Ok, I'm starting to get worried about my Orandy. It's looked fine for a while but since the past 1 or 2 weeks, I see a lump on one side of it's body. Granted Orandy is a little fat, but this lump is a little obvious on it's right side, near the tail fins. It looks like it's going to bust or something. Even my dad pointed it out! My mom keeps saying it looks pregnant! But, should her whole tummy be lumpy all around, instead of only one side??

Is my little Orandy sick or is it a sign on she's expecting?

The other fish are just fine, and active as normal. Orandy is active too (she has spurts of energy), but sits at the bottom resting or hiding behind the fake plants. Looks like she's napping!

I'm hoping this is a sign on babies, and not sickness!

Does anyone know what the lump on one side could be? And what can I do to help? She doesn't sit still enough for me to take a picture! I'll try though

Bubbles I moved your topic to the diagnosis section. If you would answer the questions at the top of the page in the forum, it is important. I think your fish is probably sick and not just "pregnant". Whether she is or not is not the question, sitting on the bottom is a sign of illness. So we need to help you figure out what is going on.

We will need the water params of the tank, as well as type of filter....etc...

Ammonia Level 0 Nitrite Level? 0 Nitrate level? 0.25 Ph Level? 7.6

Ph Level out of the Tap? I don't know, I forgot to test.

Tank size(How many Gals) and How long has it been running? 50 Gal, 1 year

What kind of Filtration? Power filter that hangs off the back of tank.

How often do you change the water and how much? 2 weeks, 20% change

What kind of Water additives or conditioners? Doc Wellfish Aquarium Salt, Tetra
Water Conditioner, and Stress Enzyme.

Any Medications add to the tank? Not yet!

How many fish in the tank and there size? 6 (4 (.12cent goldfish), 1 Shubunkin, 1 Red Hat Oranda) They are about 2-4 inches

Add any new fish to the tank? No, I haven't bought any since last year in the summer.

What do you feed your fish? TetraFin goldfish flakes and sometimes pelets and sometimes Bloodworms

Any unusual findings on the fish? Such as "grains of salt", bloody streaks, frayed fins, fungus? No odd things except the lump on the right hand side of the fish, looks like it's at her tummy area. It looks like it's going to pop.

Any unusual behavior? Like staying at the bottom, not eating, ect..?
She sits at the bottom hiding under the fake plants. She's been hiding her face. Also she is shaking her bottom (tushy) and tail more then usual. I'm not sure if she's either she's constipated or sick? Also, her lump is not showing dropsy type scales sticking out. Her appetite is normal and full. I haven't seen her poop in a while either. Yesterday, she had clear stringy poop.

I tried the peas diet last weekend for 3 days, for all of them.

Oranda has acted like this before 3 months ago, but she got better and now she's acting like this again, sitting and hiding at the bottom.

If you can what is the chloramines Level from the Tap? I didn't do this!


Please help me! I'm scared Orandy might die!

Can you explain the lump to me a little more? Is it white on the outside & red in the middle? Is it red on the outside & white in the middle? When did she get this,and when was the last time you did water changes?

Ok, let me describe my fish first. He's a Red Cap Oranda. The very top portion of this body is orangy-red. The middle and bottom of his body is all white. It's not spotted or anything in any spots below the middle of body.

Now, the lump is on the right hand side, if it's facing me face to face. The raised lump/bump is in the middle of it's body, towards the back, near the tail fin.

Since the body is white, I'm going to say "white on the outside and is red inside this bump"

It first started about 2 weeks ago, with no red showing inside, but lately it's getting bigger and bigger, and the red is more aparent.

I changed the water on Sunday (4/24). Do I need to change it some more/frequently? Sometimes I change it weekly, if I have time, but lately every 2 weeks.

Ok, so I moved her to another tank to give her space and do part of a salt dip/hospital tank thing. I'm not sure if I'm doing it right, but I'm trying!

Also I noticed when I moved her to the other tank, She was up at the top, getting some air, then at one point she started floating motionless for 1 minute, which scared me, I thought it died! But after a minute it started moving on it's own.

Anyways, Orandas appetite has gone away, it won't eat, well when I put the food in she didn't rush to the top and chow down. So the flakes when to the bottom of the tank last night.

This morning I went to visit her, and the flakes were gone, I put in a few till I get back home from work and she's still swimming around. She still has stringy clear pop with some speckles of black.

What does that mean? Should I fast her? Should I get her some medicine?

I'm not sure if there is anything I can do? Any ideas or advice?

Hi Bubbles, I am not sure why you decided to move the fish out of the tank and salt dip/medicate her???? Please help me to understand this.

If the lump is the only thing wrong with her, you need to leave her/him in the main tank and watch to see if the fish is acting sick. To put the fish in a hospital tank and jump to treatment can make the fish even more sick, until we know what is going on leaving the fish alone and watching to see what develops is best.

Now since you moved him/her to the hosp tank, is that tank cycled? How big is it?
If the water quality is bad in that one I would recommend putting her/him back in the main tank for now.
Does the lump look any different today? If so please describe it.

Depending on what is going on, which we still need to do the only thing I would recommend at this point is feeding a medicated food for 10 days incase of a bacterial infection or abcess.

Post back with updated info.

Well for the past 2 weeks, she's been sitting at the bottom of the tank, only to come up when I would feed her. For the past week she's been hiding her face in the plants.

Then I started noticing the lump, and it got bigger and bigger over the past 2 weeks. Now it looks like it's coming to a head and it's going to pop or something. Her lump is making her skin streched out, almost see-through.

I guess reading posts like my problem, people said in other posts to do those salt bath/Hospital tank. I wasn't sure if the thing was bacteria/tumor, but there problem sounded very similar to mine. And I was scared the lump might pop and the other fish would get sick, too! That's why I moved her. So I wanted to seclude her from getting other fish sick, if the lump popped, incase she did have bacteria of some sort!.

I just put her in a hospital tank yesterday...10Gal. It's got fresh water, that's safe for her. I tested it before putting her in. Everything is fine 0.0 ppm everything, since it's only been less then a day, I'm assuming.

I just called mom to check on it, and she said "it is swimming around right now, but this morning she sat at the bottom of the tank until 1 pm"
and I asked, has she pooped? Mom said "Yeah, white clear and wait some red poop." She turned on the light to the tank and then said "lots of it! I wonder if it's blood or did you feed her red flakes? But lots of it! Clear and Red. You come home and check it out, but she is swimming around fine now."

I told her I'm not sure, but it's sounds better then the past 4 days, all I saw was stringy clear poop, no color.

I'm still trying to figure out if she's constipated or sick?

What's are some medicated foods I should try? Anything else

I'm still a newbie at this, and to be honest, these fishies were a gift to my parents last year, but I've ended up taking care of them since last year.

I haven't slept in 2 days, because I'm worried about this!

Bubbles sounds like it was an abcess of some kind if it indeed "popped". Very good that she is in the hosp tank. Keep her there. I just wanted to make sure before going further, you did the right thing!!
Now since we don't know what caused it, this could be bad or just get better. Without knowing is hard to give a better answer, but if she does better then, great!
I would recommend the medicated food from Goldfish connection (online) like Medigold or Metromed. The medigold is more of what ppl use, it is a good anitbotic food. You can get this, just make sure to feed her at least 10 days on this and nothing else.
As for medicating the tank, well I don't know. I suppose if it is a bacterial infection then hitting it with the food from the inside and outside would be good. So maybe Maracyn1 or 2 or Melafix. Just not both.
Do you have a heater on the tank? If so raising the temp to around 78-80 degrees will boost her immune system.

Try and get some sleep, you poor thing. Having a tired sleepy fishie mom isn't helping her.

Yaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhoooooooooooooooo!

I got good news!

I went to Pets Mart and got medicated food, but they only had this company called Jungle. I couldn't find Medigold. It was very limited choice since I live in a small town. Anyways, Friday evening when I got home, she was still acting weird. She was sleeping on her back on one of the plastic plants, she even got stuck in a few. I seriously thought she was going to die. Her bump got really really RED.

I sat by the tank the whole evening, even while my dad yelled and said "it's fine, I'll buy you another if it dies! Let it rest! "

Finally I went to sleep at 11. I kept tossing and turning. I had fish dreams too about her!

In the morning, I turned on the light and saw her being more active, and she was moving around very fast and swishing around. That's odd. Then I looked at her lump

It popped!

I watched and then saw the more she moved around, the more the pus like-white thing came out of her tummy! I finally got it!

Well, by Saturday night it was like a she had a little Red mark on her tummy. I cleaned the hospital tank, to remove all the white stuff that came out. Then I cleaned the normal tank too, and Sunday night I moved her back to the normal tank.

She's doing great! Her tummy is healing nicely She's back with her buddies!

Thanks LaurieP for all your advice!

Also, If it weren't for other posts and great advice of all member, I would have no idea what to do.

I love this place! Hugs all around!

Great!!! I am glad she is feeling better. Is she still eating the medicated food? It is a good idea to make sure you feed her that for at least 10 days.
Antibotic food is just like us taking antibotics, if you don't take the whole prescription then you can make the bacteria resistant to the medication next time.

Yeah she's eating it, once it's soggy. The pellets are a bit hard, so once they soak up, she eats them.

I have a question, I've noticed the fins on my fish looking all ragged and torn, is that Fin rot or is that because she was sick? Some of the other fish are starting to look like they are missing scales or there tail looks torn.

Do they shed old scales?

The medicated food I have says it covers Fin Rot, will it help, or what else should I do? I also have MelaFix, and some Jungle Labs medicine(Fizzy tabs) for fungus.

I haven't started using anything on them but wondering if it's normal or a sign of more infection?

It could be. I would test the water make sure everything is perfect.

They don't normally "shed" scales. Occasionally if they rub up against something or are rough either playing or fighting, scales come off.
So I would watch them, see if you can figure out why.

As far as the fins shredding, that could be stress or poor water, fin rot, really a multitude of things. Maybe adding some aquarium salt to the water would help that. I wouldn't just start medicating until I knew for sure what was causing it. Finrot meds, or any meds for that matter can be hard on a fish and cause more problems.
Clean water and a little salt can work wonders on all kinds of problems.