Bad Oranda Luck

I just recently lost one of my orandas. I had him for about 8 months.
He was quite normal until about 3-4 days before he died. Symptoms
were that he just sat on the bottom, then would kind of lean to the
side. He would be like this in the morning, but would then begon to
swim around reasonably normal. He also had what appeared to be a bit
of bloodshot-edness in his fins.

After about 2 days, I treated the tank with Mardel Coppersafe and
Marycyn 2. He got progressively worse, finally laying on the tank
either nose down or upside down. Total sick time until the end was
only about 5 days or so.

Now, what I have read after the fact, there seems to be a bit of
evidence toward the diet of the fish. I have other fish in the tanke,
and I have been feeding them a dry food, Hikari Ciclid Gold. Years
ago, I used this food with the same types of fish and had no problems,
so I thought I was OK. Anyway, there seems to be a lot of discussion
pointing to varied foods, such as brine shrimp, freeze dried worms,
and green peas. I have also read that dry food is better pre-soaked.

It was very upsetting to see him go like this, especially since I
could not really see where I had went wrong.

Tank parameters at the time (55 gal tank): ph about 7.2, ammonia
neutral, long tubular airstone, Fluval 304 filter, wter crystal clear,
temp around 77 deg. I have some live plants, mostly ferns and grass.
3 Lights, all on a timer which has them on about 8 hours a day.

Any thoughts, direction, and or advice would be greatly appreciated as
I really love the orandas and would like to get another.

Additionally, this was not the first goldfish problem. About a month
ago, one of my large black moors got what appeared to be a large
lesion on his side back by his tail fin. I tried what I thought was
the correct remedies for parasite, but ultimately lost him too.

And, my remaining moor now has a smaller, less ugly lesion in the same
place. I have treated the tanke with the Coppersafe again, but I just
do not know what else to try.

Thanks.

Jim
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