wounded goldfish

Question
so my gold fish is 5 years old and I added younger goldfish to the tank and I got a Pleco (I wish i could take that back) and I've had them together for maybe a year and a half and two weeks ago the pleco sucked the oldest. and he has a good chunk of him missing I took the pleco out. strangely my goldfish been acting normal almost unaware. I was crossing my fingers that he would heal. somehow if I left him be but the hole seems to be spreading and his eyes are bulgy the pupils are big like full of fluid. what can I do to make him comfortable. and is there a nice way to end it or should i wait for nature? does he feel pain? idk if he's going to heal or rot.

Answer
Hello Vanessa,

Fish can't show pain or other fish will prey on them.  It's normal for them to act as if nothing is wrong.  Poor fish.

I'm so sorry about your fish.  The poor little thing.

There are ways to euthenize them, but I truly don't believe in killing things and it would go against my belief system to advise you of those ways.  Many ways exist if you go to Yahoo.com and run a search for "Humane ways to euthenize a fish".

People tried saying that fish felt no pain, but fish do feel pain.  They don't feel it, perhapse, on the same level we do, but they feel it.

I would advise a different course of action, rather than euthenizing.  Can you try this first?

Please heat his aquarium to 70 degrees F.  Add 2 teaspoons of marine salt per gallon and stir it up.

The eye thing will clear in a couple days and his wound will begin healing.

When he heals, change out 25% of the water every weekend for 3weeks...cycling out the salt at a slow rate.  You can leave 1 teaspoon of salt per gallon for protection if you like.  Goldfish can handle it. :)

I hope this helps.