Separated wen and popeye on goldfish?

[pumpkinsmum]

Hi all, my goldfish has just turned 1 year old, he is by himself in a 10 gal tank and I do 30% weekly water changes. I feed a mix of frozen bloodworm and I have recently noticed potentially he is starting to get popeye, I will attach photos to see what you guys think. His wen is also seemingly separated into sections? It's only a small wen but it looks quite strange I'm not sure if this is cause for concern? I do also have quite a hard time keeping nitrites down so I'm sure this probably contributes. Any advice or thoughts from you guys appreciated!

I have attached 3 photos so you can try and see what I mean about the wen and the eyes, sorry they're not great

[pumpkinsmum]

Meant to say a mix of frozen bloodworm and pellets

[Aiken Drum]

What are your water parameters? Are you confusing nitrites and nitrates when you say you have trouble keeping nitrites down?

From your historic posts you seemed to understand that a 10g tank isnt big enough for a goldfish, and what you are seeing is likely a consequence of an unsuitable living environment which over time causes the body of fish to stunt and leads to long term ill health.

[Colin_T]

Goldfish should have a lot of plant matter in their diet. At least 50% of their diet should be plant based. You can feed them vege flakes/ pellets, various fruits n veg like cucumber, zucchini, pumpkin, and small aquatic plants like duckweed. Some people add marine algae from Asian supermarkets.

You could add some live plants like Ambulia and Hygrophila polysperma to the tank.


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I wouldn't worry about the wren getting lines in it but the red dot on top of the head is a concern, as is the white edge to the tail. This could be caused by poor water quality (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate or low pH).

I would be doing a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate once a week, rather than doing a 30% water change. The bigger water change will help get nitrates down. You should also do a 75% water change any day you have an ammonia or nitrite reading above 0ppm, or a nitrate reading above 20ppm.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.