Goldfish lips

Question
Our four year old goldfish has recently developed swollen lips and now they are starting to crack. One other symptom is that he periodically twitches. I have tried myricin-two and tri sulfate? but to no avail. Any suggestion on how to treat and what might be wrong?  

Answer
Good afternoon Ron,

This is Nicole Putnam, a fellow expert substituting for Darryl today.

It sounds like the medication you dosed in the tank might have affected the ammonia levels. Remember that medication added directly to the tank will harm the biological filtration to some extent - medication also reduces the oxygen content of the water. So when you are medicating, make sure to have an extra airstone bubbling away, it will help to keep the water aerated.

What I would suggest is the following: test your water. 0 ppm of ammonia and nitrite are a must - a healthy, cycled tank never has detectable levels of these. Nitrates are okay as high as 20 ppm, however, the lower the better. Chances are one or more of these levels is high or detectable, so get that under control by effecting partial water changes...lots of them!

Change 50% of the water today with tap water treated with dechlorinator. After that, do 20% water changes daily. Every 3 days for a week, I would also add aquarium salt to the water at a ratio of 1 teaspoon per 10 gallons. It's best to pre-dissolve the salt in a bit of warm water to reduce the risk of salt grains burning your goldfish.

Right now, very clean water is going to be your goldfish's best friend. If you do not see a drastic improvement in a week, then I would medicate with a Nitrofuranace compound such as Furan or Furan-2. Follow the instructions carefully, and always remove carbon from the filter when medicating. Most importantly, keep up with those daily water changes. It may seem like a lot of work - but it will give your goldfish a leg up on recovery!

I hope that helps, take care.
Nicole
(subbing for Darryl)

P.S. Near the top quarter of the page, you will see Dawn's situation - a similar one to yours:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/gldfshdisfaqs.htm

I recommend you check out the rest of Wet Web Media's goldfish section, especially their article on feeding entitled Bloaty, Floaty Goldfish.

I also recommend these two sites to all goldfish keepers:
http://www.koksgoldfish.com
http://www.goldfishparadise.com