What are these red spots?

[D6C1]

I have four gold fish in this bowl. I bought them for feeders and when one turned goldish, i dont have the heart to give them to my cichlids anymore.

Over the past few days, I noticed the following. Does anyone have any ideas?

I do water change every week, and they are fed my cichlid food. 47% marine protein.

Thanks!

[kevkoi]

Looks like septicema ... ouch.

[D6C1]

Is it fatal? Cure?

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001355.htm

Can we catch it if we touch the fish like i did?

[ViS]

Can't tell you the problem, but I'm glad I'm not one of your goldfish. Don't think any fish would be happy living in there.

[wui39]

so much for its short life probably best to totally disinfect that tank if it expires

[Willy Wombat]

Looks a lot like a bacterial infection to me. I would treat with either formalin (get get from vet) or melafix (can get from LFS/pet store).

[BaZ]

For a longer happier life your fish will do better in a bigger volume of water which is being filtered

[Brownfish]

You could sell it in the Classifieds section as a 'red spot special'

Ok, ok, that's not funny because we are talking about the welfare of a live animal... I just couldn't help myself

[D6C1]

Thanks guys. My intention was not to keep them you see, but a change of heart made me keep them. I've been trying to offload them to a friend.

I hope they make it. Does adding salt help?

[Willy Wombat]

It may be helpful to add salt, but I would go with something a little stronger and bump up your water changes to every two days using pre-aged water.

[anchar]

Blood streaks in the finnage often indicates poisoning...are you using aged water? Also, as the others have said, you need to make their living conditions much better.

Andrea

[D6C1]

If I am keeping them long term I will. At the moment, when i change the water, I add new water, then I prime it.

I do that to my cichlid tanks, and it seems to be fine for them.

I will add some salt tonight and get some melafix tomorow.

[novafishy]

SHould always try to keep some Melafix on hand. you never know when you'll need it. all the best mate

[D6C1]

After adding some salt last night, the redness has gone down. I will update the progress.. Thank you all!

[hoges]

At the moment, when i change the water, I add new water, then I prime it.

Adding water to the tank and then priming it still exposes your fish to everything that is in tap water once it enters the tank and while the prime works.

You should always age water before you use it, or if this just isn't possible at least add the prime to the water at least a couple of hours before the water changes. If possible if you aerate the water with the prime in it for the couple of hours before the water change you will speed up the effects. I'm very surprised that you haven't had issues with this in the past!

Your poor fish don't look to be in a good state at all! Are they showing signs of distress? increased breathing?

Is it possible to add at least some aeration to these fish bowls?

[D6C1]

Update:

I initially did a water change and primed and salted the bowl. Two days later, its all clear, and everything is still alive.

I didn't use melafix. Salt did it

Hoges, I do stick in an air stone in the fish bowl from time to time. It doesn't have a permanent airpump though.

Thank you all for the responses

[10050460]

which type of prime did u use?

[wui39]

Are there different types of prime? I thought Prime was made by Seachem.

[D6C1]

Seachem Prime.

[Citypainter]

The same thing happened to my daughters goldfish a few years back. It started when I ran out of goldfish food and started feeding them cichlid flake.

It seems that they cannot eat the cichlid food without having problems. Get them some goldfish food and that will not happen again.

Good luck.