fish help

[johnd]

i know we have a few fish keepers on the site so i need a bit of help.

last year i took in 2 commets and a few gold fish of a mate who was filling in his pond.

i have had koi for about 10 years and lost a few in the first few years and a pond fall in one morning to mr heron .

anyway i have a gold fish that looks like it swallowd a can of beans , its whole body has swolen up just its head looks the same and it scales are sticking out.

so any help would be good .

if its time for a knock on the head thats no problem as my koi and more important .

john

[stormforce]

the goldfish we have in our pond really bloat up when breeding time comes round so that may be whats going on with yours

[Ava_Banana]

Sounds like an internal infection (dropsy).

Preferably get fish out of pond into a "quarantine" tank and treat the fish with some anti-bacterial water treatment (available at your local fish store).



...however...by the time it gets to the swollen and scales sticking-out-porcupine-like stage, I have found it is 50/50 whether you will keep the fish.

My experience is mainly tropical (although have had a pond for many years) though so feel free to comment.

[johnd]

thanks , i only noticed it last week but the last two days it has swollen up real big .

i will pull it out and try and treat it , but to honest it looks like it will pop soon.
john

[soramad]

its not a pearl scale is it? their bodys tend to be larger than their heads and the scales tend to stick out, usually silver/white and red, if not then isolate it and treat it with an antibiotic solution.

[Phantom]

If it looks like a pine cone it most definatly has dropsy causeed by kidney failure or congestive heart failure but may also be caused by bacterial invasion of the body. The only way to tell if it's bacterial is if other fish develop the same symptoms.
So get it out and kill it. The most humane way is to throw it in a bowl of water full of ice cubes or just knock it on the head.

[Koi]

I'd agree with the above, not worth messing around with

[POPEYE]

Ay!, some of mine went that way, removeng them for treatment useually finish's em off anyway, like many animals and fish, once the symtoms are visible it's useually too late,

[johnd]

thanks lads ,

done it now and another looking a bit swollen ( both gone ) and put a treatment in the pond so lets hope thats it .

thanks for the advice.

john