Please Help... Black Moor is sick

**xfrozen** · 02-24-2012, 11:57 AM

I have had my black moor for about a year now. He doesn't swim much, and usually just rests on the bottom of his tank. He's been doing that a lot lately, I don't think he did when I first got him. He only gets up for feedings and swims around for a few minutes after feedings. I added a calico fantail gold fish to his tank about a week ago now, but had to remove her as she was biting him (and ripped some of his fins). She's now in a different tank. Blacky (my black moor) had developed a white spot next to his dorsal fin, but that went away the next day or so. Then he developed a white spot on his tail.. but that also went away. I noticed that one of his eyes had a bit of white coloration (not the eye itself, but the "skin" of the bulge) but thought nothing of it since everything else white seemed to vanish after a couple of days. Last night, I noticed that he had white marks on the top of his eyes. I went to bed, and woke up to him having white rings around his eyes, and it's peeling. I think that it's definitely a fungus.
- I do 50% water changes every two weeks
- I treat the water with nutrafin cycle, waste control and previously aqua plus. I however switched aqua plus out when his fins were ripped for API stress coat plus.
- last time I checked (which was wednesday), his ammonia was around 0 and his pH seemed to be around 6.2. This tank always has a low pH for some reason and it's fluctuates between 6.2 and 6.6. To try and fix this (to see if this was why he doesn't swim much) I bought pH buffer tablets. However, after researching and reading forums online, it was suggested that pH spikes from pH buffers can kill your fish... so I did not try it after.
- I changed the water once I took the other fish, Marbles, out of the tank. I however, meant to take the filter out and change it, but decided not to because marbles isn't sick.
- I switched his food about three days ago as well, from Aqueon Goldfish Flakes to Nutrafin MAX Goldfish Color Enhancing Pellets because I thought that he might have swim bladder disease.. he did not like them however, and appeared to choke on them so I switched back to the flakes.
- He is in a ten gallon tank, and yes I realize that he should be in a 20-29gallon tank but since he doesn't swim much and his ammonia is never high, and appears to have plenty of space in this tank, I decided to stick with my 10 gallon. Also, my dad had about 6 comets and an algae eater in a 10 gallon for 5 years (would've been longer) until he gave them away.

I am VERY worried about my Black Moor, he was the fish that I had first and this breaks my heart.. I do not want to lose the poor thing (if this is a fatal disease).

**imma24** · 02-24-2012, 12:12 PM

It's nice you know your fish should be in a bigger tank - what you dad did doesn't mean it was the right thing to do - goldfish are supposed to grow to a minimum of 6" (depending upon what kind of fish it is) if kept in the right sized home.

It doesn't sound like you are testing your water for anything other than ammonia - testing water parameters also involves testing for nitrites & nitrates - are you aware of this? If either of those levels are too high (higher than 0ppm nitrites and higher than 20ppm nitrates), that can make your fish ill/stressed as well.

**Fishin Phil** · 02-24-2012, 12:18 PM

+1 to andreahp.

The other problem with a 10 gallon tank is that small volume of water can go bad very quickly. While it is good that you are doing 50% water changes, instead of every two weeks you should probably doing them twice a week.

I know you may not want to hear this, but for long term solutions you need to get that fish in a bigger tank and start testing for nitrites and nitrates as well as ammonia.

Good luck!

**xfrozen** · 02-24-2012, 12:21 PM

I'll see if I can find the money to get him a bigger tank. I don't mean to be rude, but I'd really like to know what's wrong with his eyes.... I had him for almost a year and this hasn't happened before.

**imma24** · 02-24-2012, 12:29 PM

Is there any way you could take a photo & post it?

Until someone here can suggest what the fish might have, considering you don't have the whole picture of your water parameters, it would worth your while to change the water in the tank - like 50% daily - many illnesses respond favorably to clean water - and how often do you vacuum your substrate? If there is too much gunk on the bottom of the tank, that can contribute also to poor water quality and illness - I know you really want to know what's wrong with his eyes but...until we can figure that out, it's very important to make sure the tank water is kept clean.

**xfrozen** · 02-24-2012, 12:31 PM

I did post pictures, they aren't showing up? Probably something with my photo bucket settings.. Hang on, please.

**xfrozen** · 02-24-2012, 12:37 PM

They aren't that great of quality, sorry.

**imma24** · 02-24-2012, 12:37 PM

I have to apologize - I can't always see photos from the computer I'm using - plus, it would help if you posted your concern under the "fish diseases" subforum or under "coldwater/goldfish" because then you might find someone who has seen what your goldfish has - however, the same questions I already asked and the recommendations I made will only be repeated there. There might be some kind of medication available if its treatable, but I don't want to get into territory I'm not familiar with. Also, please be patient waiting for someone to respond to you - I know you are upset over this, but sometimes the person who has experience with your problem isn't necessarily online when you are - sometimes you need to wait a bit. Good luck!