The good and the bad of fish keeping.

[Sssea]

Today, I had to put my oranda down due to a mysterious illness. He was treated in a hospital tank at my lfs and was not responding. This is probably one of the saddest moments I have ever had in fish keeping. We all lose fish from time to time and this particular little boy was one of my favorites. RIP Augustus.

On the bright side, I picked up a small pearlscale goldfish at another lfs. S/he is cute as a button and I'm quite pleased to have her in my fishy family. Now if I can only settle on a name!

First picture is Augustus, second is my new fish.

 

[George9]

I'm sorry about your oranda.

Your goldfish is adorable!

 

[redsea]

Sorry about your fish, I like your new one a lot though!

 

[Fishguy2727]

Why was the LFS holding your sick fish? What were the symptoms? With unkown problems new additions are not the best idea.

IME hospital tanks cause more harm than good. In order for them to work they need to be a better habitat than the display tank, in which case you should improve your display. The only time I would suggest one is with huge tanks where the cost of treating the whole tank is too high when you can setup and take good care of a smaller tank. Stress causes illness, if you remove the stress the fish can recover on their own without any major intervention 95% of the time. Cramming them in an uncycled, small tank without adequate decor is not removing stress.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

I remember reading your other thread when he got sick. I'm sorry you had to let him go. I just recently had to put one of my fish to sleep too.

 

[Sssea]

I appreciate the sentiments. The fish was originally brought to the lfs to be euthanized and they suggested a last ditch effort at treatment which was very appreciated. I wanted to know that I did everything possible before putting him down. He's been out of my tank for about a week and I've been doing daily water changes and monitoring my other fish which has had no symptoms at all. The new fish is settling in nicely. S/he is very cute and I'm really enjoying him/her very much. I've always wanted a pearlscale and I'm so glad to have found such a precious fish.