Hi guys

My old man has a fish pond with plenty of goldfish - most of which are perfectly healthy - but 2 are very bloated... to the point that their scales resemble a pine cone instead of being flush to their bodies.

Does anyone know what this could be? Maybe some kind of infection?

We're pretty sure they aren't egg bound so any advice would be appreciated if it's an infection. One of them died this morning and the other one was swimming on it's side for a while but seems to have righted itself.

Cheers


Rich

Sounds like it could be Dropsy to me, Dixie.

Edit: It almost certainly is dropsy. In my experience over a good few years of keeping pond and aquarium fish, all of the remedies - mostly expensive ones- simply do not work once the infection has taken hold. The most humane thing is to catch it in a net and smack it on the top of the head with a sturdy stick or stone. Not nice, but the fish is suffering.

Prevention is better than cure, and there are some decent treatments that can be added to the pond during the season, and one of the best I find is a bag of aquatic salt in spring and autumn.

Think thats 'dropsy'.

Had a tank goldfish get it (and die) when I was a kid.

Took me a few years to kill the pond goldfish I inherited at my last house but I got there in the end

Too much hassle to look after the water and fish properly so I don't have a pond now.

Get it out , it could explode eventually.
If he has a load of Goldfish and its only small one kill it, chuck it in your ex's handbag when she's next over to pick up the kids.

PS If it is an infection (google it) then best to move the suffering fish to try and save the rest.

PPS If you do move it to your ex's handbag, make sure you fill it with pondwater first to minimise suffering.

Not so sure dropsy itself is contagious, but there is obviously something wrong in the environment that has caused it. It is often suggested a partial water change every other year in ponds, and a complete overhaul every three years or so. May be worth carrying out a complete overhaul this autumn, and thoroughly clean and perhaps replace any filtration system you have installed.

Cheers guys that's really helpful... I've just told my Dad to put the other one out of it's misery and he did say that he's not fussed the pond (cleaning and filtering) as much as he normally has over the years. He has got 2 pumps running in it though.

It seems there's no definitive answer to whether dropsy is contagious but I reckon it's better to cull the fish that may have it?

So I take it your old man did what any English person would do with his fish.

he battered it

I battered it on the head for him a few weeks back... Cruel but kind really...

and then the deep fryer