bloated belly on oranda

Question
We have an oranda whose belly is very bloated, it sits at the bottom of the tank unless it's feeding time, and gets white growths that appear and disappear. He looks miserable, can you help?

Answer
Hey Julie,

Your Oranda might have eggs being stored up for mating, as well as a more serious condition. The white growths could be ick, velvet, or any number of things. However, Jungle makes a cool little tank tablet that fizzes and turns your water a greenish color for a week, and after that week all of my swordtail mothers are generally cured! The anti fungal tablets jungle sells are really anti bacterial, but most people think a bacterial infection is a fungus, because we don't see growths like that on our body when we get an infection. Fish, however, do. The Jungle tablets should clear up his (or a pregnant her?) infections.

As for the bloating, because it's become lazy, it may be over eating. Cut back on feeding to once a day (or if you feed only once a day to a smaller amount) and see if within a week she starts to get better. If she continues to grow, and has what seems an increased appetite (more and more excitement when you walk past, eats faster, etc) then she could be carrying eggs. Without a male present, she cant fertilize them though. If she does not seem to eat more, but does not thin out, she may have dropsy. Dropsy is seemingly incurable, and will eventually result in death. Common symptoms of dropsy are bloating to the point scales stick out like spikes, organ failure, decreased activity, appetite, and lifelessness... eventually death.

Two ways to avoid dropsy are to a) keep water quality perfect as often as possible and b) to keep your fish in the right sized environment. The average goldfish within a year needs 10 gallons to itself. Within 3 years needs about 15-20. Most people don't realize that fancy goldfish live upto 35 years in ideal water, and grow to a range of 8"-14". If you keep him in a small bowl, his insides could be growing faster then his outsides, and getting over crowded in there. This could cause death as well! So, be careful =)

Best of luck, and hope all goes well.