Fattening Shubunkin

[guppler]

I have 3 golfish currently. One common - Cracker, 1 commet - Creamsicle, and 1 shubunkin - Puppy.
I got Puppy maybe about 2 years after the others, and Puppy was the smallest, but has just barely passed up Creamsicle, who used to be my biggest and fastest growing fish a long time ago, but has slowed down considerably. i
I thought Cracker was kinda fat, but Puppy is looking different lately. The area above the pelvic fins is noticably wider, and kind of flattish on the bottom. i wondered if constipation could be a factor, but it looks like stuff is passing through.
I have never seen tubercles or pimples on any of them.
If Puppy is a girl, what should I expect? If the others are boys, will they start showing tubercles soon? Cracker and creamsicle both have to be older than Puppy. What should I do if they want to breed?

I still have them in a 20g tank because I don't have a pond or much bigger tank, but my brother is building a pond at his house and I want 1, and I might be moving in a few months, so I could probably get a bigger tank, or build a pond there. So far when I consider moving them to somebody else's outdoor pond they are afraid to take my named pets in case they get eaten by cats or coons or something.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Can you get any pics of the fish? That would help considerably in deciding what gender the fish is and what state of health it is in too .

 

[guppler]

I'll try to get pics.
I was a little woried last night because puppy had droopy fins and a lot of mouth movement and seemed less perky than the others, maybe even having some dificulty reaching floating foods. Everybody is hungry and perky today, but I did see some droopy fins on both of the long finned goldies. Maybe they are unhappy about the heat. The thermometer in their tank looks like it's indicating right aroun 80f, but the one on the tank next door was at 86, which is as high as it goes. I have the lid up and lights of and a fan blowing over the top, and I've added watter twice since I took any out because it evaporated down to where the filter pump sounded bad.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Try and increase aeration in the tank, either by adding an airstone or raising the filter so its flow hits the surface, fish can act sluggish particually if it is a well-stocked tank during hot weather (as warmer water contains less disolved oxygen) and they are coldwater fish. If you don't have any filtration, i strongly advise you have some as this will improve the goldies quality of living by miles .
Also try testing the water for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates and post the stats here as these problems can arise a lot more in well stocked tanks. Paper strip test kits are less accurate than the tablet and test tube ones.
What do you feed the fish and how much on average? Are the fishes scales sticking out at all or displaying any other symptoms- has their been any agression like fin nipping? How long are each fish?

 

[guppler]

I know I should test my water more in all my tanks, but it's so hot, I don't feel like doing anything. Today I put some dechlorinated ice in the goldfish tank and went to see a movie about a melting ice age. We stopped for blizzards on the way home and when we got home, I ran throught the sprinkler a couple of times, and even tried it again while holding my big black and white Norwegian Forrest cat. She told me she wanted to go in "NOW!", and I might have a hole in my shirt that wasn't there before she hugged my really tight with unretracted claws. Then I fed the down stairs fishies and went up to check on the goldies. There was no ice left, of course, and their thermometer said about 86f. The one on the 10g next door is 1 of those digital deals that has some sort of chenical that shows up in color 1 temp at a time. The highest number is 86, and none of the numbers were showing today. I think it was at least 109f outside. My 3 Ivory Apple snails are temporarily in a very small plastic critter keeper, and half of their water evaporated while I was in Yuba City for 2 days.
But lets see, ....what were the questions?
They do have a filter it's awhisper brand external filter rated for up to 40 gallons mounted on the back corner, and it does have enough of a waterfall to splash a little (an inch or 2 when it hasn't evaporated too far), and it hasn't been real long since I've changed the cartridge, and I did change about a quarter of the water less than a week ago. They also have a bubble wand mounted along most of the back wall with suction cups near the bottom, a clam shell that pops open and closed with bubbles, and a 2 inch long green bubble stone. They get fed mostly goldfish flakes and pellets, with some "crisps" and blocks of tubilfex worms and algae wafers, and sometimes a little bit of other stuff. They are usually fed once or twice a day. If it is tubiflex blocks or algae wafers I give them about 1 per fish, and other stuff would probably measure out to a similar volume. I also give them extra snails when they try to take over my other tanks, and if they think they aren't getting enough to eat , besides wiggling vigorously and shouting and spitting rocks at me whenever they see me, they will suck several inches of plant stem into their mouths at a time and spit the stems back out minus the leaves.
I guestimate that creamscicle and Puppy are around 6 inches long not counting tails, and Cracker about an inch longer if you don't count tails, but about 2 inches shorter than the others if you do count tails, which I guesse would make him about 8 inches with the tail. He is a big fish, but probably really closer to 7 than 8 inches, so i might need to actually measure them to be more precise. They really need a pond Pretty soon I might even get so I'd rather sell them than continue to keep them in a 20g tank, but I'm still hoping for a large tank or pond where I can maybe teach them tricks. They do like to suck on tubiflex blocks that I hold in my fingers, but we don't practice consistently, because it's easier to just toss in about a half teaspoon or so of pellets or 3 or 4 algae wafers than to rinse lotion and soap and stuff of my hands.
I haven't noticed any aggresion, but they seemed to be chasing each other around a little more than usual a few weeks ago. For them chasing is usually around the tank a couple of times and then a few seconds rest before they follow eacch other around again. They are more likely to accidentally bump into each other while begging than to peck at each other deliberately. I'm trying to remember which 1 the other 2 seemed more interested in chasing recently. they swith around a lot, but I think it might have been Creamscicle who the others seemed to be picking on a little. he's usually the most aggressive and greedy, but Cracker is big enough to push him around now. Creamsicle is also the one who swims in and out of their jar most often. Cracker might be a little big to turn around comfortably inside. Scales look fine, unless it's bad for Cracker to have a few random lighter colored scales. i think at worst he might have lost some and grew them back, but I ton't think there are any actually missing, and they never stick out on any of my goldies. i have lost guppies to dropsy though, so I've seen pinecone scales on littler fish.
Maybe I should see if I can find a working camera and figure out how to transfer pics, and consider playing chemist. I need to do that anyway to find a more permanent place for the apple snails. They might go into the tank next to the goldies, which I recently moved my frog, betta, and loaches out of. i have noticed that snails grow faster upstairs, but they might have shorter lives too if it's warmer. I have the test strips, because I got them for pretty cheep, but it's still almost easier to colect samples and let a petstore test for me. They do it for free. B)

 

[guppler]

Good news: I got pictures of my fish onto a digital camera.
bad news: Puppy died a few hours before I got the pictures
(and) I haven't gotten the pictures from the camera to the computer yet.

I might look and see if there is an apropriate place to send pictures of my cats or something from the pictures I took off the camera to make room for fish pics and stuff, just to see if I can send my pictures to the forum.

I didn't think Puppy was that sick, but that morning she(?) was very lethargic, just staring out the corner with a very droopy tail, and later she(?) was curled over to one side and not moving at all. In some of the pictures she(?) looks alive, but she really is recently dead, and I removed the body from the tank and buried her under some tomato plants in the garden as soon as I got the pictures.
My family's reactions to the dead fish were interesting. My mom acted sympathetic and helped take the pictures while I held the fish in more natural lifelike positions in the tank, and dug the hole next to her tomatoes while I looked at my fish and said good bye and stuff. My little sis. petted the dead fish and said, "Oh, poor fish." I invited her out to watch us burry the body and she touched the fish again and waved bye and wanted it to wave back, which I helped with. I showed my dad and commented on how pretty my poor dead fish was and he just sort of said "uh huh, I guess you'd better get rid of it," or something like that and turned back to his computer. Rosey , the cat, looked and I let her get a close sniff, but then she turned away and looked at me as if to say, "So what? I don't want that." I think the other cat was hiding at the time, but she probably would have had a similar reaction.
I don't know what the casuse of death was exactly. It did get up to 88 F in that tank at least once, but it was starting to cool down by the time the fish died, and the other 2 goldies are fine. Maybe it was some sort of internal tumor or something. So now I'm back down to my original 2 goldfish from the feeder tank, that cost about 10 or 12 cents each. I bought a total of 5 more expensive goldies after I got them, and all 5 of them eventually died before the originals. I had a total of 3 shubunkins, and I'd like to get a calico fan tail some time, and a skunk colored 1 and probably some others, but I'm not buying anymore goldfish until I have a suitable pond or very large tank.
I finally got to see my brother's pond. It didn't have any water in it yet, but it was much bigger than I expected. Maybe about the size of a nice whorlpool tub, and pretty deep in the center, with a place on one end for a waterfall. For a second I was worried about their pug drowning in it, but it does have shallow sloping edges, and dogs swim well. They don't think she would eat goldfish, but I'm not sure about her swimming with them, and she tries, but doesn't succesfully keep all the neighborhood cats out of her yard. I don't know for sure if it will even be stocked, but probably they'll get a few cheep fish from a store. Cracker and Creamsicle probably would be happy there, but I don't think they'll go any time soon. I'd like to try to teach them tricks, and they're a little less crowded now.
Oh, I did hold pupfish next to a yard stick before I burried her, and i got about 5 inches not counting the tail, or 8 inches with the tail. Creamsicle's proabably about the same, and Cracker maybe just under 6 inches without the tail or 7 with.