New to goldfish, could use some advice.

[Malawidolphin]

Hello, I am new to keeping goldfish (pond fish) but have kept cichlids for years. I am in the process of getting my pond up and ready. I set up a 55g I had in storage and started the cycle with Used media from one of my fluvals from another tank and 5 giant danio dithers from another tank. With used media and an already established HOB filter I didn't see an ammonia/nitrite spike. Over the next couple of weeks I added 10 small, but very nice feeder comets and two 4.5" shubunkins. (I know feeders are usually poor quality, but the LFS I get fish from are exceptional with care and feeding and their feeders look like "pond comet" quality.) I did see a small ammonia spike of .50 and also a nitrite spike of.50. Both readings zeroed out after two 50% water changes in 2 days. That was about 10 days ago. I noticed the one of the feeder comets looked like it could have a couple of Ich spots. I proceeded to add salt like I usually do to treat Ich in my other tanks. I add One large Tbsp. per 5 gallons. The next day 2 of the feeders looked like their slime coat and skin was sloughing off. I figured maybe goldfish couldn't tollerate salt like my other fish so i did a 50% water change. Over the next couple of days those 2 improved. The giant danios and 2 other goldies showed Ich so I reluctantly bought Jungle Ich meds and started treatment. After 2 days the danios are the only ones with spots (and lots of them) so I removed them to a Qt. tank and am continuing the treatment of the goldfish tank for another few days. I didn't want to keep the danios in there because the Ich will have to drop off sooner or later and I didn't want to take the chance of not killing everything off.
Sorry this post is so long but I know the details are important when asking for advice.
Questions:
Do golfish not tolerate salt treatments?
Do they normally slough off their slime coat to get rid of illness?

[bigbad-ratman]

When my fancies had Ich, I used the heat treatment combines the daily water changes. Ich cleared up after about 3 days and was gone. I haven't used salt, so I can't comment on that method. Though a few of the more expereinced members will more than likely say that the salt method is over rated.

[Wild Turkey]

Actually the salt method works well, Ive used to use it in the past at half doses for treating sensitive fish. Take the heat up to the low 80s to speed up the life cycle and it works in about 5 days ime, but you should always treat for 5-7 days after the last signs so about 2 weeks. Its just an older method.

Nowadays there are a lot of meds that are safe for sensitive fish and they do work faster so I take that route. I use Rid Ich+. With the rid ich all the ich is generally gone in a day or two for me so the treatment time is about 1 week.

Slime coat protects fish from pathogens and parasites like ich, the move in combination with the small spikes probably attributed, fish generally succumb to ich during times of stress, its pretty typical.

[Malawidolphin]

Hi, and thank you for your replies. I have always used heat/salt with my other tanks with 100% success. Since my post the fish in question with his slime coat sloughing off has completely recovered. He looks bright and colorful and is still acting fne. One more fish started to show the same symptom but improved before he looked too bad. There is no longer any signs of Ich and I am keeping a close eye. The ammonia and Nitrite have been staying at zero so at least this one stresser is over. I will be putting them in my pond in about 1-2 weeks if the warm weather keeps up. I am getting a real soft spot for these little guys, especially two real nice Shubunkins I purchased.

[VoidParadigm]

Great to hear it all cleared up.

And shubunkins are really nice. As they get older they'll become more and more trusting of you. Good luck with them!