Goldfish laid eggs - with photos, etc.

[Flaringshutter]

well, bad news on the fishy front.

about a week ago i moved the java ferns i had been growing in the nursery tank to the 5 gallon for the wild betta pair that just arrived. i replaced them with a silk plant that i had previously used in the big tank. the silk plant had some dried algae on it that i scrubbed off before putting it in the nursery.
well, when i checked on the babies the next morning i had three dead babies. i immediately pulled the plant and did a 50% water change. the remaining eight fry perked up immediately. i don't know what it was on the plant, but once i removed it and changed the water the babies seemed much better.
fortunately, the eight survivors included the little caramel baby, the big fat gold ones, and my favorite littlest fry. i know i shouldn't have favorites, but i do. ah well. they have been doing well since, but i am keeping an eye on their development and health.

then, to further my fish problems. today i found Upstart unusually fat and bloated. she is swimming normally, eating well and seems content, but she is much too fat. no raised scales, and no change in behavior or color. some swelling between her lower fins and her vent. from above she's symmetrical but swollen. the only thing i can figure is she must be egg-bound. which usually requires surgery.

i searched google furiously for hours and finally found a few good resources. these may be of help to the rest of you as well.

aquavetmed.info (which used to be aquavets.com) is a search engine that will allow you to find vets that treat ornamental fish. enter your country and state, then check the "ornamental fish" box, and a list of vets in your state will come up. easy to use and i found a vet in my area right away.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3214/04.html is a great little NOVA site that has a video slideshow about fish surgery and ailments. the reporter covers three or four surgeries for a variety of disorders. excellent photos. it's great to see the CAT scans, x-rays, and surgery setups, too. something that we aquarists don't get to see every day.

http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/100 has a wonderful article about fish veterinary medicine and the increasing numbers of fish vets. really great writing.


http://www.absc.usgs.gov/research/Fisheries/Lake_Clark/cloveoil.htm is a very interesting article about the use of clove oil as opposed to other anaesthetics in fish, using sockeye salmon as a test subject. has good charts showing recovery times in different concentrations,etc, good photos, well written.


so i've contacted the vet, and i'm waiting for her to call me back right now. i'm going to perform a large water change to see if i can trigger a spawning and possibly flush out the bound-up eggs. i'm very worried about Upstart. please keep your fingers crossed for us.

 

[bettagurl]

Aww, that's very upsetting! I hope Upstart can get her eggs out.
*fingers crossed*

 

[msjinkzd]

i hope she will be ok as well, great links, thanks for sharing them.

 

[Flaringshutter]

Thanks for the support everyone.

Slightly better news. I spoke with the vet - Dr. Ronit Lavie with Conejo Valley Animal Hospital, if you're curious - on the phone. She asked me a few questions about spawning frequency, tankmates, water params, etc, and in the end said that it's unlikely she is eggbound and more likely it's a tumor. She advised me to wait a week or two and see if Upstart improves or worsens. If she worsens, I will probably take her in to Dr. Lavie for inspection.
We didn't talk cost yet, but if we do I'll let you all know. As far as I know there isn't much information on how much it costs to take a fish to the vet. Might be useful info for some of you.

Upstart is still eating well and acting normally, but she's still quite fat. Which leads me to believe it is likely a tumor. Good and bad news - nothing immediately life-threatening, but it will probably end her life prematurely. Though who knows by how much.

Getting back to the subject of this thread, the babies are developing more and more every day. Well, at least some of them are.

The biggest baby is now nearly two inches long - huge compared to the others, who are all about one inch. This baby is deepening in color every day. I'm thrilled because he's turning a beautiful dark copper-cinnamon color. I was really hoping one of the fry would be wild-color. He's big enough that I'm thinking about dividing off a section of the big tank and putting him in with his parents! He's still small enough to be mouth-sized for Upstart and Napoleon- hence the divider - but still! Hooray!

The two calico babies are getting more colorful as well, but not growing too much.

The remaining five fry are still small and silvery. Not much development or color in them yet. I know they're getting enough food, so I'm not sure what the issue is. Perhaps when I move the biggest fry out they will start growing again.

 

[Flaringshutter]

Today I will be culling three or four of the remaining fry. They are not growing properly, and each has a defect that will make it hard to find them happy homes.
One fry has a spine that curves upward. It's too bad as this fry is starting to get a little golder than its siblings, but I don't think this fish would survive to adulthood. He obviously has trouble swimming.
Another fry has a slightly curved spine and a big kink in its tail fin. It is one of the smallest fry and has no color.
Another fry is just lumpy. I believe there may be some internal problems with organ development.
The last fry, that I may not cull today, is just small and underdeveloped, but has a straight spine and normal fins. I may cull him anyway, but I'm not sure about that.

I don't want to cull, but I knew that at some point I probably would have to.

If you're curious, I'll be using clove oil, then freezing. Quick and painless.

 

[bettagurl]

Today I will be culling three or four of the remaining fry. They are not growing properly, and each has a defect that will make it hard to find them happy homes.
One fry has a spine that curves upward. It's too bad as this fry is starting to get a little golder than its siblings, but I don't think this fish would survive to adulthood. He obviously has trouble swimming.
Another fry has a slightly curved spine and a big kink in its tail fin. It is one of the smallest fry and has no color.
Another fry is just lumpy. I believe there may be some internal problems with organ development.
The last fry, that I may not cull today, is just small and underdeveloped, but has a straight spine and normal fins. I may cull him anyway, but I'm not sure about that.

I don't want to cull, but I knew that at some point I probably would have to.

If you're curious, I'll be using clove oil, then freezing. Quick and painless.

Aww, sorry to hear that..

 

[Flaringshutter]

So remember how I had three babies left? Well I went to clean the tank, moved the sponge filter, and out swam a tiny dark shape. That little guy must have been stuck under the bottom lip of the filter for a week or more. His left side is a little torn up, a few scales missing, a gouge in his head, and he might be blind in his left eye, but after surviving that, I couldn't euthanize him. What a little fighter!
Yesterday he started eating and seems to see just fine out of his right eye. He's otherwise healthy and is just as active and happy as the others. Tough little dude.

I did euthanize the four underdeveloped silver fry. After they were gone I had a good look at them. All four had bent spines and were too skinny for their size. They all had inherited their father Napoleon's tail kink, too. His tail fin is set slightly at an angle from the end of his body. You can only see it when looking from above, and it's barely visible on him, but the babies had it bad. Their tails went off nearly at a 45 degree angle one way, then the other.

Anyway.
I've named the four remaining babies.
My fiance's mother had two goldfish years ago that she adored but they came down with ich and she was totally crushed when they died. She tells the story every time we talk about my fish. They own a motorcycle shop here in town, so the fish were Sprocket and Crankshaft.
So, since she's so cool, I decided to name one of the babies Sprocket II. And since I don't know who is male or female yet, I continued the motorcycle theme. Nice unisex names.

Fender!

Sprocket II and Fender. You can see how much bigger Sprocket is than the others.

Sprocket.

This is Sparkplug. Can you imagine why? I'm thrilled about the color of this baby. So bright!

Fender, Sparkplug, and one of the brigs.

And little Bracket, the survivor. You can see he's a little beat up on this side and his eye is hazy. He's a bit underdeveloped, but I'm hoping with some good food he'll fill out.

 

[msjinkzd]

I can't believe how quickly they are changing! excellent update. How is upstart doing?

 

[DAVIDFBT]

Very nice goldfish fry! How do you get their fins so long? And also, how do you make them grow so fast, what do you feed them?

 

[salty420]

wow. pretty much at a loss for words. your comets are amazing! i worked at petcare+/petco years ago and would look at the comets (at the time it was a small store and they were in a 15g tank) and would see some beautiful little babies but never knew they could grow into fish like upstart and napoleon! congrats on your wonderful little babies, i am sorry that they all couldn't make it but i suppose it may be difficult to find homes for many many young ones all at once... i do hope upstart's health improves and that your fears of a tumor are incorrect...