So i have a goldfish about 5-6 inches long looks like a feeder that survived from a year ago or so but anyways i noticed that a lot of his scales are missing, he acts normal he still has his daily routine of picking up every single rock in my 135 and spitting it out so i dunno what to think! any thoughts and yes all water parameters are normal.
Fish loosing scales??
- Thread starter macattack
- Start date
I have seen the same thing with my girlfriends goldie. Its just a common goldfish thats a whopping 38 cents. From my understanding is that with them being as active swimmers as they are, and what you describe constantly brushing up against anything in the tank could loosen the scales to wear they would fall off. As long as he was well taken care of and the water param are kept well, it shouldn't be fretted over.
You may want to check around his gill area for any white cysts. It could be a sign of myxosporidia which is a protazoa that can attack goldfish, and it is usually fatal. If the dents from the missing scales are reddish colored, it may be costia. That is easy to treat with frequence water changes and aquarium salt.
I am not sure that goldfish shed, but no one has told me they dont. I would assume they got slightly damaged and fell off. But as you have lost a "lot" I wouldnt be able to tell you anything for sure. A guess of how many scales are missing would be helpful.
Have you added aquarium salt(FW only) to your tank? That usually helps completely reduce the protozoa in your tank to almost nothing keeping it ich and velvet clean
Are the scales missing on one side, both sides. A location/amount would help
And in some cases I have seen her pletco sucking the goldie afterhours when he is asleep and the pletco is active. That wouldnt pull scales of(but maybe if the pletco is big enough) but more likely take off the slimecoat and allow infections and bacteria to infect and cause your goldie to lose scales
You may want to check around his gill area for any white cysts. It could be a sign of myxosporidia which is a protazoa that can attack goldfish, and it is usually fatal. If the dents from the missing scales are reddish colored, it may be costia. That is easy to treat with frequence water changes and aquarium salt.
I am not sure that goldfish shed, but no one has told me they dont. I would assume they got slightly damaged and fell off. But as you have lost a "lot" I wouldnt be able to tell you anything for sure. A guess of how many scales are missing would be helpful.
Have you added aquarium salt(FW only) to your tank? That usually helps completely reduce the protozoa in your tank to almost nothing keeping it ich and velvet clean
Are the scales missing on one side, both sides. A location/amount would help
And in some cases I have seen her pletco sucking the goldie afterhours when he is asleep and the pletco is active. That wouldnt pull scales of(but maybe if the pletco is big enough) but more likely take off the slimecoat and allow infections and bacteria to infect and cause your goldie to lose scales
If you are running the filter with a medication, it will just get filtered out, so you should pry turn your filters off when treating, and only twice a day. I dont think you would have hurt the fish too much if you were running the filtesr with it. As for the rid-ick I havnt had much luck with any medication, just frequent water changes.
The salt proportions are the same as what I use for my tank. You may be able to add a little more until he recovers, but not too much, maybe a couple pinchs more than a tablespoon.
How many scales is he missing, like 5, 10, 50, 100, almost all of them(we will tackle this one question at a time!)
The salt proportions are the same as what I use for my tank. You may be able to add a little more until he recovers, but not too much, maybe a couple pinchs more than a tablespoon.
How many scales is he missing, like 5, 10, 50, 100, almost all of them(we will tackle this one question at a time!)