This has been a tough stint, and I have lost 3 fish in what feels like a short period of time. Luckily, their deaths are not related and it is only coincidental that they all happened within two weeks
Wendy
Wendy got an eye injury some time ago. I noticed her wound on April the 8th and I have been treating it ever since. Initially I let it be, to see if it got better or worse. It was already clear the following day though, that this needed treatment. This included antibiotics, salt baths and eventually, as a last resort, direct application of Methylene blue. The injury turned into an infection, and it kept growing. In the end, it got so deep, that I could see the bone, and as it was pretty close to the eye, I did not want to risk this getting worse. I put her to rest on April 24th
Baby fish
The little Black Moore from the pet store, that I tried to help recover from bullying, had to be put down. Although the wounds healed up very nicely, it showed signs of dropsy and swim bladder complications. Even though the initial Epsom salt treatment helped against the raised scales of Dropsy, it came back shortly after. Dropsy is generally considered incurable, and I didn’t want to put this little fish through too much for nothing, so I decided to put it down on the 5th of May
Frank
Frank was one of the first fish that I got back in 2022. He was tine but looked cute, and promising. He did indeed grow into a beautiful although small fish. He has also been acting slightly strange, but not more than one could assume he was strange.
Lately though, his strangeness has gotten more profound and although it did get worse, it started getting a lot worse a lot faster. In a very strange coincidence, I came in contact with the breeder who had made this batch of fish. She confirmed that this was a symptom that many of the fish from that batch have had, and that it is lethal. She kept 20 fish from the batch but only has two left! So when the time came to either treat Frank because it was affecting his quality of life, I decided to put him to sleep, as it would not get better.
Frustration and joy
I have had fish on/off, since the late 90s and have kept many different types. Goldfish have been one of the most frustrating fish to keep but also the most rewarding for me. Maybe it is because of the inbreeding, maybe it is because of the low quality available in my region. A year ago, losing fish in this way, would put me off dramatically. Now, I have realized that even the best fish keepers lose fish, and can not save them. Especially goldfish are very susceptible to almost anything on top of all the issues they may have, due to the deformities they are bred into.
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