Pearl scale Gold fish - swollen belly

[soumendu]

Hi ,

One of my relatives are facing this issue with one of their Gold fish. Unfortunately they have no test kits (tank is running for over 2 years). Its a 100 liter tank with total 3 Gold fishes. I think they might have missed out on weekly maintenance (water changes etc) which started this. The Gold in question is a pearlscale gold fish.

Things attempted so far :

1. Methylene blue bath + salt + Epsom salt (since last 3 weeks)

2. Initially bath was done with added Metronidazole. Kanamycin was dosed in tank. 

3. Metronidazole soaked food.

4. One dosage of Levamisole given to tank about 7 days back. 


After about 5-7 doses of Kanamycin - it was stopped. Currently they are continuing with MB + salt + Epsom salt bath 2 times a day.  

There has been not much improvement in swelling. Currently the fish is being hand fed 

Trying to attach a current photo - it does look really bad. 




Please suggest if anything can be done. 

I am sorry - i cannot provide more info about pH , kH , gH as they do not have any test kits. 

[Carl]

Sorry for this problem.

This fish unfortunately looks very bad, and I have my doubts how much an really help at this point

I will note that Epsom Salts are best used in a bath, which I am not clear was done or not.

Where I will go is more to what brought this on, as prevention is the key and also what is important for prevention also make treating easier. If certain issues continue to exist, all the treatments in the world will not help.

As you noted, you do not have access to test kits for them, but certain aquarium keeping procedures can generally guarantee good water parameters.

Problems like this severe bloating are often related to poor diets and feeding procedures as well as poor water quality, so these at least in the future need to be addressed.
Sometimes genetics can play a role too, but this is a little more difficult to address.

I would suggest to follow everything or as many points as possible in the outline of this article:
www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Disease.html

Carl

[soumendu]

Yes Carl - i know what you mean and i had told them the same thing. The Epsom salt was given in the bath. It was already badly swollen when i tried to help them. They are still continuing Epsom salt baths along with MB and salt.

Does starting again with Kanamycin help in any way ? It just feels so bad seeing the fish - it had stopped eating when the medication was started and i thought it will improve. But it just kept the fish hanging apart from it started to eat from hand ....

I think they missed out to gravel clean and did not do enough water change ...but am sure something was not done right for sure for long period.

Anything which can be tried ? it just feels bad not doing (trying) anything .

[devonjohnsgard]

You can treat up to 14 days Kanamycin, then are suppose to take a break. So I think a break is needed. You could try Kanamycin soaked food if it's eating after the break?

[soumendu]

Thanks a lot Carl. Is Chloramphenicol an option ? If yes - please let me know the dosage. There are some medications for humans still available in India (250 mg and 500 mg capsules) but i don't know the dosage.

[Carl]

Sept 13, 2016 1:48:27 GMT -5 soumendu said:

Thanks a lot Carl. Is Chloramphenicol an option ? If yes - please let me know the dosage. There are some medications for humans still available in India (250 mg and 500 mg capsules) but i don't know the dosage.

Yes, Chloramphenicol is an option.

However I cannot emphasize more that this type of swelling is something more than almost any other disease is "cause" driven. Not removing the cause will 100% result in failure of treatment.

Carl

[soumendu]

Since i do not have a way to increase GH or get Medicated wonder shells - can i ask them to do a deep graveling and do 25% or 30% water change for next 4-5 days ? That should at least help with the water? I saw in some other thread(in this forum) that chloremphenicol dosage is 250 mg per 10 gallons of water - is that correct ?

1. Tank treatment with chloremphenicol 250 mg per 10 g - for how many days can we treat  ?
2. Continue with MB + NaCL + Epsom salt bath (twice a day) or should Epsom salt be taken out ? 
3. Soak food with Kanamycin - is this still needed - most importantly - can we mix kanamycin and chloremphenicol ? 
4. Do 25% water change everyday along with deep gravel / cleanup ?

Can you please confirm if the above sounds proper ?

Thanks a lot again Carl !. 

Soumendu

[Carl]

Yes, this may help, but it depends upon the mineralization of the new water used.
If poor mineralization, it will not help much here.

Feeding is the other aspect of this issue as a low quality food is a major player in this condition. As well making sure the food is soaked to prevent trapped air is important for goldfish.

References:
www.americanaquariumproducts.com/ProperGoldfishFeeding.html

www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Quality_Fish_Food.html

Carl

[soumendu]

I know they feed quality food (Hikari) and soak food for 15 minutes. I am hoping new water should do the trick because they were able to keep the fishes for over 2 years.

Please confirm about whether we need to soak food in Kanamycin too ? Also how many doses of Chloremphenicol. I assume the dosage of 250 mg per 10 gallons of water is right.

[Carl]

Yes, you can soak the fish food with Kanamycin too.

Hikari is a decent fish food, however it is noteworthy that their goldfish diet have double the energy levels of what is optimum which can lead to fatty liver disease which in turn can result in many other issues including bloating

Reference:
www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Quality_Fish_Food.html

Carl

[soumendu]

Thanks a lot Carl - i will surely look into the link you provided - it will help me as well for choosing food for my goldies (hopefully i will find right ones in India)

[Carl]

Sept 13, 2016 16:18:47 GMT -5 soumendu said:

Thanks a lot Carl - i will surely look into the link you provided - it will help me as well for choosing food for my goldies (hopefully i will find right ones in India)

Keep in mind many products too can be shipped there.

I know GlobalPost is a new service that is less expensive for packages under 2 kilograms and is shipping to many countries now. I do not believe India is on the list, but hopefully someday.

stamps.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3802/~/globalpost

Carl

[soumendu]

To close this thread - the fish did not make it beyond a day of new treatment. Thanks to Carl and Devon and all who helped - at least we tried. I am sure now - they understand the importance of maintaining a healthy aquarium. They had some medical issues in the family due to which they couldn't keep up with the maintenance for many weeks - the tank for neglected. Lessons learnt .

But thanks again for trying to help us out !.

[devonjohnsgard]

Sorry for your loss