Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

We have 3 tiny goldfish in an IBC. One is acting funny and has a patch of white fungus growing on its tail.

Do I have to quarantine it or can I just salt the entire IBC to treat it in case the fungus is in the water/about to affect the other fish?

sounds a bit like white spot (ich).
check here... http://completegoldfishcare.com/goldfis ... -diseases/
or here... http://completegoldfishcare.com/goldfis ... treatment/

note (as these sites do) getting ich is not a sign you are doing anything wrong - pretty common.
there are threads here as well.

As you are going down the fish route it would not hurt to do it in a hospital/quarantine tank.
The salting etc is much easier and more controlled. You will need to practice this anyway and the kids can keep an eye on him. You can salt or in small aquarium use a commercial treatment.

All systems have ich present, and fish mainly affected when weak or stressed.
Time to make sure that the fish have somewhere to hide in the IBC, else they will not relax and constantly feel exposed and threatened. Just need something large like a rectangular planter or something.

I believe the line of thought that the fungus is always there lurking , something makes the fish sick and stresses it and the fungus follows .

My experience with white fungus didn't end well , if caught early its certainly better than later as happened to me (very busy leaving and returning in the dark)

So yes quarantine and salt the fish in a hospital tank would be a good start

Poor fishes. I've been lazy and they have a few fake lillies floating in there but not much else.

I have a section of old clay water pipe I could put in the bottom of the tank for them and some ceramic plant pots I could lay on their side... Would these be ok? They've just been sitting in a garden bed.

If I put the sick fish in a metal mixing bowl for quarantine would this be ok?

Can I use table salt for salting? (Non iodised) How much?

no dont use table salt, it has anti caking agent.

pool salt or "sea salt" with no additives only.

i wouldnt say its exposure, i would monitor things such as daily temp swings, ph swings, do you have any zinc or copper in the system, do they have adequate filtration, etc?

killing goldfish is hard, normally feeling a little scared isnt enough to ruin their immune system.

I feel these fish may have been stressed before I bought then. There were heaps crammed in a tiny tank... Probably feeder goldfish because I bought the cheapest.

if they were brown / green instead of orange, then yea they were feeders.

salt the tank to 2-3ppm and hope.

can go with a hospital tank, but doesnt sound worth it for 1 baby goldfish.

if it were me i would get out the fish net and swing it against a pole, then get more fish.

Fish died. The girls and I said a few words then flushed her/him/it...

Thanks anyway everyone! Will test the water tomorrow out of curiousity as its gone a bit cloudy today.

anything is fine. They don't have to hide inside anything - just something they can settle against/beside.
else they don't tend to settle until they 'get over it'. Small fish in a big tank etc.

Is actual less of an issue when many fish as there is security in a school.


probably bit small - if you are going with fish in the big tank setup then you will need to have a quarantine and/or hospital tank. So good idea to keep an eye out on gumtree.


sorry to hear but guess that is part of it - if the IBC is fairly stable I doubt it will be water related.
Personally I wouldnt worry about it unless the others start having issues.
Ich is a parasite and just one of those things that are commonly brought in with fish. Sometimes you just pick the unlucky one. Over many years I have often lost one new fish every now and again - and the others go for years.

You are going to see a few more over time - comes with the fish thing....

poor plants would have loved that fish.

if your water is going cloudy its almost certainly ammonia.
The next step is you will notice bubbles will remain on the waters surface for much longer than they should, if so, definitely ammonia.

Definitely test the water with your test kit - would at least deal with fact versus speculation.
But the status of the other two fish is likely to be the real indicator.

If it does test up as ammonia and it has been produced by 3 baby/young goldfish in a 700-800L IBC over such a short period of time then there is an even bigger issue that you have to address. The numbers just dont add up.
If ammonia present then maybe first look at food* and feeding....

I go with "Goldfish with white fungus in IBC"...... being one of the most common ailments of any fish tank and recently relocated fish.

search - "ich" on this forum site - it has 831 returns.........

[edit] plus temp & pH

> [edit] plus temp & pH

sorry that was supposed to mean measure temp & pH along with ammonia etc.
(then you refer to those pH-Ammonia-temp charts etc)

> food*

meant to say that some of the fish flake brands can make water go cloudy.
I noticed one type did and I don't use it any more and my mother often complains about food making water cloudy (she buys on price rather than quality). Flakes seem to be the main offender but guess some pellets could be as well. So may simply be the food [ sadly it doesn't naturally form in that nice green/red/orange ]

is more common issue in aquariums.

I also once used another 'popular pet store' brand of flake that was particular gluggy - and seemed to make a paste in my pump and pipes (FT-GB system). Produced long poo strings as well....

Tested the water last night and Amonia was 1.5ppt and pH was 7.4

This morning I took out 40 liters of water and put in 40 liters of fresh water - this should buy me some time until I can get the GB properly connected.

please dont be using goldfish / aquarium food in AP systems.

Thanks for the tip! This is just a temporary set up to keep the kids interested and practice testing water etc while I build our big AP system.