# White film on fish?



## J.huff23

My tank of gold fish all died this week. They developed a white-ish film on them and their fins started to deteriorate? Does anybody know what this may have been caused by? 

I had one fish in there for about a month, then when I added the two other fish (pet store fish), they all developed these symptoms and died shortly after. I looked it up and it said that this may be a bacteria. But from what?

Any help please?


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## Hobo

How big of a tank, and how many fish were in there?


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## J.huff23

A 55 gallon. 4 fish. Three comets and a pleco.


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## Mike41793

I think its called ich. Not positive though. 

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichthyophthirius_multifiliis


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## The Snark

>IF< it is that bleeping Ich parasite, flooding the fish with chlorinated water works very well. However a LOT of caution is advisable. One method I saw work reasonably well was to remove the fish to a tank that had .02% chlorine that had the water almost violently circulated. The fish were kept in the tank for 5 minutes then moved to a new clean tank with mildly chlorinated water. The fish are then carefully observed for 24 hours for signs of stress. This process may need to be repeated several times.


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## pitbulllady

J.huff23 said:


> My tank of gold fish all died this week. They developed a white-ish film on them and their fins started to deteriorate? Does anybody know what this may have been caused by?
> 
> I had one fish in there for about a month, then when I added the two other fish (pet store fish), they all developed these symptoms and died shortly after. I looked it up and it said that this may be a bacteria. But from what?
> 
> Any help please?


Actually, it's called "ick", and it's a fungus, rather than a bacteria.  It's the bane of aquarium hobbyists everywhere.  There are several commercial products available from stores that sell aquarium supplies that you can use to treat the water periodically to eliminate this or at least cut down substantially on its occurrences. One of the biggest risk factors is overcrowding fish, and another is putting in fish too soon after setting up a tank.  Aquariums need time to allow certain types of bacteria to flourish, which are beneficial to the fish because they break down the ammonia in the fish's own waste and keep fungi in check, and until they've built up sufficiently the fish cannot thrive.  Your fish weren't overcrowded, and apparently the tank did have time to develop its bacterial colonies, so I'm betting that you bought the last two fish already sick and harboring the fungus, and introduced it that way.  They can be ill before the appearance of the whitish film shows up; by the time you actually see that, it's usually too late.  Look for some ick cures and treat the water thoroughly before getting any new fish.

pitbulllady


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## korg

pitbulllady said:


> Actually, it's called "ick", and it's a fungus, rather than a bacteria.


Ich is a protozoan parasite, not a fungus.

OP, ich looks more like small white dots than uniform white film, so it may not have been ich. In any case, I would say that identifying the exact ailment is probably less important than mastering the foundations of goldfish care. Did you cycle the tank? What were your water parameters like? I would imagine the overcrowding of your tank was a major factor in the development of whatever ultimately killed your fish, so you may want to limit yourself in the future and avoid comets altogether (they are really more of a pond fish). If you're interested in learning more about everything related to goldfish I strongly recommend you read _Fancy Goldfish: A Complete Guide To Care And Collecting_ by Johnson and Hess. It's the TKG of goldfish and will help you get things set up right and avoid problems in the future.

Reactions: Like 1


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## The Snark

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?256051-How-to-keep-fish-healthy&p=2219223#post2219223


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## moose35

sounds like Columnaris to me.


moose


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