TryingMyBest
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I've posted previously about my sick calico goldfish, my last post should be listed in my personal page if anyone'd care to review it, but I'm more concerned with how to proceed with taking care of this guy as well as I can.
After his last bout with swelling I treated him by isolating him in a hospital tank and giving him eight days of medication, his swelling has gone, and he's back to normal size. It was suggested in the previous thread that if he's absolutely not going to rebound I should go ahead and euthanize the poor guy, but on top of his physical appearance returning to normal he's increasingly lively and less lethargic since the start of treatment and, for all intents and purposes, he's back to normal. However, I was told in the previous thread that dropsy is an infection which essentially attacks and shuts down the fish's kidneys, leading to all the ill health effects attributed to such a situation in addition to the swelling.
My question is, given that I have him and his tank-mate in a 15 gallon tank (which is less than ideal but upgraded from an even smaller tank, and upgrading again is out of the question for the time being), ammonia buildup being checked at least every third day, and more or less remaining constant thanks to ammo-carb, and all other regular maintenance being attended to, is there anything further I could do to improve this poor guy's quality of life? I'd really hate for this to be a recurring thing for him every month or so until the disease finally takes him, at least I'd like to curb the swelling if possible.
Also, with regards to his tank-mate, he's a bigger comet goldfish, about twice the size, and hasn't shown any sign of disease except for possible gill damage due to ammonia buildup at the beginning of the year, which I wasn't aware of at the time but do monitor now. But that's not my concern for him, I'm more worried about the calico's infection spreading to the comet. I'd assume that since the disease was described as a bacterial infection to me that it'd be communicable, should I worry and separate the two of them permanently?
Please post any thoughts and hopefully I can make things better for the both of them.
After his last bout with swelling I treated him by isolating him in a hospital tank and giving him eight days of medication, his swelling has gone, and he's back to normal size. It was suggested in the previous thread that if he's absolutely not going to rebound I should go ahead and euthanize the poor guy, but on top of his physical appearance returning to normal he's increasingly lively and less lethargic since the start of treatment and, for all intents and purposes, he's back to normal. However, I was told in the previous thread that dropsy is an infection which essentially attacks and shuts down the fish's kidneys, leading to all the ill health effects attributed to such a situation in addition to the swelling.
My question is, given that I have him and his tank-mate in a 15 gallon tank (which is less than ideal but upgraded from an even smaller tank, and upgrading again is out of the question for the time being), ammonia buildup being checked at least every third day, and more or less remaining constant thanks to ammo-carb, and all other regular maintenance being attended to, is there anything further I could do to improve this poor guy's quality of life? I'd really hate for this to be a recurring thing for him every month or so until the disease finally takes him, at least I'd like to curb the swelling if possible.
Also, with regards to his tank-mate, he's a bigger comet goldfish, about twice the size, and hasn't shown any sign of disease except for possible gill damage due to ammonia buildup at the beginning of the year, which I wasn't aware of at the time but do monitor now. But that's not my concern for him, I'm more worried about the calico's infection spreading to the comet. I'd assume that since the disease was described as a bacterial infection to me that it'd be communicable, should I worry and separate the two of them permanently?
Please post any thoughts and hopefully I can make things better for the both of them.