fair goldfish

Question
My son won a goldfish at our town fair last August. To say that he is still alive, is remarkable. This fish has been living in a small-ish bowl for all this time. We will be transferring him to a pond when it warms up. My cat knocked over his bowl one morning, and when I found it, I wasn't sure how long the fish had been lying there. I saw him take a very deep breath and hurried to refill his bowl! He floated crooked for a couple days, and swam in little bursts. Then he started to look funny. His scales looked as through they were shedding, and now he is white on one side and gold on the other. He also started to develop black tips on his tail and upper "lip". Is this okay? Just wondering. He is eating very well, and is an active swimmer!

Answer
Hello Rebecca,
To say the least, you have one very stressed out goldfish. Please put him into something much larger as soon as possible. Even a 5 or 10 gallon would be better than a little bowl. Goldfish need a lot of surface area and bowls are never going to be enough (unless it's the largest bowl in the world and has a filtration system). You can also buy him some stress coat to replace his slime coat that was removed during his "fallout", and make sure he has continuously clean, fresh, dechlorinated water. If you are not already using tap water dechlorinator, you need to start right away. Chlorine and Chloramines are toxic to fish and burn their gills. Once he gets into the pond hopefully he will have a much better chance of surviving, but until then keep him stress free or he will likely not make it.