u/Goldenfins1029

Hello everyone! I am reaching out because I honestly believe I could have found a clue to what is causing my Dorito (my goldfish) his strange behavior. I invested in a cheap microscope to see if maybe I could find something that they naked eye cannot see. I was able to obtain a poop sample from him and placed it under the microscope. I need help identifying what those worm like things are in his poop. I’m quite certain that it’s not normal. I would greatly appreciate everyone’s input in identifying this gross creature and what medications to use to eradicate this pest!

Hello everyone! I am posting an update on my goldfish. He is still the same, bottom sitting, gulping at the surface, (started about a month and a half ago) erratic swimming (erratic swimming started maybe 1-2 weeks ago) but now he is more visibly irritated (constant iching started about 2-4 days ago) by something. Like he is trying to scratch something off. For the most part, he usually swims back and forth all day, similar to my first post, while gulping at the surface after EVERY lap he goes around the tank. He is barely laying down at this point because he can’t stay still for very long. I apologize for the video being so dark but it was almost midnight and I think he was trying to sleep but just couldn’t because of possible irritation. He looks like he was scratching. I wish I could post multiple videos so everyone can get a good picture of how he acts but this video in particular you are able to see the visible “itching” he is doing because in the morning he is mostly just swimming back and forth erratically and gulping at the surface. I am currently treating the tank with polyguard by seachem and have 1 tablespoons per 3 gals of aquarium salt. I was testing his appetite today, he was not interested in food. He was too focus on gulping at the surface and swimming frantically. (He has worsen, because I tried to feed him 2 days ago and he would eat, very little. 5 days ago his appetite was normal. Not healthy normal but normal in which he would come up to me and beg me for food)

Water parameters : ammonia and nitrite 0 nitrate 20-30 ph:8

Some of my suspensions of what could be his issue and would greatly appreciate some help/ advice in possibly narrowing down his problem.

- possible gill/skin fluke infestation. (With all the erratic behavior/flashing/scratching that he has been presenting I think it could be a case of flukes? I don’t have a microscope to confirm however, not sure how else I can confirm.)

-septicemia… he had some red streaks on his body when he first was sick and not doing good at all about a month ago but disappeared. A few streaks have showed up about 4 days ago and I think it could be because he’s really stressed again. (I’m not sure how bacterial septicemia progresses, so I don’t know if it’s possible for the infection to leave and come back) (I have been medicating with polyguard for 5 weeks now)

-At one point I thought it could be ich but he never presented any salt grain parasites on his body

- I was doing some research and I saw that I should be adding carbon in between of treatments and I’ll be honest out of the whole 5 weeks I’ve been treating my poor baby, I haven’t added any carbon in between treatments. But I have been doing the necessary water changes after the treatment is complete. Maybe there’s too much medication in the water and since I haven’t used carbon to detoxify the water, it’s becoming too stressful for my fishy?

- in my other post a lot of ppl were telling me it was an environmental issue. Not so much an infection. I was quite certain at one point too. That maybe me overmedicating is what is causing so much of his stress. So I stopped medicating for about 3 days and now I’m in this sticky situation where he has gotten worse and now he isn’t improving with meds. I no longer think it’s an environmental issue but more of an infection that is taking over him slowly

- he has had white stringy poop but I was told that because he is surface gulping a ton it could mean anything. From a parasite to the irritation of his GI tract.

Backstory in case you might not be aware of my previous post:

This started about a month and half ago. My really ill fishy began to show symptoms. And then my other two goldies followed. At that point I began to medicate (one week after my first showed symptoms and about 2 days after my other two became symptomatic)

I medicated with polyguard and my other two became better after a well but I would continue to medicate because they would get bad again. Eventually after 3 weeks they were constantly better but I medicated for one more week just to be sure. (This is where I didn’t medicate all of them for about 3 days because my other would get really stressed and I thought maybe his symptoms could have been because of overmedication) I moved them to a bigger tank eventually but kept my ill on in the tank to continue medicating as I noticed he getting worse. He has been medicating alone for about 5 days but he doesn’t seem to be improving. I’m thinking maybe I extremely messed up in stopping meds for those days and whatever was messing with him came back even worse (he was doing so much better the days prior he would occasionally only bottom sit, that’s y I thought maybe it could just be an overmedication issue)

MY QUESTION:
I’m afraid to medicate for the wrong disease on a already weakened fish? Should I start to treat for flukes as I suspect that could be the issue, presented by his symptoms? I was thinking of using api general cure or would prazipro would work best?

I am already medicating with polyguard seachem he has two more days left of the week treatment, should I stop treatment and use another med since it seems that it’s not working? Or am I being too impatient and let the med work? But I have been medicating for 5 weeks at this point. He has improved in the past but I feel the second I start to see improvements I am so stupid and start to lower the dose of salt or have stopped the meds completely. But he has never gone back to how he was.

I greatly appreciate if you made it this far into this essay. I’m really desperate in finding answers and I’m scared to do the wrong thing since he is already what I feel like on his last few moments of life 😔

Hello everyone. It feels like these might be my last cries for help for my goldfish. He has been sick for over a month now and I haven't been able to pinpoint what is causing his illness. He has had very general symptoms: clamped fins, gulping at the surface of the tank, bottom-sitting, reduced appetite. Which has been making it hard to figure out what is wrong with him. I had other fishies in this tank that were sick with him but as I medicated for weeks they got better at about 4 weeks, they were fine after one week but I continued to just be sure and I stopped medicating them and transferred them to a new tank 2 days ago. My sick goldfish would definitely show signs of improvement every few weeks but never back to his original state. I kept going to different pet store asking what could be wrong with them and everyone would tell me something different. A few days ago, I was convinced that maybe it was my stocking was the problem (3 goldies in a 20 gal) (I understand that I believe this is the main reason why I'm in this situation) and not so much medication. So I stopped medication for 2-3 days to see how they would act.
My other 2 goldfish were fine but my sick one seemed to get sicker and would hesitate to come up for food. So l tried my best to get my others out of the tank now that they were improving and leave my sick goldfish to medicate. As of last night, my goldfish that I left in the tank started to have more erratic behavior. As we speak, he is erratically swimming, continuously gulping at the surface, he seems to be scatching his face on the gravel and eventually lays on the ground but looks very exhausted. Rapid breathing and not looking very good. I don't know what to do. He began to do this after I switched over my other fishies and it has just been worse. I added salt (1 tablespoon per 3 gals over hrs) to see if it could help his distress.

Medication I'm using: Seachem Polyguard and over a few hours slowly added 1 tablespoon per 3 gals of aquarium salt.
Ammonia: 0.25 (I’m wondering if maybe it’s because he is rapidly breathing? It hasn’t gone up from 0 in a few yrs, yesterday it was still 0; havent fed him today)
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Ph: 8
I've been keeping ammonia and nitrite at 0 and nitrate at 20-30. l've been struggling with high ph and the reason why I stopped dosing salt to try to bring down ph but wasn't very successful. It's stayed 8-8.2 throughout treatment.

* since ammonia is 0.25 should I still do a WC while medicating? Would I just medicate the new water and add salt?