Swim bladder disorder in Lionhead Oranda

Question

Fuzzy spot   Hello! I have been doing research on this for about a month through various sites I have been asking questions regarding swim bladder disease/disorder. I am under the understanding that this is genetic but I want to be sure I am not misdiagnosing my fish so I will tell you the symptoms from start to finish and the 'new' problems that are occurring that I cannot seem to find ANYWHERE.
My Lionhead Oranda is 4 and a half years old and is a pretty big guy. he has been an extremely healthy, sturdy fish up until about a month ago. He is currently housed in a 55 gal with a penguin bio-wheel 350. He is housed with a fancy tail Ryukin who is about 5 and a half years old and has been fed a soaked mixture of TetraFin goldfish flakes, peas and the occasional orange slices. I realize part of the issue may be his diet, but I am not sure now would be the time for radical change since I fear he is so close to death.

About a month ago was when I noticed something was different but I couldn't really find anything on the matter, the first sign was a "seizure" like motion periodically. It wouldn't happen often but it was noticeable when it did happen. Two weeks later he flipped over, it was unusual but my Ryukin gets constipated so I didn't immediately panic. We fed him some peas, but he started to look bloated and was still spending most of his time on his back a few days later.
About a week after that was when I noticed he was getting even more bloated and was no longer able to flip himself right side up, his body had started to become misshapen and his scales no longer laying flat, still excited about food but not as able or agile to eat.
Around Thanksgiving is when he started to make a major turn for the worse, his color started 'draining' he is still orange and yellow but with a grey sheen over his entire body, blood vessels had started to surface over his body, his wen and his tail, he is no longer able to turn upright at all and does not act like he wants to move at all. That was when I started to really hunt around and talk to vets, aquatic experts and pet stores, the majority recommended Melafix since my water is fresh and stable, they told me what he had was a bladder infection that would kill most tropical fish in days but takes months for a goldfish.
We gave him the Melafix treatment as recommended via package direction and online suggestions for 7 days, his color has gotten better and his prior visible wounds all but went away, the swelling persists and he still cannot swim upright but as we did the water change we noticed a fuzzy patch on the right side of his body (pics included) he also has various dark spots on parts of him that we are reading to be the healing scabs of the Melafix but I can't find anything that meets the description of what is on his side. We have also read about rock salt treatments and such. (I would like to hear your thoughts on that)

I guess what I am asking is, do you know what could possibly be wrong with my fish? Is it fixable? And what are the odds of him living?

Thank you for your time!

Answer
Whitney,   Thank you for all the information. Yes you were correct it is a bladder infection. Medicating him was the right thing to do but, by the time you did it this was not a strong enough medication. Melafix is a great all natural broad spectrum antibiotic made from tea tress in Australia but, it is mild. I would had recommended that prior to him turning over. Now he has a series of problems. I am so sorry. This is what I think happened. He sank to the bottom and did the twitching motion and did some scale damage. Because his immune system is so week he could not fight off the fungal infection that started to attack the wound. The raising of the veins you are seeing is he is now septic. They call it septicemia (blood poisoning,so to speak) because of the wound and his immune system being week. So now you have at least two types of medications. The first thing I would do is go out and get some tetracycline and medicate without your carbon in your filter. Give him a push now and then and try to get him upright and moving now and then to keep the amount of oxygen in his system up and pray. If we can get him through that we will treat the fungus. If you want my opinion he looks bad. So sorry, he is beautiful. The thing with fish is they like to hide their sicknesses at first so by the time we see them especially with goldies we need to treat aggressively. I have seen lots of fishy miracles. I would treat him for ten days instead of a week. Please let me know how it goes. If you have anymore questions just ask. Good Luck, Tina