Very sick goldfish -right eye now clouding over

Hi:

I have two goldfish in my 29gallon tank. Each are about 5 inches
long, and I have had them since March.
I confess that I got lazy recently and did not do water changes.
As a result, both fish lived in a _very high_ nitrate environment,
even though the ammonia and nitrite were zero or minimal. This lasted
for probably 1-2 weeks.
About a week ago, they both got sick, although the fan-tailed
female is much, much worse than the regular male.
They both stopped eating. The female got red streaks in her
tail, and her top fin has been partiallly clamped. She hides in the
darkest corner of the tank, near the top.
Both eyes have bulged out on the female (not on the mle) and the
female also has developed several dark spots on her head.
Now her right eye is clouding over. At this rate, in another day it
will be impossible to see the black pupil.
The male is doing much better. He never got anywhere near as
sick as the female. He is starting to eat now, and never got the
bulging eyes or red streaks, etc.
I just tried feeding the female strained peas, but she won't
even eat that. (I normally feed fish flakes.) Last night I tried
freeze-dried shrimp, and also dried bloodworms.
Until today she acted very hungry, but would just spit all food
out as soon as she tried to eat it. Tonight she is just "sniffing"
the strained peas, and not even trying to eat.

I'm assuming that both fish got nitrate poisoning. It was
terribly high for over a week. The API test for nitrates was deep,
deep red.
I've been doing major water changes for the past several days,
and the water is almost back to normal. The nitrates are now about
10-20ppm.

Can anyone suggest what I might be able to do for the female, or
is it likely that she will die in the next day or so?
If you need any more info, I will try to provide it.

Please help if you have any experience with this. Thank you
very much!

Dave

clouding is usually due to increased slime coat, which thickens due to
toxic water conditions among other things.

it might be she has columnaris in the mouth, a bacterial infection.

continue to do water changes and if you got gravel you will need to
clean that as it could be the source of the high nitrate readings.
here is how to clean the gravel without toxing the fish
http://weloveteaching.com/puregold/care/care1.htm#REMOVING

then you might consider giving the fish a 30 second salt dip. this
seems to help with columnaris. however, you do need to put some salt
in the tank to stimulate their slime coat turnover.
http://weloveteaching.com/puregold/disease/treatment/trtmnt.htm#salt
start with 1 teaspoon of salt with no additives per 5 gallons,
increase over next couple days to 3 teaspoons per 5 gallons. you can
let the salt levels drop then with water changes.
Ingrid

On Wed, 22 Aug 2007 21:37:56 -0400, Dave123 DeleteThis @home.com wrote:
> I have two goldfish in my 29gallon tank. Each are about 5 inches
>long, and I have had them since March.
> I confess that I got lazy recently and did not do water changes.
>As a result, both fish lived in a _very high_ nitrate environment,
>even though the ammonia and nitrite were zero or minimal. This lasted
>for probably 1-2 weeks.
> About a week ago, they both got sick, although the fan-tailed
>female is much, much worse than the regular male.
> They both stopped eating. The female got red streaks in her
>tail, and her top fin has been partiallly clamped. She hides in the
>darkest corner of the tank, near the top.
> Both eyes have bulged out on the female (not on the mle) and the
>female also has developed several dark spots on her head.
>Now her right eye is clouding over. At this rate, in another day it
>will be impossible to see the black pupil.
> The male is doing much better. He never got anywhere near as
>sick as the female. He is starting to eat now, and never got the
>bulging eyes or red streaks, etc.
> I just tried feeding the female strained peas, but she won't
>even eat that. (I normally feed fish flakes.) Last night I tried
>freeze-dried shrimp, and also dried bloodworms.
> Until today she acted very hungry, but would just spit all food
>out as soon as she tried to eat it. Tonight she is just "sniffing"
>the strained peas, and not even trying to eat.
>
> I'm assuming that both fish got nitrate poisoning. It was
>terribly high for over a week. The API test for nitrates was deep,
>deep red.
> I've been doing major water changes for the past several days,
>and the water is almost back to normal. The nitrates are now about
>10-20ppm.
>
> Can anyone suggest what I might be able to do for the female, or
>is it likely that she will die in the next day or so?
> If you need any more info, I will try to provide it.
>
> Please help if you have any experience with this. Thank you
>very much!
>
> Dave