Goldfish opinons needed

[Signus]

I just recieved the goldfish and pleco that I'm going to watch over from a guy in the dorm. The goldfish looks horrible. He's missing his upper and lower lips. I think I see bone or cartilage, but the guy isn't bleeding, Thank God. If you all walk me through getting pictures on the board, i can show you what i mean.

Anywas, I got the goldfish out of the 5 gallon bucket and into that cycling tank after moving the danios back into their tank. Now he's just laying on the bottom of the tank and breathing every few secongs in a labored fashion. He's watching everything that's going on and seems to be more calm when I keep the towel off of the sides of the tank.

Should I euthanize the poor guy or should I wait till I can get him to the lfs where the owner said she had a pond for him to live in? I really don't want the poor fish in pain. I added stress coat and as much home water from the bucket into the tank as i could while leaving enough for the pleco.

The pleco is fine, just very light in coloration from the stress.

 

[Blinky]

Hi there,
When you hit 'reply to post' and the reply window opens up, under the [Size] pulldown there's a little yellow picture - click it, and you can attach an image (has to be fairly small, jpg format is best).
It sounds like that goldfish has had a hard time of it I'd make sure he has very clean water (there's no harm in changing half the water daily), top quality food (if he's able to eat) and a quiet environment. If you can pin down the condition (check fishyfarmacy.com and/or google fish disease symptoms) medicate accordingly; I don't recommend medicating until you know what's wrong since there are so many types of medications out there and they're all specific to certain conditions - using the wrong one will have no effect on the disease, but it will stress the fish.
I wish you and the poor goldfish luck.

 

[Signus]

Well, the goldfish doesn't have a disease so much as all of the lips have been worn off due to getting stuck in a 10 gallon tank untill reaching 10 inches or so with what's left of his fins.

The goldfish then was transported with gravel and rocks from its own tank in a 5 gallon bucket for 3 hours on I-75 to town and then started trying to escape my coaching for 30 minutes.

When I finally got him into the tank, so saw the damage that being confined in that small a space did. Hopefully the lfs owner I am giving him to will be able to take care of him in her house's ponds or tanks. She said she'd take the pleco too since they've gotten too big.

She's not going to resell them since the store is going out of business, btw.


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with the pictures, how would i get it to upload from my computer? Or do I need to load it onto a site like yahoopictures.com?

 

[Cearbhaill]

Keeping him in good clean water is about the best you can do. Do you see any sign of infection or fungus? If the skin looks to be rotting Goldfish Connection.com sells some really good antibiotic laced food. Fuzzy fungal problems would require treatment in the water like methylene blue.

I would just try to get him eating and in good water.

 

[Leporinus Guy]

Can't tell you much about a goldfish with no lips...the smart-alecky remarks are endless, but I shall refrain.
Why are you attempting to keep a goldfish (cold water) with a plecostomus (tropical?) Although not completely unheard of or impossible, it doesn't fit into standard "best fish keeping" principles.
When I have a relatively inexpensive fish that is that sick, (like a goldfish) and with no known cure (such as being lip-less), I remove it. I don't want it to suffer, I don't want it to get opportunistic infections that could (probably) infect all the other fish, and I wouldn't overly medicate, which can throw the biological balance all out of whack (that's a technical term, whack.)
Then again, the fact that he is still alive is a testament to his strength and your care; the fact that he is your charge for a roommate may complicate things, I understand, but I will let others here describe methods of humane euthanasia if that is your choice.

 

[Signus]

Gotcha. Thanks for not jabbing me about the goldfish with no lips. I really can't descibe it any other way. The teloscoping part of the guy's mouth is completely missing from banging up on the sides on the tank all his life. He was a lowly feeder goldfish that's now grown to big size. I think he deserves a chance.

I put in a Hikari algae wafer last night and heard some rummaging around in the gravel a few hours later. This morning it was gone, so we can assume that it's healthy enough to eat. I'm going to do a water change after class and cross my fingers.

I'm glad that the family won't be keeping fish from now on. They've given me all of their fish stuff and I plan to put it to good use with only tropicals.

Btw Cearbhaill, there's no sign of infection since all of the damage is pretty fresh. I haven't been able to check the pleco out for signs because I have nothing really big enough to hold him while I do an inspection in the tank instead of the bucket.

 

[Signus]

The woman in the lfs said that the goldfish will pull through great with some medication and getting moved to her 80 gallon pond in her front yard. This is a huge relief.


Thanks all for the help. I was seriously worried there when I got the fish last night. I think the guy in the dorm and his family will be happy when they hear where their fish are going.

Now what to do with an empty tank....