Very injured goldie!

[myswtsins]

Came home last night to a big goldfish stuck on some rocks, under the lip of my fake rock skimmer cover and less than half covered in water. I put her right into the skimmer box, lowered the flow some and let her catch her breath. She did recover her breath and was able to keep herself straight up, moving around a little. It was late so I moved her into a floating basket I made out it in the middle of the main pond overnight figuring it is best not to move her into a hospital tank at that time, just more stress. This morning I expected the worst but she appears to be acting a little better. She has a lot of damage, about 20-30% of her scales are gone and the rest of her is quite beat up with some torn fins. My instinct is to now move her and a bunch of her pond water (which is good clean water) into a QT tank inside where I can treat and feed her directly and add any meds needed. This seem like the right move at this time? The only tank I can setup right now is a 30g (36x12 style), she is about 9-10" will this be ok?

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Does the fish have any open wounds? If not I would leave it in the pond where it will be less stressful. The fish will recover on its own.

 

[myswtsins]

I'd say no, she doesn't have any open wounds. Where the scales are missing is fleshy but not bloody or dug out. She is missing more scales than I realized. I tried to get some decent pictures without having to touch her or take her outta the water (I've used a bucket to transfer her so she always stayed in the water). I included a picture of the floating basket, it is about 2ft by 1ft by 1ft. She was actually swimming around the tote quite a bit, making it harder to take pictures of course. I put a little algae in the floating basket for comfort and food and it looks like shes been eating it by the big poo in the pictures, could be from yesterday's eating but with as skinny as she got from all that straining I doubt she had anything left in her system. You can see she has kinda a saggy stomach now which she certainly never had before.

Edit: BTW the red mark at the base of her tail is a coloration mark not blood but the red marks on her tail fin is blood not coloration. Oh and it's suddenly cold here today. Yesterday it was nearly 90 today it's barely 60. Another reason I was concerned about leaving her in the basket outside.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

You can keep it is the floating basket for a few days just for better observation, but the fish does not appear to have any open wounds and should heal nicely without any treatments. The fins and scales will regenerate.

 

[Faebinder]

Agree with Meyer. Pictures look good without open wounds. Good chance of recovery.

 

[myswtsins]

Thank you very much! I have had other fish recovery IN pond but their scale loss was MUCH lower (breeding injuries). I currently have a VERY low salt level in the pond. Should I increase it? Do a water change? Or do nothing to keep it all exactly like what she is used to? Ammonia, nitrite, nitrates and phosphates are 0, always, lots of plants.

 

[Faebinder]

Nope, add nothing, change nothing.... dont stress the fish... It will take a week or so for the fish to normalize. Think of it as someone who got a hair patch pulled off their head, it wont be long to recover.

 

[myswtsins]

Done! Thanks.

 

[peter hillman]

Poor thing looks like it's been thru the wringer, also looks like it'll be fine.

 

[Dave 54]

You can keep it is the floating basket for a few days just for better observation, but the fish does not appear to have any open wounds and should heal nicely without any treatments. The fins and scales will regenerate.

@myswtsins I've Just given your goldfish a once over though a tad battered it should be ok and I concur with Meyer on this, it also makes good sense that the fish stays in the pond simply because of outsides temperatures dropping as they are starting to do now .
[Take the fish out and you have the fiddly job of matching pond and indoors temperastures exactly spot on upon release of the goldfish into the pond, or start to risk thermal stress in the fish and vica versa if taking it from the pond...]
Just watch out for any fungal growths on the damaged areas of its flanks tail etc and if you see any signs of it appearing on your fish treat it acpordingly .
Also try and find out the reason why this fish ended up where it did and try and rectify it so it doesnt happen again

Dave

 

[myswtsins]

Thanks for the additional replies.

We have major fungus, her entire right side is covered almost overnight. She is acting much better though. So at this point I need to.... move her to a hospital tank? and use salt (have it), methylene blue, malacite green or potassium permanganate (have it)? I think I'd like to start with salt normally but I don't know if the fact that she is 50% covered would deem I kick it up a notch off the bat. I can use a slightly opaque tote if that would make her feel more comfortable than a clear aquarium. In nearly 10 years of fish keeping I've never had to medicate any fish.

 

[myswtsins]

Some further reading says PP is more toxic at a higher pH, mine is over 8. So I think I should skip that one. If I do salt do you guys prefer strong quick baths or slow increase to high constant/maintained levels approach? With baths I figure I could leave her out in the pond basket but there is a 80% chance of rain for the next week, making it hard to work out there of course but more importantly it would be changing her water chemistry constantly, slowly but constantly.

I know the issue of temp adjusting from moving her in now and out later, matching the pond was brought up. Right now the weather is cool, about 70 for the next couple of weeks. I do keep my windows open whenever possible making my room similar to outside temps. My room is usually about 72-74 so I think I can minimize that problem.

Edit: Oh, I have a little aquarium salt, water softener salt and Epsom salt. I had a huge thing of pond salt but for the life of me I cannot find it!

 

[Dave 54]

You should have her out and remove the fungus its quite easy to do using Oil of cloves as an anethetic dab any areas with malachite and use propolis spray available either onlinefrom a koi dealership or any health food range , then purchase an anti bacterial treatment and treat the pond with it pplease read articles first before atempting to Anethatize :-

https://www.gardenpondforum.com/articles/the-various-stages-of-anaesthetics.5/

Article about propolis its magic properties :-

https://www.gardenpondforum.com/articles/propolis.25/

Treating your fish useful tips for you to use :-

https://www.gardenpondforum.com/articles/useful-tips-for-treating-your-fish.38/

Hope this helps

Dave

 

[myswtsins]

Wow, it's surprising how we went from just leave the fish alone to needing to do all that stuff! Guess you think it is behind salt?

You should have her out

Meaning put her into a hospital tank?

and remove the fungus its quite easy to do using Oil of cloves as an anethetic dab any areas with malachite and use propolis spray available either onlinefrom a koi dealership or any health food range

Remove the fungus as in do the steps you are saying not to physically remove it right? So, give her a clove oil bath then apply non diluted malachite green directly onto her entire side (and anywhere there is fungus), immediately spray her with propolis (never even heard of that before) and then put her back into the bath, bring her around and put her into the hospital tank or back into the pond? Do I repeat this treatment everyday or anything?

then purchase an anti bacterial treatment and treat the pond with it

Why? This just seems outta place. Something like melafix ok?

All that seems extreme and has me a little nervous so any further details would be great, thanks!

 

[Meyer Jordan]

then purchase an anti bacterial treatment and treat the pond with it

Won't this adversely affect the nitrifying bacteria? A general bactericide is not specie specific.