Newbie with a fungus problem?)
Yes, PetsMart will do a water test for you but they typically use the dip sticks which would be less reliable than your kit but nothing wrong with having it done for comparative purposes. Either have them write down the results in numbers or you do it yourself. DO NOT accept “It’s OK” or “It’s a little high” as an answer. If the test kit they are using only gives Good, Fair or Bad type answers, then I wouldn’t rely on that test kit at all. You could also ask the LFS to test it for further confirmation.
Why are you concerned about your test results? They seem to have been consistent and in line with what was going on in your tank. I certainly would like to see the ammonia and nitrite staying consistently at zero which is where they will be once the tank is fully cycled. At least you are starting off with zero nitrates from your tap and seeing the nitrates rise in the tank which means your nitrogen cycle is working.. just not up to 100% yet.
The blood color you are seeing on the end of the tail, rather than blood veins starting at the base of the tail, could just be some of the redness/inflammation that will happen on the end of fins when there are fin rot bacterial infections and that sounds like what was happening to CB’s tail. Hopefully, the elevated salt levels killed off this bacteria and created added slime coat to help the goldfish ward it off further.
Goldfish are not typically fin nippers. The males will push and prod the females vent area during mating times and this can get rather aggressive but deterioration in finnage is usually related to bacterial issues as a result of poor water quality issues. Hopefully this is all it was and you don’t have a fin nipping Hannibal Lector goldfish. I’m wondering if the sloughing off of rotted fin didn’t look like flake food to Lucille who thought he/she was getting food rather than fin… they say it all tastes like chicken.;-)
Lenny Vasbinder Fish Blog - http://GoldLenny.blogspot.com (Links to any articles referenced in above reply are listed on the right side, alphabetically under Labels and also under Archives by Year, Month)
Category: Philippines Internet Koi Society
