Will A Stunted Goldy Ever Recover?

[fourthtimelucky]

Well, I found out my friend has been keeping his goldfish in a TINY bowl (like, 6 inches across ) for about three years now and after increasingly heavy hints about how this was CRUEL I cracked and bought him a second-hand tank for it as a housewarming gift.

We transferred poor little fish into his nice new home and he is doing well. The tank is 24X15X12 inches (just under 19 US gallons I believe). There is no filter as yet but I am trying to persuade my friend to get one -- and meantime have instructed him to be water changing every week -- and I think the nagging is finally beginning to sink in. He hasn't even been using dechlorinator up until now. I used the old "dog in a box" example and I think he is now genuinely remorseful. The fish was a gift and since he was still swimming three years later my friend assumed he was "happy".

I know that the rule is usually 30 USG for the first goldy, but this was the biggest tank I could persuade him to make room for. Little fish is only 2.5 inches long which I assume is severely stunted for a common. He looks quite deformed already as well -- quite fat in the body and there is a bit of a kink in his spine.

Will little fish now make up for lost time and grow? Or will he be stunted forever? And what kind of impact will this have on his life expectancy?

 

[Lynda B]

My understanding is that once a fish's growth has been stunted, it's pretty much deformed for life. In a way, you can't blame your friend. They obviously just had no information when they began with this fish. It's too bad that the bigger tank didn't come along much sooner, for the sake of the fish.

 

[fourthtimelucky]

Oh, that's so sad. I suppose I was just hoping against hope that maybe he would magically get better.
But at least his life will be a bit happier now.

My friend is not a bad person -- like you say, he just had no idea how to look after his pet, and the fish had no way of telling him it was unhappy. If only goldfish could bark!

 

[cuticom]

Yes stunting is for life.

I have a couple of 3 inch rescued shubunkins, their fantastic fish just they won't grow. I even moved them into a 125g pond for 6 months to see if it would help, apart from me now having a 1000 or so shubunkin babies, no change in their size. You can keep them in smaller tanks, just don't go too small. My two shubunkins have a 10g each at the mo, I'm monitoring nitrate as a friend of mine wants to take them, am just making sure they could live in a 15g together.