Sitemaps

my goldfish is sick2007-11-24 23:39:14

He was fine one day, and the next day his scales were puffing up around a lump on his side. No scales are puffy in any other area. He is swimming a little weakly too. Can i put salt in the tank? How much? I know there not salt water fish, but i heard it helps diseases go away. My cat had accsess to the tank for a long period of time because the top broke, but he is usually on the bottom swimming around and searching for food. how can i help him?

Answers:

I think this sounds like dropsy, which can be treated, however, in most cases, it is fatal. See the source link for more information on it, as well as how to treat it. If you continue to have problems, come over to Flippers and Fins, and post your problem in the Emergency Room. There is a whole network of people there to help you, including a real honest-to-goodness doctor (see link at end of source link).

You can add Epsom salt. Do NOT use aquarium salt or table salt at this point, until you can definitely rule out dropsy (as other salts will actual worsen the condition).

You should really have this fish in a filtered 20-gallon tank (at least), as goldfish are extremely messy, and most grow to be 8 inches or more. In fact, depending on what kind of goldfish you have, you may need anything from a 55-gallon tank to a pond when he's full-grown. If you have him in less than a 20-gallon tank, you need to get a bigger tank as soon as you can. Look on your local craigslist site(s) or freecycle.net group to see if you can get any good deals off of there.