Cotton thing on goldfish?

Question

Ok, I have a small black moor goldfish, and I noticed this cotton like growth thing near his dorsal fin. It's white, and he has had it for about two weeks now. It doesn't really seem to be affecting him that much, he still swims around and eats, and occasionally just floats around, but other than that I can see nothing wrong with him. It looks sort of like a fungus to me, I am going to change his water tonight, and I was wondering if I could just carefully scrape it off with a cotton swab or something. Serious answers please.

Update:

And yes, there is one other goldfish, but she doesn't show any signs of the cotton thing.

? · Accepted Answer

Sounds like a fungal or bacterial infection. Instead of scraping your fish, you should go to your local pet store, they sell anti-fungal  and antibacterial treatments for fish that you just dissolve in their water. The boxes for the treatments will explain what kind of infections they are effective against and will have some descriptive pictures so that you will know you're using the right thing.

? · Answer

It's a fungus. Do a 50% water change and add some aquarium salt. Don't waste your money on the medications. Nothing works better than water changes and aquarium salt.

If this fish is in a bowl it's going to die soon anyway. Don't ever keep a fish in a bowl and never do more than a 50% water change in a 24 hour period in an aquarium. New tank syndrome and ammonia are two of the biggest killers of fish. The only reason a fish would get an infection like this is because it's being kept in dirty water. Goldfish (including moors) need 20G minimum and 10G for each additional fish added.

Don't ever swab/scrape anything off a fish for any reason! When it's healed, it will go away or fall off on it's own.

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Cotton thing on goldfish?

2 Answers