Help Please!

[james7]

I have hurt one of my fish:scry:

I was syphoning some water out to change it and my little pearl scales got stuck to the end of the syphon. It was only literally for a second or so:scry:

He seems ok apart from some small damage to the outer scales on both gills. Its like the outer orange colour has lifted and there is a bit of silver underneath (which has always been there) Its not red and does not look sore etc and he seems to be acting ok after hiding for a little while. I tried to photograph it but it does not really show up at all in a photo.

I know its difficult to say but has anyone got any suggestions as to what I should do? Do I need to add anything to the water to prevent it being a problem? There is a small amount (0.1 mg/ltr) of nitrite in the water due to a recent tank swap but is improving by the day. Is this an issue?

65 litre tank
5 fancy goldfish
0 ammonia
0.1 nitrite
Very small level of nitrate

Thanks in advance
James

[mrs fishpatrick]

you could try a bit of stress coat wich works for the slime coat naturally found on a fish

[james7]

Thanks. I will get some tomorrow.

[Wild Turkey]

It should repair itself with regular tank maintenance, if it doesnt improve after a while you can separate the fish and treat it with melafix.

That tiny bit of nitrite shouldnt be a problem, just make sure to test daily so you know its still dropping.

[Gemini]

It should repair itself with regular tank maintenance, if it doesnt improve after a while you can separate the fish and treat it with melafix.

That tiny bit of nitrite shouldnt be a problem, just make sure to test daily so you know its still dropping.
I'll agree with all that. Especially the nitrite - keep an eye on it!

[Mvjnz]

Your tank is too small for 1 goldfish, you certainly shouldn't be keeping 5 in there. That's prolly why you have nitrite, because your tank is way overstocked and the filter isn't strong enough. For 5 goldfish you'd need at least 300 litres.

[james7]

Thanks. Thats put my mind at rest a bit! I have been testing on a daily basis and its not had any spikes etc

Mvjnz

Just re read my post! I originally wrote 300 ltrs but then noticed that most people on this site seem to work in gallons so I changed the figure to 65 but forgot to change ltrs to galls. Sorry for confusion(blush)
Reading this site is a big part of the reason for getting the bigger tank a month or so ago :goldfish:

[Gemini]

Thanks. Thats put my mind at rest a bit! I have been testing on a daily basis and its not had any spikes etc

Mvjnz

Just re read my post! I originally wrote 300 ltrs but then noticed that most people on this site seem to work in gallons so I changed the figure to 65 but forgot to change ltrs to galls. Sorry for confusion(blush)
Reading this site is a big part of the reason for getting the bigger tank a month or so ago :goldfish:
Ok you really want ammonia and nitrites at 0, and nitrates no higher than 20ppm. The nitrite should be dropping and nitrAte appearing.
Haha I got confused when I first started when converting litres to gallons! Glad to hear they have more room than 65L!! And really glad to see your planning on a bigger tank!

[Mvjnz]

Oh good:) I never bother converting, as metric is the superior system anyway:)

What kind of filter do you have?Anything bigger than 100 litres usually needs an external filter, and because they are goldfish they are messy and need extra strong filtration. I'd be worried about the filter not being big/strong enough if I was seeing nitrites in an established tank.

They're not at a dangerous level, but there shouldn't be any at all.

[gm72]

I would just add stress coat and continue with regular water changes. Should be just fine.

[james7]

Thanks for the help everyone:22:

I have just put some stress coat in!

The tank is a juwel rio 300 which has a built in filter. The sponges etc are quite large (similar sized to the external ones of a similar capacity) so hopefully should be ok. The smaller tank had 0 ammonia,nitrite and nitrate so I reckon this larger one should be fine. But will keep testing to make sure of course!

Its not an established tank as I changed them from a smaller one very recently so I think its just a small cycle causing it but I did use the media from the old tank which was working all ok.

James