black moor with fungus

Question
Hi Karen,
I have one black moor in a small tank (2g) in my daughter's room. It has an
undergravel filter. I replace maybe 25% of the water (from skimming the top)
about once every 1-2 weeks.  The gravel periodically gets really filthy -
blackish, brownish. When this happens, (once every 3-4 months) I remove the
fish and half its water, rinse the gravel, and put the fish back in with half of its
old water and half new. So far, I've managed to keep it alive for about a year. Just this morning I noticed a fuzzy white patch (small circle) on one of its fins
that appeared to go straight through the fin. I bought Jungle Fungus Clear and
put in just under quarter of the tablet. The instructions say to wait three days.
If necessary, change 25% of the water and put in another dose. Should I
change more of the water than 25%? I'm thinking that I probably should have
done a good size water change before adding the first dose. In such a small
tank, it's easy to build up toxins.
Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

Answer
Hi Lori,
You are definitely on the right track about toxins building up in the tank. And you are definitely trying hard to keep the little fish happy. But he needs a bigger tank. At least a ten gallon. A bit larger is always better but a ten gallon is a worthwhile upgrade from the 2 gal. Goldfish like black moors simply produce far too much waste (even for their small size) for such a small tank and they can be become stunted and prone to infections as they struggle to adapt to the constant poor environmental conditions even with regular water changes. Goldfish can also easily outgrow a 2 gallon if given the proper care.

You are doing great with treating with the fungus clear. However, I always ignore the directions and instead change about 50% of the water (without have to take out the fish) everyday and redose the med after each water change. This seems drastic but it has worked the best for me multiple times. It doesn't take long for the medication itself to break down in the water and become ineffective and ammonia levels will quickly rise and the moor will be more prone to stressful ammonia at this time.

The best thing you can do now is try your best to make sure the little fish has clean clean water by changing about 50-75% at least every to every other day. Getting a small gravel vacuum (from wal-mart or petstores) works extremely well for both draining water out and cleaning waste from the gravel at the same time. I highly recommend you try to get one for your water changes.

Best of luck! Hope this helps!
Karen~