My poor little shubunkin as blown up like a balloon and just sitting on the bottom of her tank, she was fine yesterday.

My other poor little Ryukin had a similar problem last week and appeared to have burst slightly, I euthanised him.

Before that, about 3 weeks ago, my mother was looking after my fish for a few days and I came home to find the two new arrivals, that I had around a fortnight, both dead, one appeared to have burst open.

I don't think this is a water quality problem as I have been doing water changes etc, its only happening one by one and its hitting the stronger fish first - my tiny baby black moore is happy as anything.

Please help me save my little friend Francine...........

How much and what are you feeding them?

feed them peas for the next few meals.

Dunno what their last feed was - spurilina flakes or dried bloodworms I think, its not over feeding though, I'm pretty switched on about that and give them a variety of stuff. Its not looking good, she is on her side now.

Was thinking maybe dropsy? But I have never seen it before. She looks like she has had an allergic reaction to something and has swollen all over except for the tip of her head, looks like shes gonna pop like an over inflated balloon. Her scales are kinda sticking out.

If its dropsy, I gather that if a fish bursts then the others in the tank will become infected.

have you got epsom salts at home?

Francine the friendly goldfish has just taken her last breath in this world.

I found some pictures on another post and am 99% convinced it was dropsy.

Yip, put some salts in with some Melafix and stresscoat. Will treat the tank with some Furan as this is number 3 to pass over.

Poor, poor Francine, I only ended up with her because she followed me round the tank, that was in the middle of the room, several times at a pet shop. I'm gonna miss her