Oranda goldfish badly bloated.

[FreshyFresh]

One of my favorite goldfish has recently become badly bloated. One side is especially distended. For the past 3 days, I've netted him out of the tank and placed him in an epsom salt bath in a 5gal bucket with ~3gal of water and 3 tablespoons of epsom salt for about 30-45min. He hasn't been given food the past 3-4days as well. No relief yet for this guy. I'm not sure what else I can do.

A little backgroud: This fish is in a room temperature 55g with another fancy and one comet. Weekly fin-level water changes and nitrates maintained well under 20ppm. Typically 10ppm on day 7. Main food is Omega one goldfish pellets, with occasional freeze dried blood worms and meal worms. Occasional Zoo Med Spirulina flake as well. I feed no more than 5days/week. Tank is filtered with an AC110, a big sponge bubbler and has a pothos plant growing out of the tank.

 

[OrionGirl]

That's a meaty diet for a goldfish--I can't help with the bloated one, but I'd probably drop the blood worms in favor of more vegetable matter. Unfortunately, bloating is often associated with internal organ failure--kidneys stop functioning and the fish can no longer osmoregulate.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Thanks. The freeze dried blood worms and/or meal worms are a once per week thing, where I add a little pinch in with some of their staple food- Omega one gold fish pellets. I have fed them finely chopped lettuce, spinach and cucumber at times as well, but they're real slow to eat that.

Doesn't look good for this guy. If I don't see any improvement in the next few days I'll have to put him down.

 

[myswtsins]

Sorry to hear this Joel. With no improvement with what you are doing I'd chalk it up to any of the numerous things that go wrong with fancy goldfish in their compacted bodies. I'm sure you know what to look for for dropsy or egg bound yes?

 

[FreshyFresh]

Thanks Jen. Yes, it didn't appear to be dopsy or egg bound issue. I had to put the fish down today. Couldn't get him out of it. I had this fish for about 2yrs. I've actually lost two fancies this way over the past 4yrs. It seems if they make it past 2yrs or so, they're good.

 

[myswtsins]

Sorry for your loss. It happens, unfortunately too often in fancy varieties.

 

[FreshyFresh]

Thank you! It's been a learning experience for me for sure. As much as I love the personalities of fancies, I don't think I'd keep them (in a tank) again for the reasons above. This one was a gorgeous fish. Beautiful fins, vivid white body with a bright red cap. Super active and funny, but he never grew quite like the others. I'm thinking this is a tell-tale sign of impending internal issues. Same with the run of the mill tiger fancy I had prior. Was great for 2yrs or so, but stopped growing, bloated and had to be put down.

I still have a fist sized oranda that was a really cool grey color for better than a year, then turned all orange! His name is still Earl, for Earl Grey. LOL! He's in with a 7-8" Comet my daughter brought home 3-4yrs ago as a tiny, sickly, carnival fish. "Goldie".

 

[myswtsins]

It's really hard getting attached to these fish and then losing them to no fault of our own and completely out of our control. Also to love ones color and have them change lol. I have several that have done this. One of which is named Cheddar (by my young cousins) and he is now almost completely white lol

Those carnival fish can be amazing fish or extra sickly. I had a goldfish named Goldie too (who hasn't?), she actually was Cheddar's mate. 12" long bright orange body with long white fins. But I lost her recently while on vacation to a new predator, 1st time in the 3 yrs I've had the pond that a predator has come (or been successful at least) and of course he gets my biggest favorite fish! ugh. But at least I have some of her offspring still. Rant over

Good luck to you!

 

[FreshyFresh]

Was your predator some type of bird do you figure? My sisterinlaw who lives a few miles from us, has an awesome pond. Problem is, some Herons hang out there from time to time. The pond is big, has some deep spots and a dock to hide under, so I'm not sure how some transplanted tank goldfish would do in there.

 

[myswtsins]

Not sure, thinking a raccoon cause whatever it is/was only comes at night. Have a trail cam out there trying to catch it in the act. Pond was built with predators in mind with steep sides and no shelves but right in front of one of the walls there is just enough of a step and that's right where we feed the fish so they are too trusting there.

A fancy goldfish wouldn't stand a chance against a heron no matter the pond setup IMO. Also fancies have to come in over winter, just something to consider.