# Aggressively suicidal goldfish? Help!



## Ryntaru

Hello.

My parents have had a pair of goldfish for about ten years now, in an indoor tank. (There were three, but one died a few months back.) Of the two remaining, there is an orange one and a white one. The orange one is perfectly fine, but the white one...

The white goldfish has been hysterically bashing itself into walls and the top of the tank, to the point that almost its entire lower jaw is completely gone and part of its upper jaw is gone as well. It no longer has enough of a mouth to close and has been having difficulty eating. I'm completely bewildered and concerned-- it'll be floating alone to one side, doing nothing, and then just start flailing like crazy. I've never seen a fish behave like this, and we've had fish for 25 years...

My best guess is that the fish got some sort of infection or injury on its mouth that itched and it started hitting against the walls to relieve the itch... which would make it worse and broaden the injury, then make it bash more. I have no idea why else, unless it got some kind of brain disease that is making it act out. It keeps popping up the top of the lid in its thrashing, and the orange fish stays completely away from it now. A couple of hours of Google searching didn't turn up anything quite like this.

Has anybody else had this experience? Do you have any advice? My father and I think it's kindest to just somehow kill it, since roughly a quarter of its face is gone now, but my mother refuses, and it's her fish... I'm not the squeamish type but I can't even look at the fish for more than a few seconds before cringing away from the horrifying site.

Thank you. 

Ryn

*edit:* I'm sorry, I just realized this probably should have gone under "Diseases" - could a mod or admin please move it for me if necessary? Thank you.


----------



## OhYesItsMe

What was he rubbing agianst? glass or acrylic will not do that, maybe a sharp, rough rock will. Is he eating, missing scales, have torn fins? It sounds like sme sort of parasite. Some parasites can cause a fish to rub agianst decor and rocks, but that would usually result in damaged and missing fins. What is the temp, nitrates, what size tank etc, could you get a good picture? It could be bad water quality. Geeze thats a lot of questions... good luck!


----------



## lohachata

i would agree that putting the fish to sleep is the best course of action....i doubt that it will be able to recover from the injuries..


----------



## Ryntaru

He isn't really rubbing, he's thrashing wildly against anything and everything-- the glass sides of the tank, the lid, the little house thing we've got inside of it... I don't even know that he's necessarily trying to hit everything, since he'll sometimes be in the middle of the tank when he starts flailing, and bashes into everything by happenstance because he's like 4-5" long without the tail, a good eight or nine inches or so with it.

His fins are fine, he tries to eat but can't close his mouth so whatever he's eating sometimes comes out, and his scales look normal. Nothing on them, none missing... he looks and acts completely fine except for the worn-away face and the mental thrashing. Unfortunately, I can't get a photo because it's at my parents' house and I don't live with them... (And they're Asian immigrants in their 70s, they really DON'T understand digital photography!)

For the same reason I don't have the temp or nitrates or anything, but nothing about the tank is unusual for what it's been the last 25 years, and we've never had anything like this happen... the other fish is also perfectly dandy. The tank is 30 gallon, I believe - it's roughly a foot deep, maybe about 14 or 15" tall, and about two and a half feet wide.

If we do put it to sleep, what would be the best method? My dad says flush it, but _geez_, the poor thing, I can't imagine...

Thank you both!


----------



## deadmanwalking

Well, I don't know much about goldfish... but is it a possibility that he has went blind due to old age?


----------



## OhYesItsMe

Hmmm if your mom doesnt want to kill him i would wait it out another week and if he gets worse to put him down. Thats unfortunate, i hope he gets better.


----------



## Cory1990

I think your best bet with this fish is, over medication to put it down. I know you don't want to do that since your looking for answers. 

Another thing that could work, if the fish is small enough is 2-3 power heads (wave makers) big ones in a hospital tank all facing one way so it's making a hard current or stream to keep him busy swimming up current. While doing that medicate it and hope for the best.

Goldfish are one of the dumbest fish out there, a recent study showed that they can't remember anything past 3 min. So it's not missing anyone. So just meds and hope for the best or put it down. 

Good luck.


----------



## daynadsmall

It sounds like euthanasia is the most humane solution. To do that, I usually go with the temperature shock method: Put a bowl of water in the freezer just until it has a skim of ice over the top. Break the ice up and put the fish in. They thrash for only a few seconds (depending on size) and the whole thing is over pretty quickly.

Of course, that is with tropical fish, not a coldwater fish like a goldfish, so maybe someone has better advice for one of those.


----------



## emc7

There is a old thread on euthanasia methods. Oil of cloves is one.


----------



## pinetree

I'm sorry your fish is so injured.

Here are recommendations for goldfish euthanasia that are posted on a goldfish specific website that I frequent. I have never tried any of these methods so can't vouch for them, but they seem well-sourced and researched:

http://thegab.org/Illness-and-Treatment/euthanasia.html


----------



## Cory1990

I'd just do the over medicating with added salt. Goldfish don't like salt and it will be done fast. If its a bigger fish witch it should be if it's 10yo i personally would wack it on the head or chop it off.


----------



## pinetree

Actually, goldfish are somewhat salt tolerant. They can tolerate 3-5 g/L salt concentration in water. It is often used to treat ich in goldfish.


----------



## Cory1990

Huh I treated ich a while back in my tropical tank that also held a goldfish, one of the two died


----------



## Ryntaru

Oh, my - I definitely could not wack it on the head or chop it off! It sounds like euthanasia is the route to go... now to figure out how to break it to my mum.  According to the site pinetree posted, I might try to locate Finquel... I've had to home-euthanize animals before, and definitely prefer putting it to sleep over any sort of stressful thrashing... even if the dumb fish is thrashing already. XD

Thank you, everyone!


----------



## Cory1990

It was just what I would do, iv been fishing for years and I do it when I decide I'm keeping the fish.


----------



## Redhead305

easies way i found is to isolate the fish and fill the container with hydrogen peroxide the fish will slowly start swimming less n less. its best compairable to the "shot" givin to dogs and cats


----------



## Ryntaru

Thank you for your comments, everyone - unfortunately, by the time I was able to get back to my parents' place, they'd relocated the fish to their pond in hopes of giving it more room to thrash safely and it jumped _out_, too far away to flop back in. It died the next morning. -.- Well, at least the poor thing is finally at peace...


----------



## Tigger19

Oh... It jumped out? Who knows what was wrong with the poor fish


----------



## squeekee35

I just had to put a four inch goldfish down. put him in a gallon or water and add 3 drops of clove oil to a cup of wather and shake it up really good then add itt o the fish. aftr about 20 mins you can add three more drops the same way and after 15 mins or so 3 more oil drops the same way. then after about an hour if he is still breathing add 3 more drops of oil and after about a half an hour he shouold no longer be breathing. then you can bury or flush. but the bigger the fish the longer it takes so you might have to add three more drops at a time slowely over time.


----------



## sleepyfish

I would get him out of the tank, he could have some disease or parasite??? Or just brain damage, maybe some brain disease...


----------

