I think my goldfish has a disease called bloat. Do you know anything about this?

Question

I treated the water with medication from the fish store. I thought the fish was pregnant, but it never laid any eggs. So I got concerned & talked to the guy at the fish store about it & we decided that it must be sick. Now I'm sick with worry about the fish! Basically, what I would like to know is, how fast the medicine will work. The poor fish looks like it swallowed a golf ball. How many days do you think it will take the fish to return to normal size, or how many days it wil take to at least go down a little in size. The fish still eats & doesn't seem to be in any pain but I feel terrible about it. I was convinced it was pregnant. I've never seen anything like this in my life & I've had fish for 40 years. I don't know why it happened either. I have an excellent filter system & regularly change the water, etc. What causes it? It's a big tank & it has 5 other goldfish in it & they all show no signs of it. Is it common? Thanks for your help. I WILL pick a best answer.

The medicine is call Fungus Eliminator. It says on the bottle that it treats fish bloat (dropsy).

Answer 1

Bloat is often caused by something improper in the fish's diet or water quality (leading to an internal infection). See swim bladder disorder in this link: http://www.fish-disease.net/diseases.htm It may not have been necessary to medicate. If your goldfish is one of the fancy varieties, this is more common because of the body shape.

The only other possibility would be dropsy, and this usually involves the scales standing out from the body and lack of appetite. This disorder is also in the above link.

Also see this link for a diagram of dropsy: http://www.goldfishinfo.com/diagram.htm . Follow the link below the diagram for more info on the above conditions.

Answer 2

Bloated Goldfish

Answer 3

Goldfish bloat is usually constipation. What kind of medicine did they give you??
The normal "cure" for it is thawed, shelled frozen peas. The cause is overfeeding or feeding the wrong foods. High protein foods also cause bloat in goldfish.
Bloat isn't a sickness as much as it is an ailment. I'm truly curious what the pet store told you it was and what they sold you for it. The only other "bloat" is known as Malawi Bloat. It's dropsy. But you would have been able to tell the difference (their scales stick out like pine cones).

Answer 4

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They don't need a 40 gallon that is a bunch of BS. If the scales are sticking out that is a water quality proplem, more than likely because it wasn't cycled or you added salt to thte aquarium. First, get rid of the salt. Use your carbon and pull it out. secondly, water changes are to be done vac every week one time 25% water change also Goldfish need a balanced diet. When choosing a fish food choose one with high protein (48% or better) and low fat (5% or less) You can supplement their diet with things like Lettuce, mustard greens, turnip greens, collard greens, spinach, peas, endive, Watersprite, seaweed, cukes, kale, chard, broccoli, lima beans, green beans, etc. and feed aquatic plants (e.g. duckweed, azolla, salvenia, etc) or hair algae daily. For their Carotenoids which are a family of pigments the fish can't make themselves and are obtained as part of the diet. These pigments result in red, yellow and orange colors. Fish have cells called chromataphores. Those cells convert lutein and carotenes into astaxanthin which is the red pigment. sources include, brine shrimp, krill, spirulina, marigold flowers, paprika, sweet red peppers, yams, carrots, pumpkin Watermellons and oranges are also good as well as proteins like chicken (chicken livers) beef (livers and parts) and pork as well as worms and bugs. Clean water is the only thing that keeps the goldfish from becoming sick. NO BLOODWORMS. Although they are good for goldies don't use live blood worms ever. Chances are your water changes weren't weekly and they weren't with quality water. Goldfish are hearty fish. They could very well have bloat or suffering from swim bladder disease. Either way feed them greens from spinach to peas to lima beans. This should help if not dropsy is not cureable and only good water quality is the key.

Answer 5

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
I think my goldfish has a disease called bloat. Do you know anything about this?
I treated the water with medication from the fish store. I thought the fish was pregnant, but it never laid any eggs. So I got concerned & talked to the guy at the fish store about it & we decided that it must be sick. Now I'm sick with worry about the fish! Basically, what I would like to...

Answer 6

If its scales are sticking up it has Dropsy wich is a killer and hard to treat.

Also it could be constipated, don't feed it for a 2-3 days. If thats not working, try to feed it a shelled mashed pea and add a bit of epsom salt to its water.

Answer 7

Try feeding the fish frozen peas cooked then cut in half for a weak there is info about doing this.It helps with the gasses in the fish stomach.

Answer 8

Umm if it is a goldfish and i mean i have a beta that i like but i mean it isnt that i am emotionally attached or anything but i hope the medicine helps and if not then more room for the other 4

Answer 9

this site should help it has alot of info for bloat and other thing's and med's good luck and i hope this help's
http://www.koitime.com/goldfishguy/GoldfishInfo/goldfish_health.htm

Answer 10

send your gold fish back to god, and get a new one