NekoOo
Aquarium Advice Activist
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2012
- Messages
- 159
As a child I grew up with an awesome aquarium that lit up our family room. It was fond memories of that aquarium that suckered me into rescuing a handful of goldfish from the jaws of death. Long story short, about 2 years ago my friends stupidly tried to populate a wild pond with goldfish. They spent 20$ and got as many goldfish as they could from walmart. Well, at the time I had a 20 gallon aquarium with three tiny fish inhabiting it (the three fish were old and would die within a month or two)...So knowing many of those goldfish were going to be bright, easy prey for the pond fish, I decided to adopt 9. I took four fancy goldfish and five common.
Having come from walmart, the goldies were in bad shape to begin with. Every one of them had jaw rot, one so bad that he couldn't open his mouth to eat and was very skinny. I treated them for the jaw rot, with only one casualty and a year and a half later my goldies are doing well (despite the small tank!)...
However, I have two fish who have some problems that don't really seem to be bothering them that much...But they bother me.
1. One of my fancy goldies has a bloat problem. After meals he can't control his buoyancy and spend the next few hours swimming with all his might to stay near the bottom/middle of the tank, or else he just floats to the top and lays on his side until he digests. I've been treating this problem by frequent water changes and a change in diet. They get thawed peas and a bit of kiwi cycled in with their flake and pellet food, and I fast them for one day of the week to clear their digestive tracts. He's been doing fine since I've started the change in diet and the frequent water changes.
2. My other fish, a common goldie may or may not have a problem. I call him Mutant because he's obviously a little deformed. His mouth is pushed in on one side and his head seems a little odd shaped, though he is a happy, energetic fish and is one of the biggest in the tank. My problem though, is that he has weird little spots on his head. They stick off his head a little and are a whitish color. He also seems a little bloated and I can see a darkness within his belly though he has a very healthy orange color and his gills looks fine (not dropsy as far as I know. he doesn't look like a pine cone from above). None of my other fish have this problem and I was wondering if it might be a result of bad genes as is obvious from his deformities? Or is he really sick and I should treat him, and if so, how?? (I have pictures, not sure how/if I can post them)
Please help. I love my goldies, but I am no expert. I know 20 gallons is small for 8 goldfish but I do my best with what I got and I'm sure my goldies are better kept than most. I do plan on purchasing a bigger aquarium when I move out of my dad's house (ironically he hates fish now....) Or I might just set up two 20 gallon aquariums and separate my fancies from my common.
Anyway, any help would brighten my day!!
THANK YOU
Having come from walmart, the goldies were in bad shape to begin with. Every one of them had jaw rot, one so bad that he couldn't open his mouth to eat and was very skinny. I treated them for the jaw rot, with only one casualty and a year and a half later my goldies are doing well (despite the small tank!)...
However, I have two fish who have some problems that don't really seem to be bothering them that much...But they bother me.
1. One of my fancy goldies has a bloat problem. After meals he can't control his buoyancy and spend the next few hours swimming with all his might to stay near the bottom/middle of the tank, or else he just floats to the top and lays on his side until he digests. I've been treating this problem by frequent water changes and a change in diet. They get thawed peas and a bit of kiwi cycled in with their flake and pellet food, and I fast them for one day of the week to clear their digestive tracts. He's been doing fine since I've started the change in diet and the frequent water changes.
2. My other fish, a common goldie may or may not have a problem. I call him Mutant because he's obviously a little deformed. His mouth is pushed in on one side and his head seems a little odd shaped, though he is a happy, energetic fish and is one of the biggest in the tank. My problem though, is that he has weird little spots on his head. They stick off his head a little and are a whitish color. He also seems a little bloated and I can see a darkness within his belly though he has a very healthy orange color and his gills looks fine (not dropsy as far as I know. he doesn't look like a pine cone from above). None of my other fish have this problem and I was wondering if it might be a result of bad genes as is obvious from his deformities? Or is he really sick and I should treat him, and if so, how?? (I have pictures, not sure how/if I can post them)
Please help. I love my goldies, but I am no expert. I know 20 gallons is small for 8 goldfish but I do my best with what I got and I'm sure my goldies are better kept than most. I do plan on purchasing a bigger aquarium when I move out of my dad's house (ironically he hates fish now....) Or I might just set up two 20 gallon aquariums and separate my fancies from my common.
Anyway, any help would brighten my day!!
THANK YOU