years now, just a plain old fan tail golfish appx. 6 inches or so long. Recently I noticed he was bleeding and attributed it to one of his tankmates so I removed him into a 10 gallon quarantine tank to see if he would heal up. No luck. The bleeding is concentrated on his caudal fins and appears to actually be internal. He gets a few spots that last a day or so then disappear. Everything checks out normally as far as the tank goes and he's acting just the same as he always has; eating normally, not lethargic, he's not bloated, no signs of anything other than the weird bleeding. Not sure what's wrong or if it's even treatable. Any advice would be hugely appreciated,
Thanks much,
Rachel

 

Sounds like septicemia. How big is the tank that he's normally in? What other fish are in there and how big are they? What are your actual readings for ammonia, nitrIte, and nitrAte (in both tanks)?

-Chelle

 

He shares a 30 gallon tank with another fantail about half his size and an algae eater who generally lives in the decorations. They always got along excellently (they even slept together at night) but the little one was getting more aggressive as he grew so I figured he may have been the problem. The readings in the tank he's in now are Ammonia 0 Nitrite .05 and Nitrate was around 15. His old tank was fairly similar with ammonia at 0 nitrite at 0 as well and nitrate at 10.

 

The .05 nitrItes in the hospital tank isn't great, but it's not horrible either (probably just a little mini cycle). Everything else sounds fine. I suppose it could just be some bruising, especially if the other goldie is getting aggressive.

Can you post a picture?

-Chelle

 

After checking out pictures and reading up on septicemia I have little doubt that that's the problem. Unfortunately I broke the lens on my digital camera and it's in the shop right now getting fixed so I can't get a picture of him up. The outlook on the sickness is really bleak, do you think it best that I put him down before it gets any worse? Or should I wait on it?

 

Actually, septicemia isn't always that bad. I had a pond pump (actually a sump pump) leak oil into my pond earlier this year and all 12 of my goldies ended up developing septicemia (some really bad: Before treatment / After treatment).

The main thing is to keep the water quality pristine and get some antibiotics. Medicated foods are the best. If you can find some Medigold, that's probably the best medicated food available. Jungle makes some too, though, and it's not too bad if you can't get the Medigold. In addition to the medicated food, I'd get an antibiotic that you add to the water. My personal favorite is Maracyn 2.

-Chelle