75 Gallons of Solid Gold

75 Gallons of Solid Gold

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OR367NrpkU

Clyde and Sophie are losing their black color at a faster rate every day!  Soon Sophie will no longer be a tri-color and Clyde will no longer be a panda… they’ll both be red/white.  It’s looking like Sophie will be mostly red with a white face and a little red spot on her nose (Side note: one of her adorable fry has the same exact red nose!) Clyde will be mostly white with red eyes and reddish fins – pretty!  I’m sad to see their black color fading, but I always knew it would happen.  Fish with the tri-color, panda, or apache (red base with black on their dorsum) color patterns always lose the black color eventually. 
Sophie and Clyde – color change well under way
Luca
Little Asha grows slowly, but even still, he’s probably about doubled in size in the past 6 months.  He’s also developed a “droopy” tail which is caused by a low tail set.  It’s not a trait that I particularly like to see in a butterfly telescope, but every fish has its flaws, and he looks great otherwise.  I used to have a one-eyed butterfly named Monocle who also had the “droopy” low-set tail as well, which leads me to think he could have fathered Asha. 

Asha
Minai (Asha’s mother) with Monocle
Now for some sad news.  My new fish, Navi, has passed away.  Near the end of her 4-week quarantine period, I noticed she had become extremely bloated.  Suspecting egg-binding (which is almost impossible to cure), I began her on a 4-week treatment protocol.  At the end of her treatment, there had been no improvement and she was clearly suffering, so I had to make the gut-wrenching decision to euthanize her humanely with clove oil.  This actually happened a couple of weeks ago, but I didn’t feel up to talking about it until now.  It just goes to show that anything can happen and that there are some things you can’t prevent no matter how hard you try. I’m still not sure if she was indeed egg-bound, or whether she was suffering from organ failure leading to extreme fluid retention.  I’m glad I was able to care for her the short time that I did and I’m sad we didn’t have more time together.

Navi

Some have been asking for an update on my nerite snails, which can be seen in my new video swishing their little antennae around in the current. They’re doing well and finally starting to help out with the diatoms.  Back when I first added the plants to the tank they underwent a long period of time in which they were absolutely covered in diatoms (aka brown algae); it was horrendous!  So I got a group of 12 horned nerite snails to help clear it up.  At first they barely made a dent, but now they do seem to help.  I see them on the leaves periodically, eating up the diatoms and algae. Honestly though, what helped the most is just waiting it out and also manually scrubbing off as many of the diatoms as I could during water changes.  I believe the new Tahitian Moon Sand I added to the tank was leaching silicates, which can lead to a diatom bloom, and now that the sand has been in the tank for some time it’s finally improving.  In any case, I’m just happy that the plants look green now instead of brown!

7 Comments

  • chocky Posted February 16, 2023 12:04 pm

    Oh no!! So sorry to hear about Navi 🙁 this seems to be happening a lot with goldfish (on the keepers forum) just bloating up very suddenly and passing soon after.

    What treatments did you try if you don’t mind me asking?

    With my most recent fish that started exhibiting this, I used dimetronidazole(another form of metro) and it took a good week until I saw any improvements. My other fishes passed within 48hrs of getting bloated 🙁

  • Ocean Truth Posted February 16, 2023 7:19 pm

    I’m sorry to hear about Navi! That’s so tragic that you didn’t have more time together. She was a really beautiful fish.

    It’s amazing to see the color changes in your goldies! They look really different from where they started.

  • Jennie Posted February 16, 2023 8:43 pm

    It does seem to be a fairly common problem in goldfish.Bloating can be caused by a number of things: internal bacterial infection, fatty liver disease, egg binding in females, or organ failure. From my experience, bloating in goldfish is usually caused by organ failure (leading to fluid retention).I tried her with heat and epsom salt for 3 weeks, and when there was no change after that, I tried her on Metro Med for 2 weeks.No improvement and I felt she was suffering, so I opted for humane euthanasia at that point.

  • Jennie Posted February 16, 2023 8:43 pm

    Thanks OT.You always have the nicest things to say!

  • chocky Posted February 18, 2023 4:49 pm

    Oh okay :(sigh.. i guess when it comes to their organs failing there’s nothing you can do.
    you’re very brave to make that decision and i respect you for that. 🙂

  • Gunmetal Glitter Posted February 18, 2023 5:35 pm

    I’m so sorry to hear about Navi, she was really full of personality! We’re lucky that you of all people had her so that you could both take the best care of her and we could enjoy her a little as well. Thank you for all that you do, including opening up about these more difficult and personal aspects of fish keeping. \x26lt;3

    On a happier note: Asha is such a darling! I’m a little confused about what constitutes a droopy tail though… does it have to do with the point where the two sides meet? Or is it the way the entire tail is oriented?

  • LIPSTICKS Posted March 3, 2023 6:09 am

    So sorry about Navi! I lost a beautiful black butterfly i got from the same breeder yesterday. Same bloating issue that just would not go away. Its so hard to see them suffer but yet you dont want them to go. You are a great fish keeper and you both were very lucky to have one another. Hugs!

Add Comment

Leave a Reply to Jennie Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *