Black Smudge Disease

Question
I have a pet goldfish. It's a feeder fish that I got at a carnival Labor Day weekend in 2007. I've been keeping my fish in a nice size bowl and have been changing the water once every other week. I started feeding my fish twice a week. It's been healthy up until now. It takes my fish a little bit longer than usual to eat all of its food. I've been feeding my fish flakes. I have just noticed that my fish has a black mouth and some black around its eyes. It also has a black spot on its tail. I did some research. I think my fish may have Black Smudge Disease. Please tell me if I am correct based on the information I explained. If it is Black Smudge Disease, is their any medication for it or anything I could do for my fish?

Answer
Hi Jill,
 I am not familiar with Black Smudge disease.  Fish often get a little black around the mouth when the mouth gets scraped up but it tends to go away quickly.  The black around the eye is a little more peculiar.  Personally, I would see if the black area is getting larger, and I would make sure the fish has clean water.

  Keeping him in a bowl is not the best idea -- a bowl is not very much water for a fish to live in.   Do you have a filter in the bowl?  If not, then you need to be changing the water more often.  Doing so will be much more effective than putting a chemical treatment in the water which may in fact make things worse.

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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