Angela Verdenius's Blog - Posts Tagged "goldfish"
Save the Goldfish!
I shared the below story (true story!) with one of my best friends, and I decided to share it with you lucky mob (haha!) Who knows, this might happen to you (I mean your goldfish, not, you know, YOU)
At work in our Palliative Care garden we have a lovely goldfish pond, but one of our goldfish went belly-up. As in, floating on its back or nose-down - and still breathing and trying to swim.
I rang up my trusty vet and spoke to the vet nurse and it looked like he (she?) had swimmer's bladder - to be fair, the nurse gave me the proper name but I couldn't remember it, so my workmate and I were Googling on the computer that day when we had some time and found it, known as 'swimmer's bladder'. They get too much air in them from gulping fish flakes on the surface and fill with air, and their balance is affected. Get this - the treatment is taking them off fish flakes and giving them green peas! The reversal was always iffy, but I decided to give it a go, so brought the fish home and put him in a small tank on the kitchen bench, dutifully feeding him green peas. Evie promptly took up position on top of the tank but the fish didn't seem worried - he was floating upside down poor bugger! So he was basically in ICU. He was doing really well and after a couple of days, he actually did a few laps upright, was eating his peas okay, poohing green pea (let's be honest, fish pooh), and I moved him into Medical ward. Unfortunately, that night he took a dive and started to deteriorate, so I shifted him into Palliative care. Mum and I were leaning over the tank urging him to hang on, but alas, he gasped a few times and died. Poor little bugger. At least we gave it a go!
Anyway, if this happens to you - I mean your FISH - check with your vet. You can try the green peas - I just got 2 out at a time, thawed them in the 'fridge, then popped them out of their skins, squished them up so the fish could swallow them, then dropped one in the tank. I wasn't really sure how much to feed it, so I did one pea in the morning and one at night. But please take care to ask your vet first! I am NOT an expert on goldfish!!!
At work in our Palliative Care garden we have a lovely goldfish pond, but one of our goldfish went belly-up. As in, floating on its back or nose-down - and still breathing and trying to swim.
I rang up my trusty vet and spoke to the vet nurse and it looked like he (she?) had swimmer's bladder - to be fair, the nurse gave me the proper name but I couldn't remember it, so my workmate and I were Googling on the computer that day when we had some time and found it, known as 'swimmer's bladder'. They get too much air in them from gulping fish flakes on the surface and fill with air, and their balance is affected. Get this - the treatment is taking them off fish flakes and giving them green peas! The reversal was always iffy, but I decided to give it a go, so brought the fish home and put him in a small tank on the kitchen bench, dutifully feeding him green peas. Evie promptly took up position on top of the tank but the fish didn't seem worried - he was floating upside down poor bugger! So he was basically in ICU. He was doing really well and after a couple of days, he actually did a few laps upright, was eating his peas okay, poohing green pea (let's be honest, fish pooh), and I moved him into Medical ward. Unfortunately, that night he took a dive and started to deteriorate, so I shifted him into Palliative care. Mum and I were leaning over the tank urging him to hang on, but alas, he gasped a few times and died. Poor little bugger. At least we gave it a go!
Anyway, if this happens to you - I mean your FISH - check with your vet. You can try the green peas - I just got 2 out at a time, thawed them in the 'fridge, then popped them out of their skins, squished them up so the fish could swallow them, then dropped one in the tank. I wasn't really sure how much to feed it, so I did one pea in the morning and one at night. But please take care to ask your vet first! I am NOT an expert on goldfish!!!
