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Thanks! I've found furan-2 and will remove the goldfish to a different tank and begin treatment immediately. I will also add salt to the tank as well. I'll let you know how it goes!

If you can remove the live plants to a bucket with a bubbler, that would be best. Don't run it 24 hours, maybe kill it at night. Fungus Clear contains acriflavine, an effective drug against some external infections, in addition to the nitrofurazone which is effective against internal infections, as well as external ones. Acriflavine can kill plants. It's not dangerous, especially to goldy. With fry or scaleless fish it could be a different story. Scaleless fish should probably get half dose.

I wouldn't waste time and get it in there while feeding all tank inhabitants the medigold. Any external "boil" could indicate others within the body you are not seeing. Also, if it bursts, your other fish will be at even greater risk, as will the fish who has it. Such bacteria than can enter the blood stream.

Good nitrate level - try to keep it below 20 right now. The higher nitrates go, the more compromised the immune system becomes. The salt is good in restoring electrolytes. In fact, I would dose the tank with a low therapuetic level of just 1 Tbsp per 5 gallons, predissolved and added slowly over several hours or the day. This will help prevent osmotic shock which is risk with any opening in the skin or gills. This is yet another reason to maybe move the plants that you can.

It's just possible that the plants can survive the acriflavine and low level salts. It's a matter of leaving in those plants you could easily replace.

If you don't want to dose Fungus Clear due to acriflavine and wanted to keep plants in place, then the only drug I can think of that is easily absorbed would be Furacyn. The problem is that Aquatronics is either out of business or in the process of moving their business from California to Nevada, which was rumored to take 4-6 months. I don't know if Aquatronics brand is or was sold in Canada.

Furacyn alone is safe at full strength for scaleless fish, as well as plants.

Last edited by Cory_Di at 27-Mar-2005 09:02

I just started medication after I saw him floating vertically and the pimple. He has been floating for a while, and the pimple is new. The pimple showed up about the same time as the floating vertically. Previously he floated horizontally at the top.

The medi-gold is actually medicated food. nitrates are at 10. I have 4 other goldfish in there as well as some live plants. Do you think I should dose the whole tank in fungus clear? Is it dangerous medication?

I gave him a salt dip to try to help the sore, was thinking of continueing. He is a big guy, hard to remove him and put him in a bucket of salted water.

Did you just recently start feeding him the Medi-Gold?

Is this the Medi-Gold that specifies it is actually medicated? I found one that was not by the same name .

The pimple began after you started medicating or before?

What else is in the tank? Any other fish?

Are your nitrates below 40ppm?

It's possible that the change in diet has caused some constipation or a full gut - enough to press against the swim bladder and make it difficult for him to navigate around. However, if he has a pimple or boil like thing on the outside, there could be one pressing inward or actually inside the fish.

If the boil is getting worse while on medicated food and he is the only fish in the tank, then I would dose something with a nitrofuran in it. In canada, you should have luck getting Fungus Clear Tank Buddies, but if you have no inverts, plants or otherwise, I would go for Furan-2 if you can find it there. You are looking for a medication with Nitrofurazone in it. This is rapidly absorbed and is effective against furunculosis and columnaris. I find the nitrofurans much freindlier on the tank than some others like erythromycin, sulfa and tetracycline. None of those is absorbed well either.

If it is getting worse, it is possible that the antibiotics in the food are just not effective for the condition.

However, if there are scaleless fish in this tank, go with Fungus Clear and follow directions for scaleless fish. When in doubt halve the dose, but it won't be as effective.

Last edited by Cory_Di at 26-Mar-2005 22:50

It not sounding good i'm afraid the pimple with the fungus on it sound like columnaris a second infection.