Kelsta

Thanks jn. I called my local vet, and they can order Droncit in for me if I want, and it's only $1.40 per tablet, so cost won't be an issue! It has 50mg of Praziquantel per tablet. I'm pleased to hear that the Droncit is pure praziquantel and gentle on the fish. So, now I'm all set to go for later on if it looks like I need it! I'm still going to wait for the cycling and just observe the fish for any signs - even if it is gentle, there not much merit in treating a non-existant condition. Thanks everyone for your guidance

Oh OK, well thanks for the advice - it's so hard to decide what to do when you're new to fish keeping and EVERYONE has conflicting advice, but my common sense agrees with you - just wait for the cycling to be done and then we can just OBSERVE the fish for a while and see how they do. So, Drocit is hard on the fish aye? Such a shame. I wanted to import some of the Prazi-Pro from the American guy who runs the website 'Goldfish Connection', but they don't ship overseas. Apparently thats really gentle on the fish and your bacteria etc. I do hope we get something like that here before long! Well, thanks a lot.

Yep thanks, I definitely will - someone on the site suggested I treat for flukes as the symptoms sounded similar, so I thought I'd try and source some now and treat the one fish in the hospital tank, and then the big tank AFTER the tank is cycled. Do you know if it's stressful on the fish to treat with Droncit?

Thanks Matt! :bounce:

Hi, sorry I remember seeing a topic about prazi a while back but I can't find it now... Can anyone tell me the best place to get Prazi? I want to treat my goldfish. THANKS!

Oh ok, well thanks anyway. I guess it's some mystery illness unique to WCMM. I have 2 left as well and they seem fine so far...! But it's only a week since that stopped happening... Cheers

Hey Janelle I was just re-reading this old thread, and I've had the EXACT same thing happen to 8 of my WCMM's in the last few weeks. They all get tehir mouths stuck open, and then are dead within 24 hours - what the heck is this??! I thought it was nitrite poisoning as we had issues for a while there with that, but it seemed uncanny that you had the exact same symptoms and timeframe for death etc. Did you ever find out what was causing it??

Yeah that's what I've been hearing from all sources - good old goldfish! I will definitely try and get hold of some Prazi once the cycling is over though.

Yep!! Good point, as we only thought of doing that afterwards as well - but all is well - no nasties in the tap water.

OK thank you I will keep an eye on them then. The goldfish have NEVER flashed - only the WCMM. The two that survived (!) have flashed a bit, but haven't since the water conditions improved, but I'll keep a close eye on them all. Cheers

Thanks for that jolliolli. I have a gut feeling that they were suffering from nitrite poisoning, as it really peaked at one point and we lost half our fish within a few days - not slowly dying off on at a time, like you said was typical with parasites. Now that water conditons are good, we only have one fish with 'left-over' illness resulting from the nitrite poisoning - or so we think! I guess in a couple of weeks of the water is still testing all good, and there are still long white poos, we could always treat for internal parasites, although they're not losing weight, and are still VERY interested in food. I must admit, I occasionally see them go to the surface for a breath - don't think they're supposed to do that. We'll give the tank a little more time to cycle before treating or using anything else in the water that might affect the cycling process. Cheers!

Flossie is a fantil goldfish - my first one! My husband and I have got 3 more since then but she is my special little baby. You're right about someone not really caring being better off doing it - might try to enlist someone like that if it comes down to it!

Well done for doing what you had to do to end their suffering, Caper. I've already cried buckets over poor little Flossie and she's still alive! I do hope I don't have to euthanise her, but if I do, it's going to be quick and painless.

Well, the WCMM who died would seperate themselves from the other fish and hide, and then just become more and more lethargic, until they eventually died. Usually, once we noticed one hiding, it was 24 hours before they died. But we were told that it was nitrite poisoning that was killing them as it was really high, and that was what the red gills were from. They did flash against things, but we thought that was just because their gills were irritated and burned. I should mention, then we actually did treat with white spot treatment for 3 days in the first week, because I noticed some flahing, and a bit of 'yawning'. So that should have got rif of any parasites, right? We lost 3 borneo suckers as well, and they just sort of lost their mobility, changed to a funny colour, and died. They had smoe redness on their bellies (the sucky part). ONE of them had some kind of strange sore right under one of his gills, and I took photos of it. I don't know how to upload it to here though...

Thank you Caryl. The fish are ncie and fat, and always very hungry and eat well. No clamped fines - all up and perky - even Flossie who is the sick one. No red gills. Flossie is bottom sitting some of the time, and seems to have impaired mobility - she swims more jerkily than she used to. But she feeds well, and has started swimming up for food on the surface again, and seems to be taking baby steps towards getting better. We'll have to wait and see. The only odd thing I noticed was 2 of the goldfish doing really long stringy, WHITE poos that were in a ZIG ZIG, rather than just a normal poo. I looked it up and found that that can be a sign of the fish reabsorbing eggs. Does that sound right? They seem fine and happy and healthy in every other way. They do totally normal poos after feeding.

We've been using a water conditoner called Prime. It removes chlorine, chloramines, ammonia, and detoxifies nitrite and nitrate. It's good stuff. What makes you say it sounds like parasites? What kind of parasites? Hw would we diagnose that? I don't want to go treating her for something she doesn't have while she's so vulnerable. The pH is perfect. So are all the other things as we test both the big main tank and flossie's hospital tank daily. I can't SEE any white spots on them, so how could that be it? If there are any 'hidden' parasites or "secondary infections" what would we be looking out for please?

Yeah, same. We were told how amazing this carbon was for water clarity etc, so we started out with that too, but now we've just got the filter wool and the noodles. Seems to be doing a good job so far and the water is clear anyway. It seems simple is best

I do not think ANY fishkeeper could EVER go through with advice like that - it's just ludicrous. As IF you could do that!!!?? My God.

Oh my God!! I could never, ever do that! I don't mean to offend you, Billd, but that is NOT for me.

Yes! I hope so! We had a terrible experience first time round and lost over half our fish ( ) due to some terrible advice when we were starting out, so I do hope this time goes well! Thanks for your help

Thanks SpidersWeb, I'll stick to the current set-up then. Although I might add some more ceramic tubes because it can't hurt. We're on day 4 of cycling right now, and we're having Nil ammonia levels but we have 0.25 Nitrite. I can't figure out why we'd have no ammonia but still have nitrite, so perhaps the bacteria that turns ammonia into nitrite has formed, but the bacteria that turns nitrite into nitrate hasn't yet become established?? We're doing water changes every second day or even every day depending on the readings we get. Plus, we've added some aquarium salts to protect their gills from the nirtrite. There are 3 medium fantails in the tank - 143 litres. Hope that's OK to cycle with 'cos there's nowhere else for them to go!

Oh god that sounds awful! Well, why on earth would it be recommended as a humane way then? I certainly will not use baking soda. But as for the clove oil, everyone seems to agree that it's an anesthetic. And yes, I HAVE put aromatic oil directly onto an open wound - there was no sensation at all - not even the slightest sting. I've used undiluted lavender oil and tea trea oil on cuts, burns and abrasions on myself with NO stinging. Flossie (my unwell goldfish) seems to be improving, so hopefully there will be no need for any of this, but I'd rather be ready for it if the time comes.

Oh OK, no Jebo is different - it's just a plastic grate - no carbon. Well, We've spread the noodles so that half are on top of the grate and half are underneath, lifting the foam up a little higher. I presume that's all good. Tell me if this is right... My feeble brain uses the following logic: the more noodles I have, the more bacteria can build up, and the quicker the tank will cycle, and in the long run, it will work more efficiently. So, more noodles would be better, right??

UPDATE: Well, nothing we did brought the ammonia/nitrite level down, so we emptied thank tank, washed everything - and yes, th filter wool too, and started again. That was Thursday night. Since then, levels have ALL been consistently at zero. One more WCMM and one sucker have diedsince then, so we are thinking that perhaps the effects of ammonia or nitrite poisoning are irreversable? Does anybody know? Our smallest goldfish is ot too well, lost a bit of mobility nad tends to spend someperiod sitting on the bottom, and looks just fine other times. We have her in the hospital tank so the others don't bother her. We're just waiting to see how things go now, and testing the water daily. It should help that there are only 3 fantails inthere now. We would REALLY like to know if the toxic effects they've suffered are reversable or not? Can anyone tell us? Thanks

It's a Jebo. The shop staff said to put the stuff in this order: 1) white filter wool 2)grate 3) ceramic noodles So that's how it's set up. The water level in the filter stays above the grate, and is so high that the filter wool is practically sitting IN the water. That can't be right? But that's the way they showed us how to do it - do you think we should get more noodles to lift it up a bit higher? It would make sense to me that the water should be flowing down THROUGH the filter wool, and then running down the filter and back into the tank? Should we have the grate at the bottom instead of on top of the noodles? What is the grate for, anyway? And they only gave us ONE layer of filter wool - no second layer of sponge or anything - should we do that?? THANKS for your help!