peculiar death of my 2+ year old fantail goldfish

[finfayce]

i had the most beautiful fantail goldfish. it was at least 2 years old.
yesterday i saw something near the vent( or whatever goldfish poop from)
today it's dead. the protuberance is flesh. what happened?
this is embarrassing, but do goldfish have visible genitalia?

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Two is only young for a fancy goldfish, but without more info, no one can really guess why s/he died.

 

[finfayce]

Two is only young for a fancy goldfish, but without more info, no one can really guess why s/he died.

this is a picture of the protuberance

 

[finfayce]

this is a picture of the protuberance

 

[finfayce]

a better picture

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Aaaww, poor thing. Has @Colin_T stopped posting?
Looks like a prolapse of some sort, but I'm not 100% on that at all. Did the fish bloat at all?

Sorry about your loss, was a very pretty goldie
ETA: If Colin hasn't been around lately (hope he's okay) then maybe @Ichthys , @TwoTankAmin or @GaryE might have an idea?

 

[finfayce]

her eye and mouth looked strange. she didn't bloat. she was getting bigger still. . had to put her in a bigger tank. that was last year so it couldn't be what happened today.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

her eye and mouth looked strange. she didn't bloat. she was getting bigger still. . had to put her in a bigger tank. that was last year so it couldn't be what happened today.

It looks like her mouth was stuck open - are those marbles in the bottom of the tank? any chance she swallowed one? Goldies aren't the brightest, they will try to eat pretty much anything that can fit?

 

[finfayce]

Aaaww, poor thing. Has @Colin_T stopped posting?
Looks like a prolapse of some sort, but I'm not 100% on that at all. Did the fish bloat at all?

Sorry about your loss, was a very pretty goldie
ETA: If Colin hasn't been around lately (hope he's okay) then maybe @Ichthys , @TwoTankAmin or @GaryE might have an idea?

thanks for your kind words- she was the most beautiful goldfish i've ever seen 🥹

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

thanks for your kind words- she was the most beautiful goldfish i've ever seen 🥹

Goldies aren't usually my thing, but the gold shimmer on her scales was gorgeous, even post mortem. Would like to see a photo from when she was alive, if possible! SIP, pretty girl/boy.
I've heard of something where a fishe's mouth can get stuck open, but I haven't slept and my brain is failing me right now, it's niggling at the back of my brain. But at the moment, I'm suspecting she swallowed one of the smaller marbles, and the pressure of it forced a prolapse a something. Sad accident, if it was something like that.

 

[GaryE]

It looks like a prolapse, where the intestine has come down through a weak point in the abdomen. It's something not uncommon with fancy goldfish, as the breeding that changed their body shape creates weak points.

It's sad, but there's really nothing you could do. It's a fish hernia, coming from the breeder's choices.