Can you help me save this fish?
We have a garden pond. We have fish in the pond, one of which is a fantail goldfish. The other fish really abuse him – so I’ve been worrying about him for a while. Today suddenly he is covered in black spots all over his body and tail… so we took him out and put him into a fishbowl to observe him.
In the meanwhile, it’s Sunday so I can’t call around to pet stores or vets to ask what this might mean. I also have no idea if a fish can even live in a fishbowl without some kind of filter for any length of time.
Any ideas what might have caused him to change colors so quickly – and is it safe to keep him in a fishbowl for a while to keep an eye on him?
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
3 Answers
The black spots could be a couple things, are the spots cyst like? If so, then it is a parasite that is found in ponds. If not it could be burn from an ammonia spike in the water. Stress can cause these things to flare up. As far as being kept in a fishbowl, you can keep on in there but you will need to change the water daily or at the very least every other day, if you have a little pump with an air stone that would help aerate the water and put some O2 in there. Fish can change colors due to being stressed out, but what is worse as that with stress fish can easily succumb to diseases. I would definitely keep an eye on him.
What kind of fish do you have in the pond? Sounds like you might have some fin nipper type fish mixed in there with the fantail which if you do then it’s going to look real bad for that fantail.
My first thought was cysts. The good thing is that a fantail (like any carp) can tolerate a little bit of salt, and the freshwater helminths can’t, so that’s good. Then I would keep the fantail as a house pet – he is stressed out from being chased, and you wouldn’t need to heat his tank or get too fancy to enjoy him inside.
Thanks, we picked up an aquarium for him and we are going to keep an eye on him for now :)
Answer this question 
Composing members:
0
