Saving "Goldie" - Part 1

Of all the pets that I have - or have ever had - the one that I have had the longest is my current goldfish. The only fish I currently have, actually. Goldie I got roughly in 2001 when I was on a kick of setting up a few aquarium tanks at my previous residence downstate at that time. One tank contained some tropical fish in a 10g tank, and another 10g tank had some goldfish.

Over the years, the only goldfish that has survived water changes, fish additions, and moves .... has been Goldie.

Sunday afternoon I figured that it is nearing a complete tank change and cleaning, but until then I'd just do a partial water change. I took a clean gallon plastic jug (previously was a Sunny D bottle that I had washed out) and removed about 2-3 gallons of water from the tank. Before I did, I actually used the wand scrubber that I have that you use to scrub the inside of an aquarium tank. (I'm not crazy - its a cheap product that you can find at any store, Wally World included, and it works). So I scrubbed the sides of the rank to remove residue and a slight green film (algae?) that has produced on a few spots around the tank. Removed the 2-3 gallons of water. Then I filled back up the jug with relatively same temperature water out of the kitchen faucet to add back in. When the tank was filled back up to the top I exchanged out the power filter cartridge so it'd be freshly operating.

While I added the water back into the tank, Goldie was merely swimming around. However as the water was poured back it, he almost had to swim over by to see what was going on. Thus he swam near where the water was being poured in and I am sure he had quite the fun with the water current in the water.

However....later on I began to notice him sitting silently in the tank at the other end. He appeared to be ok, although sitting in one spot. He was also hovering near the top of the tank - as opposed to being near the bottom or even the middle.

Skip ahead to Monday. Goldie was now looking even worse. He was more or less floating almost completely on his side. He merely floated around the tank, and on occassion when he got near the water flow from the filter he would be thrust around the tank or nearly turned over. But then he'd return to his sideways position. He was alive, just on his side. Not breathing has normally either.

This has been on my mind heavily all day this morning - Tuesday. I've had him since 2001 - nearly 7 years. Longer than my cats! Sure, he's just a goldfish. But he's still part of the family. Thus it got weighing so heavily on my mind that during a break at work I decided I needed to do something for him.

So on a break I walked the .75 miles back up to my apartment where I got my car, went to the local Wal-mart which is basically where a person has to buy their pet supplies. (Note: there are NO "pet stores" in Presque Isle that I am aware of.) I looked in the fish section for a while before I decided on two medicines/treatments. Some stress-coat stuff that I've had before, and these fizzy tablets that are designed to treat tanks for algae/bacteria. I drove back home, added some of the stress coat. Then added one of the fizzy tablets for anti-bacterial treatment. Oh, and I turned off the power filter so that it'd not remove the treatments from the water. (That's obvious.)

So now it's just a waiting game. Will Goldie recover? Will he get better and be swimming around as normal and be back to his old self?

Or will I lose the only fish that I have? Will I love the one pet that I have had for longer than any other pet before in my life.

Sure he's "just" a goldfish. But he's "MY" goldfish. My Goldie.

Stay tuned for further updates on Goldie's condition. . . . .