Goldfish emergency!

[dannel]

I have a goldfish that I've had for the past 2 years and one night it was fine and the next morning its swimming on all levels of the tank, and sucks air from, well, the air while being almost completely vertical. I'm not sure what gender, but it used to live with another fish so i thought it might be egg bound. It had dropsy before but i cured it using medications. It got small again but never completely as it always was. Then since about 2 months ago it got fat and has been getting fatter since. I thought it was constipation so I fed it peas and it pooped green poop so its not constipated, and i treated it for dropsy using the same meds and methods as before, but its still fat. It doesnt float or sink, but swims on its side. Help!?

 

[wellington]

So sorry, I can't really help you. I would try some more frozen peas. Pop them out of the outer skin. Good luck

 

[dannel]

Anyone else?

 

[ascott]

Maybe a swim bladder issue?

http://www.desktopgoldfish.com/goldfish-diseases.php?disease=Swim Bladder Disorder

Lovely fish....I hope your fish heals successfully...

 

[dannel]

Maybe a swim bladder issue?

http://www.desktopgoldfish.com/goldfish-diseases.php?disease=Swim Bladder Disorder

Lovely fish....I hope your fish heals successfully...

I thought it might be SBD but wouldn't the previous antibiotic treatments and the peas I fed it rule that out? I did the med and pea thing maybe a week ago. I'm so baffled by this fish!

 

[shellysmom]

Hmmmm...I can't keep fish alive for anything, so don't take any advice from me, but could it be a tumor or cyst or something inside her that has grown so much it's finally thrown her off balance and made it hard to swim? I'm totally guessing, though. ??? Just an idea.

 

[dannel]

Hmmmm...I can't keep fish alive for anything, so don't take any advice from me, but could it be a tumor or cyst or something inside her that has grown so much it's finally thrown her off balance and made it hard to swim? I'm totally guessing, though. ??? Just an idea.

Thanks. I thought maybe she was egg bound because she used to be with a male goldfish but i had to separate them because she got dropsy and i didn't want it spreading. When she was cured of dropsy i was going to put them back together but the male got so big when she was gone there wasn't enough room for the two of them. I got a bigger tank so today I'm going to try putting them together to see if it is egg impaction.
Thanks for everyone's help and advice!

 

[dannel]

Does anyone know if its egg impaction and if it is how to treat it?

 

[BowandWalter]

Goldfish reabsorb their eggs when they become stressed, most fish do (if I remember clearly). So probably not impaction. Secondly goldfish have no fixed sex, they become whatever is needed in their population at that time. I've seen it first hand, a good example would be one of my older pond fish Bunkin, when I got her she laid eggs, and was unmistakably female. After 6 years of that he started fertilizing the eggs and was decidedly male.

Is your fish a regular goldfish or a "balloon" goldfish?

What are your nitrite/ammonia/nitrate levels?

 

[dannel]

Goldfish reabsorb their eggs when they become stressed, most fish do (if I remember clearly). So probably not impaction. Secondly goldfish have no fixed sex, they become whatever is needed in their population at that time. I've seen it first hand, a good example would be one of my older pond fish Bunkin, when I got her she laid eggs, and was unmistakably female. After 6 years of that he started fertilizing the eggs and was decidedly male.

Is your fish a regular goldfish or a "balloon" goldfish?

What are your nitrite/ammonia/nitrate levels?

My fish is a 2 year old comet goldfish. There's a pic in my first post. I've never tested my water in all the time i've kept fish. I never knew I should until a few months ago. I don't have any test kits on me.
This isn't him but this is what he used to look like.

http://www.aquariumfish.net/images_01/red_and_white_comet_110303a3_w0640.jpg

 

[BowandWalter]

It sounds like Swim Bladder Disease, in some cases it causes severe bloating. You'll want to look it up and make sure, I'm not looking at the fish so it's tricky for me to guess perfectly.

You can normally take a water sample to a fish store and they'll test it for you, but a test kit would be a very good idea.

Regular water changes and feeding only peas, and or Daphnia should do the trick, that is a very extreme case, but fish are very good at surviving.

It could have been caused by the stress of having Dropsy, kudos to you, that is a hard one to fix.

Good luck!

 

[dannel]

Thanks for all the help you guys! If anyone has any other suggestions I'm all ears!

 

[roger_chow]

My boyfriend is studying marine biology and says he has float, which means he has been eating bad food, probably has too much corn in it.
You can try switching the food, but it may be too late : /

 

[Yvonne G]

I think what Roger meant to say is "Bloat."

 

[roger_chow]

Yeah bloat, try not to feed him for awhile and switch to a higher quality food diet, goldfish are omnivorous you can try feeding spirilina and brine shrimp in the future to prevent this. Most goldfish flake is corn or wheat based, if you can't find algae flakes or brine shrimp your next best bet is high quality saltwater pellets. Most likely the fish will not recover its hard to save an impacted fish, due to their high fecundity they aren't designed to survive these incidents.

 

[dannel]

Are goldfish pellets good? I know they expand so i try and let them sit in tank water.

 

[dannel]

I put it in a bigger tank with a male and their bumping around so I'm hoping that if it is egg impaction they'll be released.

 

[dannel]

Separated them because there was some bullying and treated with a medicine. Starting to swim regularly now.