Dave's goldfish: recap of events so far
 

This will be a long & detailed summary of events so far.

As of right now, Goldie is doing very well. Her size is back to
normal and the pineconing is gone. She's eating well, and her poop is
normal (small greenish-brown segments similar to rice.)

I'm relatively new to keeping goldfish. I first got the two of them
about 6 months ago. Goldie came from my uncle and he was not sure
of her age. Wally came from Walmart and was very young.

I set them up in a 30 gallon tank. It has two separate
filter setups, each with bio and chemical filtering. Ioriginally
had a half-inch of gravel & stones at the bottom, with plenty of
aeration. No plants at all. Did a lot of reading, and learned
that ammonia and nitrites were very dangerous. I did not realize
that nitrates were also dangerous. Picked up an API 5-in-1 test
kit, and did regular ammonia and nitrite tests, and occassional
nitrate tests.
PH has always been about 7.8
I did not have a heater, and let the aquarium water adjust to
the house temp, which fluctuated between the high 60's and low 80's
during this past summer..
I did 1/3 water changes about once a week and vacuumed the
bottom..

They first got ich, about a month after I got Wally. That
taught me about the need for quarentining.
I read everything I could on goldfish disease. Dr. Solo
advised 0.3% salt treatment. I did that, and the ich went away after
a short time. After that I kept the aquarium water at 0.1 to 0.15%
salted, thinking that salt was a cure-all for many problems.
(Wrong!)

In mid-August, Goldie (a fantail) got pop-eye, and a thick
white film clouded over 1 eye. She also had ragged fins and red spots
and streaks. Stopped eating and hid a lot. Lethargic
I was sure I was going to lose her. Did more research, plus
read more past posts from Dr. Solo and others in this group.

I had gotten lax about changing the water. The ammoniia and
nitrites were both zero due to good filtering, but I let the nitrates
get too high for too long. (API test was deep red for over a week.)
I decided that the new problems were due to nitrate poisoning.

I started doing more water changes to lower the nitrates. I also
added more salt . I got rid of all the gravel & stones at the
bottom. Added melafix. (It claimed to help pop-eye.)

After a week or so, Goldie seemed to get better. The red spots
went away, the pop-eye slowly reduced back to normal, and the
cloudiness went away. She started eating again, and stopped hiding..

I thought everything would be fine, until the morning of Sept.
5th. Overnight Goldie had ballooned into a blimp, and started to
pinecone. I quickly added more salt. (wrong!) She was filled with
fluid, and apparently regular salt holds the fluids in.

Did more research and learned about dropsy. Turns out it is not
a disease per say, but rather a symptom that can be caused by many
different factors. Some can be treated, others can't. I went back
and read all the posts I could find on dropsy.
I posted a mew message on the same day ((9-5). (First one was on
8-22.) Dr. Solo was again very helpful.

I made the assumption that this dropsy was caused by internal
bacteria due as a result of the bad water (nitrates.) My guess is
that adding the extra salt back in August got rid of her slime coat
and let the bacteria get inside. Its only a guess.

I got a cheap 15 gallon plastic rubbermaid tub at Walmart. Got a
heater and 2 thermometers. Quarentined her and quickly raised the
temp to about 86-88 over a period of less than a day. (The main tank
was about 70-72 degrees.) The high temp apparently kills the
bacteria responsible.

Gave her all new fresh water with NO salt at all. Lots of
aeration. Added epsom salts (a laxative).. Started using maracyn-2
(a water-borne antibiotic) that claims to combat dropsy. Its made by
Mardel and each packet contains 10mg minocycline. Applied it at
about 1 1/2 times the recommended dosage. Continued it for about
10-12 days.
I tried to find romet B antibiotic food, with no luck at all.

I saw no changes/imporovements for several days. The first signs
of improvement were that she started to eat again. Poop was long and
thin, and sometimes clear at first. It gradually got thicker, shorter
and darker.

There was no change in the bloating or pineconing until the morning of
9-17.
When I checked on her, I noticed that both had started to go down.

By that evening the change was dramatic. Both were almost
completely gone. Goldie was active, eating well and her poop was
normal.

As I write this late on the 19th, she is still doing very well. I
realize that she may always have a problem and may need special care.
She is still quarentined, with the temps at 86-89. There is lots
of aeration, complete water changes every other day, and constant
monitoring of the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. (a little ammonia
but no nitrites or nitrates.) When doing a complete water change, I
use a second identical tub, and aerate the water and raise it to
86-89 degrees before making the switch.
No more gravel & stones. In a week or so I will try __very
slowly__ lowering the water temp, and keeping a careful eye. I am
also starting to slowly raise the temp in the main 30 gallon tank. If
Goldie does not relapse, I will put her back in the main tank in a
couple weeks.
If she survives, I will never again get lax with water changes
and let the nitrates get too high.

It's been a lot of work on my part, with a lot of research &
learning as well. Once again, I thank Dr. Solo for her advice. I
also appreciate the many websites I have found, as well as several
dozen posts in this newsgroup going back several years.

I realize that her long-term prognosis is still unknown, and I
was lucky that she appears to have had a treatable form of dropsy.
Some forms of dropsy apparently are not treatable and are always
fatal.

I hope I gave all the facts and steps correctly in this post. I
did it mostly from memory. If anyone is interested, they might want
to go back and read my previous posts. If there are any
contradictions, those earlier posts will be more accurate. My posts
on this subject can be found on 8-22, 8-23, 9-5, 9-6, 9-10, 9-15,
9-17 (twice) and this one.

And thanks, Mel, for your encouragement & support along the way.

Dave123