dying goldfish

Question
hello

we have a fancy goldfish, we have had it for 2 years now and have had a few close calls... like the jelly beans my son put in his bowl this past easter.  well he was fine yesterday and this morning I noticed he wasn't really looking like himself and was swimming funny so I changed his water like i've been doing weekly for the past 2 years and have never had an issue.  I changed it, and put in the soloution that makes it ready for them and transferred him back to his bowl... I left for a few hours and got back home a little while ago to find him looking even worse.  he is mostly all white with a little strip of orange on his tail and now his tail is almost all a redish color and his fins look like they are falling apart, he looks like he is rotting alive      :(   I don't know what happened or if he will make it.  My 2 and 4 year old children are going to be devistated... HELP!!!

Answer
Hi,
You are seeing a fungus, bacteria combination commonly known as fin rot. It starts due too poor water quality and is easy to treat. All you really have to do at this point is go to your fish store and buy fin rot medication. It is extremely common and easy to use, simply fallow the directions on the package.

If this doesn't work by the time it says it should, (9/10 chance it will if you use it correctly) there is a more drastic solution. Net the fish and cover it's eyes with plain, clean gauss wet with water from it's bowl. Use a Q-tip to apply hydrogen peroxide to the infected areas. Be careful not to get any in the water, as it is toxic if fish breath it through their gills. this is what makes it a last resort. Regardless, do a water change after this.

Just a side note, Fin rot may heal, but you will see the effects for weeks. the fins and other damaged areas take a long time to heal once they are cured. How to tell if the fish is better or not is based off of behavior, appetite, etc, not appearance.