Should I euthanise my unwell goldfish ?

[Adithai]

HI, new member wanting advise, I know the title is a little dramatic but need to do what is best for this goldfish.
I am new to fish keeping and ponds in general, but decided to make myself a small raised pond in my garden here in Northeastern Thailand, nothing special 700 litres with probably 20 fish in total, 3 Comets (10cm), 3 Ryukin (6cm) and the rest made up of Swordtails and Guppies.
I clean the pond everyweek and last week the largest of my Ryukin had become trapped under a piece of roof tile I had placed against the edge and the floor of the pond for the smaller fish to hide among.
I don't know how long it had been there, it swam away when I removed the tile and have removed all chances of it happening again but since then, 7 days ago it has been on the surface upside down most of the time, it does swim away when disturbed but obviously its swim bladder was damaged when it was trapped under the tile.
Will it repair itself and get better ? Is it in pain and suffering ? Is it better to put it out of its misery now or wait and see ?
This fish was given to me by a neighbour and was a fraction of the size it is now, I have had it for about 6 months and it was, as are all the other fish healthy and active.

 

[brokensword]

HI, new member wanting advise, I know the title is a little dramatic but need to do what is best for this goldfish.
I am new to fish keeping and ponds in general, but decided to make myself a small raised pond in my garden here in Northeastern Thailand, nothing special 700 litres with probably 20 fish in total, 3 Comets (10cm), 3 Ryukin (6cm) and the rest made up of Swordtails and Guppies.
I clean the pond everyweek and last week the largest of my Ryukin had become trapped under a piece of roof tile I had placed against the edge and the floor of the pond for the smaller fish to hide among.
I don't know how long it had been there, it swam away when I removed the tile and have removed all chances of it happening again but since then, 7 days ago it has been on the surface upside down most of the time, it does swim away when disturbed but obviously its swim bladder was damaged when it was trapped under the tile.
Will it repair itself and get better ? Is it in pain and suffering ? Is it better to put it out of its misery now or wait and see ?
This fish was given to me by a neighbour and was a fraction of the size it is now, I have had it for about 6 months and it was, as are all the other fish healthy and active.

View attachment 145455

well, if you're up for this, I've actually 'cured' two fish doing this--one a large tinfoil barb and the other a goldfish. This is what I did;

I placed the sick fish in a narrow container (in my case, a 12" x 4" x 8" depth unused clear plexi filter box). I placed a piece of plexi to narrow that width down so there was no way the fish could turn or flip, essentially keeping it upright and pointed straight ahead. Now, the tinfoil barb took maybe a month, the goldfish 2 weeks. I put some gravel from the pond/aquarium on the bottom and put in some small floating plants to make the fish feel safe. Each day, I put only a small amount of food in, near the head, and watched. If no interest, I gave it 5 minutes and then took it out. If any effort was made to eat, I let it be. In time, the air bladder apparently healed itself and the fish did pretty good. The tinfoil barb did not swim as normal but kept it's orientation without flipping and lived on. The goldfish did better and I put it back into the pond.

Now, YMMV with this, but it IS an option if you want to pursue it. The trick is to NOT give it any space to flip, thereby keeping it as normal as you can. You'll have to change out the water regularly as there's no filtration but if you don't feed much, you'll minimize this. I also put in an aerstone to keep the water moving. No chems, just forced orientation and patience.

Good luck.

 

[Adithai]

well, if you're up for this, I've actually 'cured' two fish doing this--one a large tinfoil barb and the other a goldfish. This is what I did;

I placed the sick fish in a narrow container (in my case, a 12" x 4" x 8" depth unused clear plexi filter box). I placed a piece of plexi to narrow that width down so there was no way the fish could turn or flip, essentially keeping it upright and pointed straight ahead. Now, the tinfoil barb took maybe a month, the goldfish 2 weeks. I put some gravel from the pond/aquarium on the bottom and put in some small floating plants to make the fish feel safe. Each day, I put only a small amount of food in, near the head, and watched. If no interest, I gave it 5 minutes and then took it out. If any effort was made to eat, I let it be. In time, the air bladder apparently healed itself and the fish did pretty good. The tinfoil barb did not swim as normal but kept it's orientation without flipping and lived on. The goldfish did better and I put it back into the pond.

Now, YMMV with this, but it IS an option if you want to pursue it. The trick is to NOT give it any space to flip, thereby keeping it as normal as you can. You'll have to change out the water regularly as there's no filtration but if you don't feed much, you'll minimize this. I also put in an aerstone to keep the water moving. No chems, just forced orientation and patience.

Good luck.

View attachment 145459

Thanks for the reply, I will find suitable container that I can use and try this method, it does make sense as the trapped air could rise and be expelled from its gills/ mouth.

 

[j.w]

@Adithai
Hope you can get your fish cured and feeling better. I've heard of something like what @brokensword suggested before and they say it can work but takes time.

 

[kant]

In this video they treat the problem of the swimming bladder with oxygen