Sick goldfish - white coating on body

My calico fantail (4 in) has some sort of velvet white coating on parts of
its fins and head. The fish appears to have white irregular spots, but it
isn't very noticable on white fins. It first appeared along the fin rays a
week ago. The fish also has several tiny white swellings ( < 1 mm) on the
fins. Other than that, the fish is doing fine. Is it a fungus disease or
some kind of parasite? I would like to know more about the possible causes.
How should I treat it?

I keep the fish in a 20 gallon tank, along with another fantail and a small
telescope. The other fantail is also beginning to show the symptoms. It has
some red growth on the head (oranda genes?), but today I noticed that some
of it is turning pale white on the surface.

The tank has an Aqua Clear 150 filter, rocks/plastic plants, no gravel.
I vacuum the bottom every week, along with 1/4 water change.
I feed the fish sinking pellets twice a day.

Silver, sounds like a fungus. I think Ingrid will agree with me that
what you describe sounds very much like Columnaris.

You need to get a fungus treatment and put the effected fish in a hospital tank
and treat them whilst performing daily water changes.

I'd also perform a big water change on your main tank.

** this is what I would do **




Silver wrote:
>
> My calico fantail (4 in) has some sort of velvet white coating on parts of
> its fins and head. The fish appears to have white irregular spots, but it
> isn't very noticable on white fins. It first appeared along the fin rays a
> week ago. The fish also has several tiny white swellings ( < 1 mm) on the
> fins. Other than that, the fish is doing fine. Is it a fungus disease or
> some kind of parasite? I would like to know more about the possible causes.
> How should I treat it?
>
> I keep the fish in a 20 gallon tank, along with another fantail and a small
> telescope. The other fantail is also beginning to show the symptoms. It has
> some red growth on the head (oranda genes?), but today I noticed that some
> of it is turning pale white on the surface.
>
> The tank has an Aqua Clear 150 filter, rocks/plastic plants, no gravel.
> I vacuum the bottom every week, along with 1/4 water change.
> I feed the fish sinking pellets twice a day.