- Red cap oranda, about three inches long
- I've had her for four months
- Tank size: 9 US gallons
- Filter: This SmallWorld filter
- Ammonia levels: 0
- Other water parameters unknown
Hi. I've been indecisive about whether to post this, because in terms of behavour and appearance, my redcap oranda Tiny seems to be in perfect health. I've had her for about four months now, and for the first few of months, she would eat like all goldfish do; munching her food up with gusto. However, about six weeks ago her eating habits changed. She now eats much less food (like, minute amounts).
While she is still interested in food and swims towards it and forages around in it, she doesn't visibly open her mouth and suck it in like she used to. I still feed her every day or every other day (regularly with flakes, occasionally with bloodworm gel food and little bits of pea, same diet as always), and in the evening I scoop out whatever she hasn't eaten.
I would be more worried, but I've dealt with poorly fish before, and she really isn't exhibiting any negative symptoms at all. Crucially, I still see her poop, but it's no way near as often as it used to be at all - about once a week, max. This not-eating-much thing has been going on for six weeks now, so I know she must be getting some sustenance in (otherwise she would have deteriorated massively or passed away). She appears to be in perfect health. But I think it's time I ask for some advice, because I don't want her to fall ill in future.
My first thought was that she must have something stuck in her mouth, even though I don't use gravel or even sand in her tank - only large pebbles and ground rocks for this exact reason. It doesn't look like she has anything in her mouth (it's not swollen or misshapen at all), but she also doesn't open her mouth at all like she used to. I read online ages ago that it was a good idea to lift a fish from the water momentarily to take a proper look in their mouth (and perhaps even shock them into spitting it out), and I did this about ten days into her six-week period of not eating much, and I couldn't see anything, and she didn't spit anything out.
In terms of what I've already done to treat her: in the last six weeks, she has had a couple of salt baths. About a week into her reduced appetite, I put her on a course of medicine for parasites and fungal/bacterial infections called Paraguard by Seachem. I put it in the tank every day for about eleven days, and she didn't seem phased at all, but it didn't alter her eating habits either. Since she wasn't getting any better or worse, I stopped the medicine. A couple of weeks later, I tried the same medicine again in 'dip' form, and again, it didn't stress her at all, but it also didn't improve her eating. I've also done a big tank clean in the last six weeks (at a time when she wasn't on any medication) and I treated the water with Interpet General Tonic, like I always do after larger water changes. It never bothers her.
Does anyone have any idea what is going on? It'd break my heart if she fell ill, because she's such a lovely little fish. I've been torn between not wanting to over-treat her and stress her out (since she seems very happy as she is), and wanting her to get her old appetite back, since eating as little as she can't be good for her and will surely stunt her growth eventually.