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Hi

Last night I noticed one of my goldfish looked very slow and lethargic and was having big problems swimming against the gentle current of the water filter. I isolated him to my hospital tank (he did not fight in the net) and observed him for a while. He did not want to swim, kept turning upside down and breathing very slowly.

This morning he seems a bit better. He is eating but not really swimming very much. I have noticed that his scales are pointing up away from his body (please see pics below), I have never seen this before, what does it mean?

http://www.ucantlose.co.uk/fish1.jpg
http://www.ucantlose.co.uk/fish2.jpg

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks
Carl

Hi welcome to the site,
We need you to answer the questions in this post before we can help further.

Most important in this case is tank size, filter, ammonia, nitrIte, and nitrAte readings.
Dropsy will cause the scales to stick out like a pinecone. Constipation can cause swim bladder disorders that will effect the ability to swim. Once we know a bit more about your tank we shoudl be able to give you a bit more advice. For now I'd suggest feeding a shelled pea to the goldfish. They need alot of veggie in their diets and often they don't get enough. Take a frozen pea, defrost it between your fingers and pop it from the skin. Then as it breaks into the two halfs offer one half @a time to the fish. They should go for it. Keep up with water changes while the fish is in the hospital tank.

^_^
[hr width='40%']"There’s an emptiness inside her. And she’d do anything to fill it in.
And though it’s red blood bleeding from her now. It's more like cold blue ice in her heart.
She feels like kicking out all the windows. And setting fire to this life."

Last edited by Babelfish at 26-Feb-2005 04:49