Goldfish with unexplained lump 8/27/11
Hello and thanks for the great resource!
<Hello! Glad you like the site. Merritt here>
We have a 5 year old goldfish that we bought for our son when he was a young boy. I'm sure this is a very common scenario, but we didn't do much homework before making the purchase. The fish is in a 10-gallon tank, which I now know (thanks to your great website) is quite undersized. Also, we have not maintained a frequent enough schedule of water changes, as the latest dipstick tests revealed Nitrates at 200, no Nitrites, a hardness between 150-300, low alkalinity and a pH of 6.2.
<Yea, you will definitely want to do a water change and start keeping up with the system. Thank goodness freshwater aquariums can take abuse.>
I plan upon changing out some water immediately, and then maintaining a more frequent schedule with a goal of keeping the nitrate level as low as possible, and perhaps raising the pH into the 7 range somewhere. Our fish had fin rot pretty badly at one point a couple of years ago, but we treated him and the water and he has bounced back nicely. Sadly, he has now developed a lump on one side that appeared to emerge from beneath a single scale, but has since grown to protrude about 1 cm from his body, and is about 1cm long by 1/2 cm wide.
<Checked out the pictures and the lump appears to be a tumor.>
Studying the WWM website for the past few days leads me to believe that this is a tumor, but I have attached an image that you can use to add your opinion to this diagnosis. The lump appears well vascularized, and causes the fish no visible distress (no scratching, swimming disruption nor eating/bowel changes). I am hoping that the increased water quality will help the fish to fight the tumor, but it sounds like there is little to be done in the way of treatment otherwise.
<You are right. Hopefully the tumor will stop growing and keep to the small size it is now. Increasing the water quality in the tank will help with his health and it can't hurt to see if a change occurs in the tumor.>
Please have a look and let me know what you think about our lumpy friend. Thanks again for your time and for sharing your expertise with us!
<As long as the tumor is not affecting his quality of life he should be fine and live to a good ripe old age unless, the tumor never stops growing then it will eventually kill the little guy. Just keep an eye on it and keep up with aquarium maintenance.>
Gail
<Merritt>

Red Cap Oranda with red nodules on fins. 7/31/11
Hello,
<Hello!>
My name is Kelly and I have to goldfish, the Oranda and a black moor. I got both at the same time about 6 months ago and they have been just wonderful.
<Cool.>
They are on a diet of Tetra Fin goldfish flakes one day and 5 green English peas the next for their constipation issues and general good diet, I've noticed from their feces that they also snack on the green algae in their tank some.
<Yes, they will.>
There is a small amount of green algae on the rocks at the bottom of the tank but I keep the glass clean with a brush. I do 20% water changes to my 10 gallon tank every or every other week using distilled water
<Would not use distilled water! Much too soft. Hard, basic tap water, dechlorinated of course, is usually fine. If your local water isn't suitable for fishkeeping (though if drinkable, it should be) then you can certainly use RO water, provided that RO water has some mineral salts added. A cheap solution is home-made Rift Valley salt mix, at about 50% the dose recommended for Malawian cichlids. The recipe is here:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/fwsubwebindex/fwh2oquality.htm
>
and I have a water conditioner by API called stress coat that I squirt a few drops of into the water maybe once a month. The tank has a 5-10 gallon aqua tech filter on it and I change the filter once a month. Their water temp stays at 73 which I know is a little warm but I can't blast my ac any higher to keep them cooler.
<Don't worry about this; 73 F is fine.>
They have a little log and a conservative amount of plants to hang around so they still have room to swim about. I also have a nice bubble strip in the tank for plenty of oxygen.
<Good.>
Now to the issue, today I noticed three-four small red swollen spots along the edges of each of my Oranda's fins.
<Early stage of Finrot.>
He is still very active (much more so than my black moor who sleeps a lot and has always done so (and no the Oranda is not aggressive towards him) and he is eating fine. I can not find this anywhere and have not seen any images of it and I have searched everything! I am trying to catch this, if it is a problem, before it progresses any further. I have spent a lot of money on these fish because when I first got them I did not realize how needy they were but I want to care for them properly so I upgraded their tank, bought water conditioner, better decorations (for hiding and reduced stress level, also silk plants to keep their fins and eyes safe), and change the filters more often, etc. I don't want him to get sick now! He is so pretty. Please help!
<Two things. First, correct the water chemistry as outlined above by doing a series of 20% water changes each day over the next 5 days, replacing the pure distilled water with either hard tap water or RO water with the Rift Valley salt mix. That should result in optimal water chemistry around 10-20 degrees dH, pH 7.5-8. Secondly, medicate once you've done this water change with Finrot medication. At this stage there isn't a rush to medicate, so I'd fix the water chemistry first of all. Stress from the wrong water chemistry is likely one of the reasons the fish has Finrot. In addition, check water quality -- needs to be zero ammonia and nitrite. If you own just one test kit, get a nitrite test kit, and check weekly for the next couple of months. If you don't have zero nitrite, review filtration (make sure you're maintaining the filter properly) and check you're not overfeeding Cheers, Neale.>

Re: Red Cap Oranda with red nodules on fins. 8/7/11
I have been adding tap water that is dechlorinated with tap water conditioner (it says it removes chlorine and chloramines) and have changed nothing else.
<Hmm'¦ well, see if your tap water contains ammonia and perhaps copper as well. Or, play it safe and choose a dechlorinator that removes ammonia and copper from tap water.>
I feed them once a day so I don't think over feeding is a problem, they always eat all of the food either at the top or as it floats to the bottom if the filter doesn't catch it.
<This is good, but while fish are sickly, and if you ever detect non-zero levels of ammonia or nitrite in the aquarium, reduce feeding substantially. Indeed, you may safely stop feeding for several days, a week if need be, until you're sure you have things under control.>
The red cap is still very lively and eating fine but today I noticed a small red spot on his belly. The nodules on his pectoral fins are no longer reddish/pinkish but just white and no other issues with any of his other fins are visible. He and the black moor have grown a lot since I put them in the 10 gallon and I plan to upgrade them to a bigger tank when I can but right now I just can not afford a 200 dollar tank and stand to put it on,
<I understand and sympathise. Unfortunately, in small tanks, you'll be constantly battling against disease. Goldfish just don't do well in small tanks. You *may* be able to trade in older fish for more youngsters at your local pet store, but better yet would be finding a local fish club and seeing if they can help out, either by homing safely big fish, or else providing you with a better aquarium at minimal cost (used tanks can be a good purchase, but obviously not if they leak, so there's an element of trust involved that works best through fish clubs).>
I got the one I have from a friend for much less than it would have been in the store, I originally had them in a 5 gallon! I am on a college budget and was uninformed when I got these fish but I have spent a lot trying to take the best care of them I can. I know the 10 gallon really isn't adequate but its the best I can do for now, I do water changes often though and the water is never cloudy and the bottom stays clean. How long will it take for him to start healing and should I do more for him now that the small red spot has appeared on his belly?
<For now, would simply concentrate on [a] ensuring ideal water quality as best you can, through filtration, minimising feeding, and more frequent water changes; and [b] medicating against Finrot only if the spots or whatever don't get better by themselves. Cheers, Neale.>