Goldfish in bowl.

Question
About a week ago I bought two male Fantail Goldfish. They were both about 1 inch long when I bought them from Wal-Mart. I took great care of them I made sure their spring water was always  crystal clear and their bowl was clean.They were going great for about four days and I gave them the correct amount of fish flakes on a well thought out schedule. They got along pretty good but sometimes the bigger one would poke the other one(the one that eventually died)and chase it not really being a bully at all they got along good together. They were as happy as can be in their 1 gallon bowl. One day one of them stopped eating I just thought maybe its not hungry, then it stayed at the top with its mouth out of the water never came down. It wasn't that it acted like it wasn't hungry it acted like it couldn't open its mouth to eat. It was weird.It didn't grow but the other grew alot. I woke up one morning and it was hunched over, tail down floating on the top on it stomach. I nudged it because i thought for some odd reason it was floating and asleep. I didn't want to believe it died. When i nudged it, it gulped 1 time and sank to the bottom stiff and i nudged it again and it was dead. The other one has good health still. WHAT DID i DO WRONG ?

Brittany
a confused fantail owner.  

Answer
Hi Brittany,

I don't realy know what to tell you.  You probably didn't have enough oxygen in the bowl for two fish, which is often the case in bowls.  That is the most likely cause but it could have gotten SBD (see my other questions) from eating the flakes.  I'm not saying, don't feed them flakes.  But if the other one dies the same way, try pushing the flakes under the water with your finger when you feed them.

I hope I helped,
James