Hi, I'm new and I have a problem in knowing how to feed my poor, mutant, one-eyed (and probably blind) telescope fantail. It is only small and I have had it for about a week. Two other goldfish I bought with it have unfortunately died. (I put them in an outdoor pot-pond with week-old water and a water lily; the pH was neutral so I don't know why they died. The pot was ceramic, but unsealed; also, there was a dead Portugeuese black millipede in the bottom so maybe they got poisoned.)

Anyway, I have the fish in a little 2litre icecream container now inside. The water is conditioned and I have been changing most of it everyday, sometimes putting in one or two little bits of rock salt. I have an airstone bubbling away in the middle. Today I bought a bigger 10 litre round basin I will transfer it into because I need to fix up the pond and that will take a while.

The fish seems healthy enough now, the slime coat it had a few days ago is not noticeable anymore and it swims in a nicely balanced way but the dorsal fin is still clamped. It is very slow, though, and has not eaten much for many days. Food that floats on the top it misses, and pellets or peas on the bottom it swims over and can't see! I was actually given Bobette (her name) for free by the lady at the fish farm; maybe she knew it would not survive without the huge school of other fish to swim with and eat with in a 'swarm'. I did manage to get Bobette to eat some commercial food this evening ... by 'bombing' the surface of the water with heaps of granules that fell on her and all over the bottom, and so (because the water is very shallow as she gets better) she managed to accidentally stumble into a couple of bits and suck them up. But I had to put her in a new container of conditioned water afterwards! That is probably a stressful thing.

Does anyone have experience with blind fish, or have any suggestions? I really don't know what to do.

Hi there, and !

Most blind fish will eventually learn where the food is, and the most important task you are going to have is making sure its always at the same spot. If you would switch back and forth between floating and sinking food, the fish gets confused on where the food is. With time, and the food always being in the same spot, he'll adjust and learn.

For now, however, so that he isn't going all too hungry and malnourished, and if you are brave enough to hold him, you can try to just get his head out of the water. The fish has a natural reflex of opening his mouth, and you just drop a pellet in there. He might spit it out at first, but will keep some in as well.

One thing that has really helped members training their fish that the food is in one particular spot is a shallow dish and a straw. Put the shallow dish (glass maybe or some heavy plastic, so it doesn't float), onto a particular spot on the bottom, maybe closeby to where the fish stays a lot. With the straw, you can drop the sinking pellets right onto the dish for the fish to find. (Gosh, try to say that 10 times fast )

It'll take time,but it is really important that the fish has a spot where he knows is the food, for two reasons: The fish gets thinner and malnourished if he misses a lot of meals. Especially with his handicap its important that he keeps his strength up. The second reason is that you polute his water really bad by dropping in so many pellets in the hopes that he fetches a few. The rest of them are just gonna rot in the water and cause water issues. With no filter present, this will spell disaster faster than you can say "Help".

Speaking of filter - the outdoor setup you mentioned, how many gallons does that hold, and is there a filter included, and what brand? Goldfish will not do well without filter and adequate water mass, and really need at least 10 gl per fish, and I personally go even higher than that. It cuts down on maintenance as well, and you have a lot less work to do in terms of water changes and such. Fish are just generally happier, and the water quality is so much better.
Do you have any water conditioner to detoxify the water he is in now? Tap water contains all kinds of things that are toxic to fish, and without a conditioner that takes care of that fish can and will die.

Transfer him out of that icecream thingy as fast as you possibly can, that is way too small for him. The 10 l container is better, but not adequate either. He'll be most happy in the pond setup you have outside, presuming that it holds more than 10 gl and has a filter of some kind.

Btw, do you have a chance to have the water tested he is in right now? Just tells you where you are at with the water, how much ammonia/nitrite/nitrates are in there. A little overview about those things, and what they can do to a fish...
http://www.kokosgoldfish.com/cycle.html
http://www.kokosgoldfish.com/care.html

There are just a few things to read up on when it comes not to only goldfish care, but basically any fish you choose to get. It is even more important for goldfish though, since they are such great waste producers and have a few extra needs, compared to a smaller tropical.
Keep us posted, and for any help you might need, just holler....

Thanks for the help! I can't measure the volume of water of the pot I have (I'm sealing it with special paint) but I estimate that it would be about 50 litres which I think is about 13 gallons. (US gallons, which I assume you use, not UK.) I will worry about feeding Bobette in that when it is eventually ready!

For now, I will get her into the 10 litre basin as soon as the water is ready because it has some of that blue crystal water conditioner in it right now. I will also put in the airstone and a carbon and floss filter. Im going to try that trick with the bowl and the straw once she is in there, it makes a lot of sense to give them familiar surroundings, just like blind people!. I'm not too sure about picking her up, though - she is so little! Do you bring them right out of the water, or just kind of cradle them in your hand and surface like a submarine? Maybe I could coral her into a small container within the basin and rain the food down on her for a few minutes and then let her swim out so I can remove uneaten stuff? When she felt it on her back she seemed to know what was happening when I did this last night.

I was also wondering if goldfish can be fed fresh, soft sea weed that has been rinsed? It does not seem to break down as fast as other greens (I have some for my hermit crab) and it stays nice even in fresh water.

Don't feed your fish seaweed! it's got too much salt in it, goldies are fresh water fish. -It's better to feed veges out of the fridge, -have a look at some of the old threads in the 'goldfish food' section of this board to give you some alternative ideas. -Goldies do eat freshwater plants, stuff you can get from your local aquarium. I know that you guys in western oz can't get elodea (also know to americans as anarchis), which is a shame cos it seems like goldfish's favourite. I'm guessing that you cant get cambomba either, we used to be able to get it in Vic, but over the last year or two they've banned it for us too! that's another plant that goldies love. -If you want to have plants that goldfish eat in your tank, I'd go for fresh water species, that way they might actually grow a bit if your fish don't devour them all! -If you're just wanting to add fresh vegetable matter, you can't go past peas (you take of the hard skin then mush the inside before adding it you your tank), and other greens you'll often find in your crisper (harder veges need to be lightly steamed to make them soft enough for your fish.)

Also, fish have a really good sense of smell, and they learn (the five second memory thing is not true), so if you keep up a routine of feeding them in the same spot, they'll eventually catch on.

Thanks for the info, that's good to know. I did try to feed it by holding it this evening but it wouldn't open its mouth! Later on, I tried again and realized that I had my thumb over its gills - whoops - and eventually I managed to get food in its mouth twice but it just spat it out again! (I used a soaked pellet.)

The poor thing has been in a 'hospital' situation for 4 or 5 days and it has not pooped since then, or eaten. It just stays mostly in one place and does not swim around much, I guess it has no energy. I have tried a cooked, squashed, skinned pea but it was not interested, and that clouded the water, too. I have moved it into a bigger basin this evening so maybe it will cheer up and eat - I've clipped a microwaved baby silverbeet leaf from the garden to the side.

How about mosquito larvae: do they like that? And does that gelled food that you can make yourself dirty up the water if left in the tank? I wish I could get it to swim in some chicken soup or something!!

Mosquito larvae is one of those things that rather float aimlessly through the tank, pushed around by the current - not a good thing with a fish that can't see. I have given up feeding my bubble eyes bloodworms for that same reason - they just can't fetch those things when they are all over the tank.
You can work the mosquito larvae into the gelfood receipe however, and that will work fine. Some gel foods not neccessarily dirty up the water, but they can rather fall apart if there isn't enough gelatine in the food. Its a bit of a experiment on how much gelatine will work for you. I used to make the gel food with not enough of that stuff, and the other ingredients didn't hold together and fell apart in the tank. They did sink to the ground, they just got stuck in between all the river rocks, and it was a pain to clean. A bit more gelatine, and no more mess.

Unfortunately, the day after I moved Bobette to a bigger container, she died. I had just gone out and got some fancy spirulina food, too. Very sad; I feel awful about it. I wish I had known about cycling when I bought the fish and avoided what must have been a horrible, protracted death for her. I think I will give up on goldfish unless I have some mammoth pond one day. Thanks for all your help, people!

I am sorry, that you had such an experience with Bobette, but I hope it doesn't discourage you to start again in a little while.

It is always very hard, for anybody, to start out with a fish that isn't perfectly healthy, or has some sort of disability. Thats why I always shy away to tell people to go and get that cute little thing they saw hurt or sitting sad in a corner at the pet store. It sits there for a reason, and bringing home the poor thing - as good as an intention it is - can be difficult for the new owner, especially if you just start out with goldfish and have to learn about their needs yourself.
I know I have bought goldfish that has visible Ich on them, and I bought them anyway, fully knowing that even though I know exactly how to treat them, it still is a possibility that the fish doesn't make it. It is just too hard on a newbie to deal with all that at once - new in fish keeping, and having a fish that has issues.

Anyway, I am sorry about Bobette...