Bendy Common Goldfish

[Egmel]

I was talking to my parents the other day and mentioned the fact I was looking at getting fish and that I'd been nattering to people online about. To cut a long story short my Mum reminded me that one of their fish has a deformity and wondered if anyone here new what the problem was.

It's a common goldfish kept in the pond and about 4 years ago it got a growth on its side, now it is bent like a banana, the fish seems quite happy, swims and eats normally. It doesn't appear to be disadvantaged by its shape.

Any idea what the matter with it is? (I'll try and get some photos next time I go to visit)

Cheers in advance

 

[black angel]

Without a pic, cant really say.

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

Did you get him in a pet store? and is he in a pond? sometimes fish will jump out of the tank or hit there heads and can become mentally retarted. my mom kept her goldfish who jumped out of its bowl onto concreate for 3months before it finally died! it was swimming upside down but it ate normally

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

If its been there for years, its likely to be a tumor, which may or may not be cancerous.
If its a recent thing it could be something like fish TB, which in advanced cases destroys the muscle/tissue of the fish, wears down the imune system and warps the spine/flesh of the fish. There are various other deseases or disorders which in advanced cases left untreated, can grow and cause bending of the fish- things like old puncture wounds filled with puss or bacterial infections left untreated etc.
If you can describe in as much detail as posible what the fish looks like, it would help a lot in figuring out what its got .

 

[Egmel]

It's been like that for years so no it's not a recent thing.

it appears to cause no discomfort, lethargy or anything else, it is as active as the rest of the fish. (Since it is in with other fish and they are not affected it is unlikely to be parasitic or straight forward bacterial) and it jostles for food with the rest of them

As far as I know it was either a fayre fish or a descendant of one, possibly via a friends pond, else it may have come from our LFS, who seem to be fairly good. It's a common white goldfish and it's one of a few in the pond so it could be from any of the above sources!

From memory the fish is about 6-8" long and when I last saw it (about a month or 2 ago) the bulge was on one side of the fish only, It was a serious size but smaller then a golf-ball. The curvature of the spine was such that you would expect it to be turning away from the bulge all the time, it was not an overly tight curve, I would say it had a similar curvature to the edge of a CD, though probably less so.

Our guess so far was that it was a tumor but since it seemed in no discomfort my parents decided to let it be.

As I say the next time I go home I'll see if I can get some photos of it, though that wont be for a month or so.