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| We have been watching this white fish all summer getting bigger and bigger.
I worry now that she might be sick because isn't that a long time to be carrying eggs if she is pregnant?
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Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by nancym1956 (My Page) on Sat, Sep 19, 09 at 16:37
| Need a little more info please. Is the fish acting normal otherwise? Is it eating properly? Does it beg for food with the others? I see a lot of open mouths, ;-) However, there definitely appears to be something wrong. The fish may be egg impacted, but it might also be fecal impacted. If it's eating well, you might try cooking some peas (acts as a laxative). Some people use the frozen kind cooked on the stove or in the microwave, and then squeeze the soft middle part out of the "hull" and feed that. I use canned peas, but rinse over and over to get as much of the salt out as possible. It's its egg impacted, that's a bit over my head. I think females need a male to stimulate the egg laying process and pretty much squeeze the eggs out of them. Not safe for a human to do, unless they've done it before. |
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| She is acting just fine, right in the fray for the food:-) she swims around and does not look sick. She is one of several that we have had for 9 years now. I thought with the weather turning colder the fish would be spawning. I'm not really up on how long it takes for her to carry the eggs. I'm sure she is the mother to many of them in the pond, there are over 50 in the pond. They are fed food that has all the proper food groups, heck they eat better than I do sometimes, LOL |
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- Posted by waterbug_guy Phoenix AZ (My Page) on Sun, Sep 20, 09 at 0:02
| Do a search for Dropsy or "pine cone disease". Really hard to diagnose so don't jump too fast. Look really close. You're going to want to say "Yeah, that's it" at first glance. In several fish I've had that expanded like this I always assumed eggs impaction or tumor. In each case it was a fluid sack inside the fish, found by autopsy. No tumor, no eggs, just a large hollow cavity filled with fluid. Looked completely normal otherwise. I'm not saying this is what your fish has, just that it's possible. All of mine lived for a few years with this condition until they got to a point of not being able to swim at all at which point I put them down. They seemed happy until then and counted as favorites. But we have to keep in mind these animals are very inbred and that for every one in a store hundreds of others were culled. I generally do not like to treat a fish unless I have a really good idea I know the problem. Good way to kill a fish is to treat it for something it doesn't have. Salt treatments are fine as a general things. Salt can help fluid issues, but I assume can't fix the cause. My thinking on egg and fecal impaction is death is going to come pretty fast. When they get this bloated, that would be some pretty serious impaction. And if the swelling was from infection due to impaction, well, I don't know how it would have lived this long. |
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- Posted by nancym1956 (My Page) on Sun, Sep 20, 09 at 7:25
| My first thought when I saw the picture was Dropsy, or pinecone disease, but this fish does not appear to be pineconed. Hard to tell from the picture, though. If I was you, I'd try to get a better picture of it and go to koivet.com. They are very helpful in diagnosing fish ailments. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Koivet
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| Just to add to the advice and treatments all ready mentioned above,I have posted a link to a recent post on the same subject. There is also a link in that thread, to more information on bloated fish. Hope your fish will be okay. "Horton" |
Here is a link that might be useful: Previous post on same subject.
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| We had the same thing a couple of weeks ago. One fat fish with it's scales sticking out. I was ready to "get rid" of it. My wife starting feeding the fish finely chopped spinach. After about 8 days the fish is back to normal. During the time it was fat it was active and fed ate with all the others. So much for spinach. Good Luck |
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| Thanks for all the replies. We have had fish in our aquarium with dropsy and she doesn't seem to act like that and I know you can't see from the picture but her scales are not raised. The aquarium fish get frozen peeled peas when they are sick and they love them:-) I'm going to leave her alone for now and when we shut the pond down for the winter we will try to help her if she is still looking like the Goodyear Blimp, poor thing:-) |
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- Posted by waterbug_guy Phoenix AZ (My Page) on Mon, Sep 21, 09 at 19:53
| Good for you. I think too many times we go overboard and torture these poor fish with love. Should the unfortunate happen in the future I hope you will take a look inside the fish and report back. Data is hard to come by. |
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| Just popping in to tell you all that my fatty fish is still alive after the winter!!! I could not believe my eyes when we took the winter tarp off the pond and there she was begging for food with the rest of them. We only lost 1 so far that we can see. The oldest and biggest fellow, Poncho. He was 10 years old. I told the rest of the fish they had to pick a new leader, LOL |
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- Posted by pashta_2006 Z4 ADK NY (pashta@aol.com) on Fri, Mar 19, 10 at 9:08
| Glad your fatty little fish made it but sorry about Poncho. I only have two adults and maybe some babies in the pond. I know that the comet survived but can't see the other one as she is black and only see her when she comes up to eat which won't be for a while yet. Still too cold. |
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