Veins shown on my goldie's tail

[judit]

Hi guys,

I am new on this forum. I have a problem with my tank and through my research I found this forum.
I had a tank for about 4 years and everything was fine until about a month ago.
I have a 60 gallon tank with Tetra Whisper EX70 filter. The tank has rocks in it and about 10 plants in it. A month ago one of my two goldfishes got sick and died a day later. I think it was my fault pretty much because I did not change the water for about two months. I got busy with school and somehow I did not notice that I did not change the water. Before that I changed water every month one time (about 50% of the water). The two fishes lived with me for about four years so I got very upset.

Real fast I changed the water and cleaned very good the tank. i suspect that I cleaned more than good because since then I cannot get it right and my fishes are suffering. After the big cleaning i went to the store to check the water quality. They advised me to change 50% of the water again what I did. One week later, I again went back to check the quality. They said the water is good now so I got four more goldfishes (about two weeks ago). My remaining one goldfish seemed lethargic without his buddy. With the new friends he became more active. I believed everything is good but then I started to notice veins showing on the tail of my old goldfish and day by day more vein was shown. The rest of my four new ones were good.

Back again to the store. They said the water quality is not good. I don't know why did they say before that the quality was good. Anyway, afterwards I changed 20% of the water every two days without vacuuming the floor. I got the advice that probably i cleaned out too much good bacteria from the gravel. But my old goldie looked worse with the lines on the tail. Again water check: they said in the store that the quality is very close so i should do small water changes every few days. I changed 20-30% of the water again. Eventually my old fish got fuzzy looking white spots on him. This new symptom occured two days ago

Again back and forth to two different aquarium store for advice. I started to treat the water with API Melafix and Pimafix. I took out the active carbon filter but left the filter running. Now, I am treating the water for 3 days without the active carbon filtration. The water got cloudy. I bought several testing equipment to check the quality of the water on my own.

As of now:
Nitrate: 0-20 ppm
Nitrite: 0-0.5
Hardness: 120 ppm
Alkalinity: 80 ppm
pH: 6.8 ppm
according to the Mardel 5 in 1 test strip.

Ammonia: 0.25

Now I don't know what to do. If I put back the carbon filter it will filter the medication out, right? But without the filter I am very scared that the water quality will be worse. Should I put back the filter?

Also, I read online that it is better to buy double filter capacity than advised. Should I buy another Tetra Whisper EX70?

Can someone tell me why are the veins showing on the fishes tails. Just my old fishes tail is very bad, the rest of them veins are slightly seen.

I am very confused by the several different advises I got from the pet stores and anyway none of them seem to work.

Please help me if you have an idea what should I do. I really want to get the tank right and don't want to lose my fish which i had for 4 years.

Thank you very much!

Judit




 

[judit]

Just noticed the clinic questions.

    Ammonia Level?  0.25
    Nitrite Level? 0-0.5
    Nitrate Level (Before and After WC's)? 0-20
    Ph (in tank and out of tap)?   6.8
    GH and KH?

2. Tank Size?  How long has it been running?  How many gallons?
60 gallon

3. Name and size of your filters?
tetra whisper ex70

4. How many fish in the tank?  Their size?
two of them about 2 inches, one is about 3 inches and my old one is about 6 inches

5. How often and how much water do you change?
as of now, every 2-3 days about 25-30%

6. Water additives or conditioners used?
API stress coat

7. What do you feed your fish?
tetrafin goldfish flakes

8. Any medications added to the tank?
API Melafix and Pimafix

9. Any new fish added to the tank?  When?
2 weeks ago

10. Any new plants added to the tank?
7 new plants

11. Any unusual behavior from the fish?
      Fish are hanging near the surface and gulping for air and breathing rapidly.
      no

      Fish are scratching themselves against objects in the tank (flashing).
      I think my old fish is doing this but I cannot see anything on him
     
      Fish has visible parasites or attached worms.
      no
     
      Fish floating upside down.
      no
     
      Fish has cloudy eyes.
      just noticed a little bit on the old fish with whom i have the most problem
     
      Fish have white spots.
      one of the smaller seems to have some white dots

      Fish is bloated and scales are standing out like a pinecone.
      no
     
      Fish have black spots on body and/or fins.
      no
     
      Fish have ulcers, lumps, or brown spots.
      no
     
      Fungus or white cottony patches on the fish. no
      since i put pimafix and melafix in the tank the fluffy spots disappeared

12. Well, city or RO water used for WC's?
city

13. Tank/Pond Temperature? 70-75

I put the old fish to another tank (10 gallon) which has no ammonia in. My frogs lived in this tank but I removed them. The oldie goldie was just laying on the bottom of the big tank so I thought that I must get out of there.

Judit

[zookey]

I am so sorry to hear you are having problems with your fish.

The first thing I suggest is to get rid of the strip tests and purchase a liquid test kit as they are much more accurate in reading the water parameters.  API Master kit is a good one if you can get it.  If you cannot find one locally you may want to order one online from somewhere like http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+4345+4454&pcatid=4454

Also if you go to the store to have a water test run ask them for specific numbers so you know what the test results really are.... to one person "good" can mean a totally different thing than to another.

If you are showing ammonia and nitrite readings your tank has lost it's cycle and you need to continue water changes daily to keep those numbers under control.  High nitrates can also cause the veining in the tails of your fish.  Again water changes will keep this number down. Once the tank is fully cycled again I would suggest doing at least a 25% water change EVERY week not once a month. Also to help get your cycle started I suggest using Stability by Seachem.  It is a bacterial supplement that will assist you in re-establishing balance in your tank.

A recommendation for the future... always quarantine new fish and plants before adding them to your tank as they can be carrying parasites/diseases that can affect your existing fish/plants.

At one point you say you can see white spots on the fish... do they appear like salt crystals??  If they do then it sounds like ICH.  You need to vacuum the gravel to get that parasite out of your tank.  ICH can be killed with Aquarium Salt in its free swimming stage (before you see it on the fish) but it is constantly hatching from eggs in the substrate so it is important to vacuum them out.  See the this article for Salt treatment for illness --> http://www.aquapuppies.com/aquapuppies/index.php/topic,5.0.html

A second filter will never hurt your tank...  I am not familiar with the particular filter you have mentioned and don't know what the Gallons Per Hour (gph) turnover it has so before buying a second one please look to see what the gph is and then figure out how much more gph you need to add to the original filter to achieve a 10 times your tank volume gph. 



Are you dosing daily with the Melafix and Primafix?  You should be if you are not.  You can use these in conjunction with the salt with no adverse reactions.  Still leaving the carbon out of your filter.

That is all I can think of for now for advice..... I will re-read your post and see if I can see anything I have neglected.  Also someone else may have other good advice for you as well.

Best of luck with your fish!