Urgent help with goldfish!!!!!

[Lun-Sei Sleidee]

Help!! There's something wrong with my goldfish!! I've been owning him for years and he was just fine, except that he'd sometimes lose scales.

These last days, he hasn't been hungry and didn't move much, but apart from that he didn't look ill. Now, suddenly, he's lying on his side and is desperately struggling to stand up, but can't!! What has happened to him and what can I do to try to help????

[maxollie]

Well, I would say the first thing you can try to do is to take him out of the fish bowl and put him in a big bowl, or big dish of fresh water. If you have fresh plants, or artificial plants in the fish bowl or aquarium, and other decorative things also, your fish might not be able to get sufficent oxygen to breathe. Do you put any conditioner in the water, to keep diseases at bay? Have you seen any white spots on your fish. Sometimes they get a disease called the "ich", which produces these tiny white spots all over the fish. You would need to go to a pet store and get a bottle of "ich out", and follow the directions to put it into your fish bowl or fish tank/aquarium. Do you change the water often, if it is just a bowl and there is no filter? Fish need clean water on a regular basis if it is not an aquarium that has the underground filter to help clean the water clean. If it is an aquarium, the filter may be dirty and need to be replaced. I think the best thing to try first is to take the fish out and put him in clean water. The water should not be very old or hot. It should be tepid (just warm). I hope this info will be of help to you.