Floppy baby goldfish; maybe constipated?

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Jim Sinclair

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This is Floppy, whom I wrote about in my intro post. Floppy was hatched July 21st and is three months old. Floppy's mother is a common goldfish and the father is either a common or a comet. (I'm not sure which of my adult fish are the parents, but I know that all of them are commons except two comets, and both of those are males.)

A week ago today I noticed floppy lying on the floor of the tank like this, initially tried to remove what I thought was a dead fish, and upon discovering that it was alive, moved it to a hospital tank where I've been treating with Paraguard.

Two days ago it occurred to me that in, at that time, five days of having Floppy isolated in a separate tank, I have not found any fish poop when doing water changes. I looked up goldfish constipation and began to suspect that might be the problem, even though Floppy does not appear visibly bloated. I tried a brief Epsom salt bath yesterday and have offered mashed peas. Still no poop found in the hospital tank as of this morning.

Today Floppy is going to the vet. We have an appointment for 4 p.m. I'm in the eastern US time zone, so that's about 3 hours from now.

Here is a new picture (which I also emailed to the vet). I don't see fish lying still on their sides very often, so I'm not sure what's normal, but it seems to me that there's a ridge along the side that's becoming a little more pronounced, as if the abdomen might be getting distended. Do others see this too?

There's also a kind of tiny raised "button" on Floppy's right side just forward of the tail, but I don't know if that shows in any of the pictures or videos I've taken.

The green stuff is mashed peas. I think a few molecules may have been consumed.

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Poor Floppy. Come on, boy! I do see the distended area. I can’t believe you found an aquatic vet. Lucky you! Please keep us posted. Prayers going up for little Floppy!
 
Sorry to keep everyone waiting. I brought my cats along for updated weight checks and for a couple of them to have blood work, then the hospital's computer went down while they were trying to check me out, then I had to rush to get one of my dogs to a vaccination clinic.

I am very sorry to report that Floppy didn't make it.

The vet initially said it looked like swim bladder disease and was probably caused by infection. But he also agreed that the abdomen looked distended, and he watched one of the videos showing Floppy eating, and agreed that if food was going in, poop should be coming out.

After some discussion, and the vet excusing himself to go check some fish medicine resources, he proposed a treatment plan and I agreed to it. The initial plan was for Floppy to stay at the hospital overnight. But while I was at the front desk waiting for the cats, he came out with Floppy and said he'd done the treatments and I should take Floppy home and continue the home care I've been doing.

Floppy was alive and still doing those intermittent bursts of swimming. But by the time the staff finished checking me out, Floppy had died. :-(

I left the body at the vet's office. He put it in formalin in case we decide to have a necropsy done. It would be expensive, and nothing it could find would bring Floppy back, so the only reason for doing it would be if I start seeing similar symptoms in any of the other fish.
 
Oh, Jim. I’m so sorry. I’ll miss Floppy’s little antics. You are the best fish Dad! You did absolutely everything that you could!
 
Oh, Jim. I’m so sorry. I’ll miss Floppy’s little antics. You are the best fish Dad! You did absolutely everything that you could!

Thanks. I know the vet and I both did everything we could. This seems to be my last-resort vet, that I take animals to that no other vet knows what to do with, and then usually they die anyway. But, yeah, at least we gave them the best chance they could have had.

I have to empty and put away the hospital tank, and I guess I will give the garlic-soaked peas to the other fish. And then when there's no longer a fish in a hospital tank sitting on top of my washing machine, tomorrow I can do laundry.

I'm going to miss Floppy too. Strange, when I never planned to have fish in the first place, and I absolutely did not want them to reproduce, and I'm very worried about what to do with all the babies, but I miss this one.
 

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