my dads fish tank is dying what's causing this?

[joseph p]

Sounds like the ick. Fish sickness. You can buy additive to help the fish along. If changing water, make sure it's old water. Let it stand in bottles for 24 hours before putting in tank. Why? That's what a pro told me to do. And that's what I've been doing for years.

 

[Ms. G.O.A.T.]

just recently like today, my dad came home and found four gold fish, and a white algae eater dead. he has a 6 in shark type fish and it has what it looks like to be a thin film on it's entire body. he went up to a pet store with some of the water from the tank, but the guy said the water was fine. right now my dads changing the water but what could have caused this?
Also he has stress coat so would this help?

 

[tikitiki]

More info is needed.
What size is the tank?

What types and how many fish are in it?
(I can tell you right now, with 4 goldies alone the tank should be at least a 55 gallon)

How long has the tank been set up for?

Anything new added to the tank recently?

How often does he do water changes, and how much water is changed each time?

Any other symptoms on the fish? Like torn fins/tail, white stringy stuff hanging off the fish, any red spots/ulcers, cottony growths, laying at the bottom, breathing hard, lethargic, eating or not?

Stress Coat is basically a water dechlorinater that's overrated for magically healing all that ails fish. My opinion-it's really only good for use as a dechlorinator.

Without knowing the answers to those above questions, I can tell you it's either a water quality issue from an overstocked tank and/or lack of water change, or even new tank syndrome if that's the case. White slime on the fish can show up when the fish's skin is irritated from stuff like poor water quality or ph fluctuations.

Parasites can cause a white film on the bottom. Same principle as above with the water quality, they irritae the skin and cause the fish to produce excess slime coating. There's also several other parasites that can cause that to happen-costia or chilodonella, and are somewhat common to goldfish.

Bacterial infection, namely columnaris, can also cause a white film to show up on the fish. Also commonly shows up in tanks with poor water quality.

Like I mentioned, with 4 goldies, the tank should be at least 55 gallons, and you also mentioned other fish. So whatever it is exactly, it's very possible it all stemmed from a water quality issue. Treatment will depend on exactly what the problem is, because antibiotics won't help a parasite infection, etc.


.

 

[Elizabeth K]

What size tank?
What type and how many of each fish?
How much is your dad removing?
Did the pet store associate say exactly what the ammonia, and nitrite readings were?

Your tank has a number of problems:

1. Goldfish should not be housed with tropical algae eaters. Goldfish are coldwater and should be kept at nothing higher than 74F. Algae eaters and sharks are tropical and usually do best between 77F-82F. Keeping them together is a lose lose situation- By keeping goldfish at a higher temperature to suit the tropical fish their metabolism speeds up, stressing them, and will shorten their lifespan. By keeping the tropical fish without a heater to suit the goldfish, their immune systems are lowered and they become prone to disease.

2. Four fancy goldfish require 50 gallons for themselves. Four common goldfish require no less than 115 gallons.

3. Goldfish produce a massive amount of waste that is probably causing the algae eater and shark stress.