Help my possible ‘pregnant’ goldfish

[Lovemy6fish]

In the beginning of January, I noticed that my goldfish, who is about 5 years old, was getting bigger in the abdomen. After researching online, I knew it wasn’t dropsy and I believed that my goldfish was ‘pregnant’. I put this goldfish with my other three male fish and made a mop for her to lay the eggs on. I had also tried quarantining her and fasting her for 1-2 weeks. I put salts in the water to help her. None of my other fish are sick and I’m not sure what’s going on. She has gotten much bigger and hasn’t laid any eggs. Her abdomen has been big for over four months and I haven’t found anything that tells me how long goldfish can be ‘pregnant’ for. I just noticed that on her lower back end of her abdomen she has two small red dots and two red lines which appear to be below the ‘skin’. I could really use any help and if you have questions about her, let me know.

 

[Skai]

Why do you think mating over something like a parasite? My first instinct is to check water quality and see if you can catch sight of any poop.

 

[Lovemy6fish]

I thought mating because of the big belly and the other fish are fine, this is the only one with a big belly. Its poop is brown and round, not shorter or longer than normal.

 

[Skai]

Hmm. I personally have never bred anything but angel fish (and lots of pest snails lol) so I can't say how long a goldfish would show if it is egg laden. I would still try testing the water. I've read that fiddling with temperature can trigger spawning behavior so that might be something to try as its cheap and easy trouble shooting.

And of course it could be something like a tumor that you can't really do much about. I have a tetra like that, quite obviously abnormally large but has been for months and it's not placed quite right to be a natural thing.

 

[Lovemy6fish]

Thank you for all the advice. Yesterday, I saw that the scales stuck out like a pinecone. My fish definitely has dropsy, but I’m not sure why it has lived for almost five months. I have aquarium salt in the water and I’m using medicine, but I’ll have to see how it turns out.