We had 4 fantail goldfish & 4 minnows for about a week, until this weekend we decided to get 3 more fantails. Yesterday i noticed one of the original fantails had white spots over her body, fins & tail & after looking it up found out that it was white spot disease.

We tried to get hold of something to treat it today but the shop was closed after we'd finished work & when we got home, noticed that one of the other fantails has white spots too we removed them both & put them into another tank, before doing even more research & finding that it's a parasite etc etc which is so upsetting as i thought that they'd be ok.

Since going into the new tank, both fish have just been laying still at the bottom, i'm just so worried & hope that there's something that can be done. Which is why i was wondering when is it too late to treat them?

I was reading about the symptoms such as swimming oddly, staying still for long periods & spending more time at the top of the tank than usual fish & they both have these symptoms. I feel so guilty for not spotting this sooner.

Also, can white spot effect cats? just wondering as we have a 7 month old kitten.

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I wouldn't worry about your cat, Whitespot is an aquatic parasite which wouldn't last very long in the acidic conditions of your cat's stomach...

I'll take it that you now have seven fantails and four WCMM's in total? How big is the tank and does it have a cycled filter? How long has the tank been set-up for? If you have a test kit (absolutely necessary for fishkeeping) then could you post the test results for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate? Poor water quality is a primary cause of stress, which lowers immune systems and leaves fish open to infection.

Hi, thank you for your reply, since my post we've now noticed another one of the fishes not really swimming & when we checked her, she has a couple of spots too yes, we have seven fantails & four minnows. We have a cycled filter in each tank (28 litre) & it's been set up for 2 weeks. When we got the tank & went to buy the fish we were told we could take the minnows as they're hardy little things but wold have to wait a week before getting the fantails as the filter needs to be running for at least a week, which we did. We haven't got a test kit maybe you can tell we're new to keeping fish but asked lots of questions at the centre where we got the fish & they didn't mention that, or else we definately would've got one....needless to say we shall be now!! What i really need to know though is, is it too late for the poor little things? i'm quite angry that they must've been carrying this parasite when we got them, although i guess you never can tell.

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Okey dokey then, here's the problem...

The tank is overstocked (and I mean grossly, without wanting to sound nasty). Each fantail goldfish should really have an absolute minimum of 50 litres of water. What you have are seven chunky, waste-producing fish which can easily top 15cm/6" in length. The only fish that should be in there are the minnows.

Now then, the solutions!

1) Return the fish, and tell them that you've received advice elsewhere from a reputable source. They have effectively caused the problem by selling you the fish, any experienced dealer would know better.

2) Failing the above, the only viable option is to buy a bigger tank. However, you'd need something in the region of 400 litres to hold those fish once fully grown, and even then, it would be too small. This would need to be coupled to a pretty good filtration system.

It's easier said than done buying chemical treatments, you need to get to the root of the problem first. In the current conditions (courtesy of the pet/aquatic store, by the look of things) any medication would be pretty much useless. You need to get hold of a test kit ASAP, and get the test results for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. I would dig out the phonebook and source a good, reputable aquatic store (PM me the name first, as there are plenty of mediocre stores around).

what pleccy says

the problems here are that there are far too many fish in the tank, that have been added far too quickly.

all tanks should be "cycled" before introducing the first fish (i know you do mention having a cycled filter, but ill go through it anyway, as some people are misled by shops into how long it takes the filters to cycle) this is a process that usually takes 4-6 weeks. during this time, you need to continually add a source of ammonia (either net, or in the form of decomposing fish food and the link), and bacteria. testing the water regularly means you can see at what point the cycle is at, so you can tell when its safe to add fish. the reason for this is that you need to develop of level of good bacteria in the filter to safely "eat" the waste the fish produce. if you add fish before this bacteria has developed (as would be the case here), the fish produce a lot waste, which is not removed, and the levels of pollutants and toxins rises in the water, harming the fish, and causes ill health.

the other problem here would be tank size. now, i did notice on your previous post saying "we have a cycled filter in each tank (28 litre)", so does this mean you have more than 1 tank? either way, goldfish have some very high requirements in terms of tank size, with fancy varieties needing an absolute minimum of 40-50L per fish, and standard varieties needing even more, at 90L per fish! so as you can see, not even a single goldfish would be happy in a tank the size you have, let alone 7. they may appear to live, but their growth can be stunted, which causes severe bodily harm to the fish, and the small size of the filter usually means the waste cannot be effectivly dealt with. goldfish in small tanks usually die painful and slow deaths, falling well short of their expected life span of 20-25 years.

also, just to mention, though it wouldnt be a problem at this early stage, please note that goldfish and minnows dont really go well together in the same tank. goldfish have very large mouths, and are well known for eating smaller tankmates. it would probably surprise you the size of food a small goldfish can take. if you do keep them together, you may start to see them vanish mysteriously, with a very pleased looking goldfish in there.

hope this all helps. dont worry about it, its not your fault, people are often misled by unscrupulous shops who either dont know what they are talking about, or simply wish to make a quick buck off unsuspecting people (you buy tank, they tell you to set it up wrong, you add fish which get ill, they sell you expensive medicine which wont work, fish die, you buy more fish, fish get ill... rince and repeat till you either get annoyed/bored, or you get the odd little survivor. a little money making cycle). the best thing you can do now is take the goldfish back to where you got them from. your tank can quite easily have some minnows in no problem, id stick with just them. if you do want goldfish, then you'll want about a 90L tank at least!

good luck

i did notice on your previous post saying "we have a cycled filter in each tank (28 litre)", so does this mean you have more than 1 tank?

This thread is nearly a year old...

and that post was a direct copy from one of the lines in my reply.... how odd 0_o

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Sacre bleu, so it is!