Sick Goldfish!!

Question
I have a 10 gallon tank and i have had it for about a month, i won 3 fancy tail goldfish at a local fair and they were doing great for 3 weeks, until, i went and bought 3 baby goldfish from walmart, when i got them home i noticed that the little all white one had white spots, i thought that was just the way it looked, till i noticed all of them started to get it. well i didn't no what it was till now, i think ick, now all my golffish have it,  3 of them our each 3 inchs long and the others our tiny babys. I have been treating them with quick cure, i have done 4 treatments, 2 the first time then a 25% water change then 2 more treatments, and doing a 25 % water change every week, but it isn't helping. And i haven't tested the ph level, cause someone told me i didn't have to cause i was useing spring water. Could it be that i need to clean the entire aquarium gravel and all to get rid of the ick? Cause they keep falling off the fish into the gravel then reattaching to them all over again. Also one has a hole under its head? please anything will help.

Answer
Hi Katie;

You just have too many fish in there too soon. The tank is still in the break-in period and waste toxins like ammonia and nitrite are poisoning them. The addition of more fish is making it worse. Goldfish are really messy and get BIG. They get to be over 6 inches long and make a tremendous amount of waste without even trying. The combination of these things is making them very stressed so they can't fight off the ick.

Make a 50% water change in the tank right away to lower toxins. Do a 25% change every day for the next 5 days, and 25% every 2 or 3 days after that until the break-in period is over (takes a total of 6 to 8 weeks after the first fish is introduced). Keep using the ick medicine for a total of 10 days but add a couple of other remedies too; Aquarium salt and Melafix. They help with stress, healing, and salt weakens the parasite. Do each water change right before you add medicine for that day. Add the melafix at the same time as the ick medicine. Follow the instructions on the label. For salt, add 5 teaspoons the first day after your 50% water change. This is the first initial dose at a concentration of 1/2 teaspoon per gallon. You will want to keep it at that concentration during the entire ick treatment. Any other water changes you do will require the addition of another 1/2 teaspoon per gallon of salt, but only for the amount of water replaced. In other words, when you replace 25% of the water in a 10 gallon tank, that's about 2.5 gallons. That means you will be adding 1.25 teaspoons of aquarium salt.

Once the crisis is over you will need to get them a bigger tank. Each goldfish needs 10 gallons just for one. Here is a good page about goldfish and their needs;

http://www.firsttankguide.net/goldfish.php

Here is a link to my article on new tanks too;

http://www.xanga.com/Expert_Fish_Help

I hope they get better soon.....

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins