Treating diseases
Treating diseases is the one thing that people do not necessarily look out for on their fish. The diseases can be common, contagious to other fish, or sometimes even fatal. If the goldfish disease symptoms are seen early, and the correct goldfish disease treatment is given quickly, most goldfish make a full recovery. Goldfish diseases diagnosis is an important part of the overall goldfish care. If you are unable to make a definite disease diagnosis then you should contact your local vet or animal store.
Types of diseases
There are many different types of diseases that goldfish are able to catch. Some may include:
- Anchor Worm
- Cotton mouth
- Dropsy
- Ich
Anchor Worm
Anchor worms are not very hard to notice, it is one of the most common diseases The anchor worms look like a piece of thread hanging from your fish with a pair of egg sacs that are shaped like a "Y" at the end of the body. Fish will scratch when the anchor worm is still in the larvae stage as the parasite has already attached to the fish's body, this will continue in the adult of the anchor worm. To treat the anchor worm and make it go away, there is a few things you could do. You could remove the anchor worm with tweezers, use a single application of iodine, or hydrogen peroxide, to the worm with a cotton bud, or you could even apply neosporin cream to the fish daily.
Cotton Mouth
Cotton mouth, also known as is not a highly contagious disease as it is not very common. It does however, affect all types of freshwater fish. Cotton mouth is a bacterial disease and can be prevented by quarantining new fish or improving water quality. The symptoms that usually include with this disease are white growth or threads blowing out of the mouth. There could be a loss of appetite or even white spots on the mouth, scales, and fins. Fins start to disintegrate beginning at the edges. You can treat this disease by using commercial products and visiting your local vet or animal store, but most importantly, having clean water and changing the water more often and using a regular dose of salt in your tank.
Dropsy
Dropsy disease is caused by kidney failure and is not a contagious disease. Normally, older fish tend to catch this disease more than younger ones. The symptoms that usually show in this disease are that there is often redness on the body or fins, swollen body, scales sticking up. Ulcers tend to appear on the body as well as paler gills. The fish may stop eating. To treat this disease it is best to remove the effected fish into another tank and maintain the water by adding a teaspoon of Epsom salts per 10 gallons. Although, medicated food would be needed to help kill the bacteria form the inside.
Ich
Ich is a very common disease and effects almost all freshwater fish. It is a very easy disease to detect. Symptoms include thickened slime coat, clamped fins and white spots on the fish as if there has been salt sprinkled on it. This disease needs to be treated straight away once noticed as it can become fatal to the fish. The whole tank will need to be treated, not just the fish, or you could treat the fish with medication containing, malachite green, formalin or copper.
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