Help Please! Goldfish with no scales!

[clefairy]

Hi! I hope you guys will be able to answer this.
Aproximately a year ago, me and my sister not knowing too much about goldfish set up our old 20 gallon and bought a few goldfish for it. After about a few weeks, only one goldfish survived. A white orange and black fan tailed goldfish.

While the others got sick, this one lost all of its scales except for 2 of them. It has been a year since last april and he still hasnt grown them back, yet he is perfectly healthy and happy and fine. So will he ever get them back? His skin just looks very slippery

[Lab_Rat]

Can you post a picture? I've never seen a goldfish without scales before.

[clefairy]

i'll try but it is SUPER hard for me to get a non blurry photo. It is late here so I will try and post one tomorrow

[clefairy]

Sorry for double posting but I got a screenshot of a video I took of these fish four months ago, of course now they are a bit bigger and their tails are longer..

the two things shining are its only two scales... it has none on its other side.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a192/lolzy594/fish.png

[Lab_Rat]

That's very interesting, I've never seen that before. Generally when my fish have lost a scale due to fighting, etc, they grow back on your own. I'd be extra careful to keep your water clean, with frequent water changes. I'd also be careful to not have any sharp decorations in there since he's missing some protection. I have no idea about him growing them back.

[clefairy]

Well thanks for your help. I guess he is used to the water and the way I manage it because he's been living for a year with no problems. If anyone has the same problem please help, i want this guy to have his scales back.

[Brhino]

I have a goldfish that lost five or so scales about two and a half months ago. He has not grown the back yet. I'm not sure what to make of it either.

[Lindsey]

I'm interested to hear more about this. At the pet store I'm working at, we received a shipment of pearlscales last week where half a dozen of them lost all their scales shortly after going into the display tank. There are three still alive, one of which looked like he wasn't long for this world tonight, and the other two are acting relatively normal considering how awful they look. The others all died quickly. I don't know what could've caused something like that, it would have to be a lot of trauma to lose all those scales.

[Dacotah7]

Hi! I hope you guys will be able to answer this.
Aproximately a year ago, me and my sister not knowing too much about goldfish set up our old 20 gallon and bought a few goldfish for it. After about a few weeks, only one goldfish survived. A white orange and black fan tailed goldfish.

While the others got sick, this one lost all of its scales except for 2 of them. It has been a year since last april and he still hasnt grown them back, yet he is perfectly healthy and happy and fine. So will he ever get them back? His skin just looks very slippery

The skin appearing slippery is the natural slime coat, which is probably greater than normal, and considering the absence of scales is probably doing double duty, keeping it alive. The slime coat is naturally found on fish. It is a protective layer.

I would not say the fish is perfectly healthy and happy and fine as it is supposed to have scales and does not.

What does it have, or what is the cause, I am not certain. I spent the past hour and half searching, reading, trying to figure it out and say with certainty, which I cannot. It may be Myxosporidiosis because loss of the scales is a symptom. A microscope and a sample from the fish's slime coat or skin would prove or disprove if it is.

What I found about Myxosporidiosis, is that there is one heck of a lot of plagiarism (copying others work or site content without giving credit due the source, by footnotes, endnotes or quoting the source) on the internet. I read the same thing 9 different ways never finding the source, but the information was posted as theirs or they being the authority.

The sources ranged from hobbyists, blogs, ask-a-question type sites, fish supply store sites, fish forums, marine biologists, PHD's, to universities and state fish & game department sites. I placed more creditably in the last half of those than the first half.

That part aside, what did I find about treating Myxosporidiosis if it is indeed that? The answers vary widely from there is no treatment available, to some things one can try at home which I will cover below, chemical treatments, to immunizations, to chemotherapy. One person on a site that implies they are the authority on gold fish even states, that no on knows what Myxosporidiosis is, the name is really only a term used to describe the symptoms. That certainly is not true, because ther are websites that show what it looks like under a microscope, with very detailed biological information about it. Self-Proclaimed Authorities: Ha!

Practical Things You Can Try
Whatever it is that you are doing, has not worked in the past year; therefore I would try something different.

First off, do you have a test kit? If so what are your readings?
Ph, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, General Hardness and Carbonate Hardness.

What is the temperature?

Are there Tank Mates?
If so I would consider quarantining this Gold Fish.

What are you feeding, how much and how often?

What kind of filter do you have and what filter media is in it?
How do you service it?
How often?
Do you do water changes? How much & how often?

Do the fish ever gulp for air at the surface?
Hangout lethargic, inactive?
Do the gills look normal, pink, clean not swollen or spots?
Are the eyes clear?
Does it swim normal?

The point behind my questions is I am looking for a clue, something wrong or that could be better. As you lost all of the rest of the fish in short period over a year ago, I think you had a problem of some sort back then. The problem could still exist.

I would quarantine the scale-less fish, keep the water quality very high and feed a high quality diet; providing the best chance for recovery.

I would also try massive (meaning 100%) water changes, daily; moving it to a fresh bucket of aged water (aged 24 hours) every day. Feed the fish about an hour before moving it to a fresh bucket, leaving any uneaten food behind. Being a gold fish, uneaten food may not be an issue. You will need 2 or 3 buckets. When you move the fish, clean out the old bucket and get it ready with fresh water for later. How long do you keep doing this? That is up to you and your persistence. Any sign of improvement would be motivation to keep doing it. If nothing changes after a couple of week, well than it is just a lot of extra work for nothing, but at least you tried something new and different.

I am not a big advocate of using chemicals, but in this case a slime coat product may be helpful. I also read where as one may not know what the fish has, an option would be to use a broad spectrum Rx and medicate per the label. I don't know what a broad spectrum medicine is, or if there is such a thing, or if the author that wrote that was trying to make themselves sound like a knowledgeable authority. Check at your LFS.

I think I know what I would do with this fish, but you probably do not want to hear it. Good Luck.