My Goldfish

[T_FLeX]

Guys there is something wrong with my goldfish! This morning I thought he was dead, he was floating upside down at the top of the tank, but with further inspection, I noticed his eyes were following me around the room. I poked him a little, and he started moving again, I don't know what's going on! The size of his stomach has tripled in the last couple of weeks, he can’t be pregnant he lives alone! He seems to be fine, except for the fact he swims upside down now. Is this harmful? Any advice on what I should do?

[blike]

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but he's on his way

[fafalone]

Tumor.

[blike]

A lot of my fish died that way, bloated belly up

[T_FLeX]

How long you think he will live like this? Should I go ahead and flush em?

[entimp]

Are the scales starting to stick out like a pineapple? If so, sorry to say this, put him a plastic bag and take it to the wall... it is called malawi bloat disease sometimes dropsy... no known reason for it, possibly viral.

 

However... more likey to be diet. Gold fish have a really screwed up digestive system. Food tends to get stuck from time to time and gases are produced as a result. Trapped wind if you will.

 

Thus the gas will end up making the gold fish float the other way up. It can pass. A bit of roughage might do. Stop the flake food and try micro pellets.

 

But if it is Malawi Bloat then it best to end it now. See a pet store to find out for sure first.

[Intelligence]

It is HIGHLY LIKELY your gold fish has a bacterial infection because of it's water content.

 

Do ya clean the water every week at least?

[entimp]

Originally posted by Intelligence

It is HIGHLY LIKELY your gold fish has a bacterial infection because of it's water content.

 

Do ya clean the water every week at least?

 

If you keep your fish in a filtered environment then a partial water change should be done every other month.

 

If you are keeping them in a bowl you shouldn't be keeping fish.

 

The cause could be anything but I have pointed out the two most common causes for the symptoms.

 

Changing the water every week will burn the fishes gills to shreds with the chlorine content in water. This will also go onto destroy the fishes brain and over a long perioud of time the fish will build mucus up on the gills to prevent the burning. This in turns lowers the ability of the fish to take oxygen from the water.

 

If you do have a bowl and change the water often then set the water up 4 days before the change. Chlorine is a very unstable element in water and will naturally dissapate in this time.