Of my four pearlscales, one is particularly out of shape and has been acting sluggish. The other three are shaped nicely, elliptical. The one in question, Jack, has the body of a football line backer. His shoulder area is square and his body is really round. I know pearlscales have intestinal problems because of the way the are bred and I try to vary their diet to combat constipation. But I think Jack is not pooping. Today I fed them nothing but peas, their usual amount, and all of them happily passed out short little green poop. Except for Jack. He isn't playing with the other pearlscales and just hangs out either towards the bottom of the tank. Today, he's kind of stationary hanging out most towards the top of the tank, not really swimming but just paddling. He doesn't seem to have a loss of appetite because he ate two peas today.

I did a water test and everything tested perfect. What can I do short of not feeding Jack and wait for him to regain his vigor?

I'm sorry Jack isn't feeling well. Fish can become constipated. The peas should help. I'm not sure what else you can do aside from keeping the tank as clean as possible with partial water changes. I suggest adding aquarium salt if you don't already at a tablespoon per 5 gallons. Hopefully, Jack will recover on his own.

Thanks for your constant support! I've added the aquarium salt a week ago, though only half the dose. I will wait for Saturday as it is the weekly water change day. Poor thing, he's so listless. I'm wondering if it can be Flukes because he is also exhibiting buoyancy problems. I got some Prazi-Q and will monitor his progress! Wish it's as simple as a tsp of castor oil!

It can be really hard to diagnose parasites and infections. Most of the time, we're just guessing. Some "medications" do more harm than the problem. Let us know if your new treatment causes an improvement. Good luck!

Sadly to say Jack died last night. It was horrible to watch but came pretty quickly. He was still swimming during the day and then the went to the top and stayed at the corner in the evening. I took him out and isolated him from his buddies so they wouldn't bother him. His breathing became shallow and finally at 11:00 he stopped breathing. I remember reading euthanasia methods online but just didn't have the ingredients for it. My question to you now is how I should protect my living goldies. If Jack had parasites, bacteria etc. wouldn't the rest have it as well?

As a preventive measure I added this stuff called Triple Sulfa to the water and took out the carbon pack in the filter as they instructed. The reason I used Sulfa is because at the very end Jack had red spots on his underbelly and then around one gill. Also, should I make a complete water change as an additional preventive measure?

A note of information to all!

I live in San Francisco and there was a mild earthquake last night east of here, 4.2 on the Richter Scale

A man called into one of the TV stations and said that he lost his fish tank. He heard a crash in his living room. He lost 8-9 expensive fish from Fiji and could only save 4. I believe that he said that he lost about $3,000 worth of fish, maybe including his tank. And he had also just installed new carpet! Make sure your fish tank is secured, as well as you can secure it, if you love your little fish!

I'm sorry about Jack. The red spots may have been septicemia or ruptured blood vessels (bruising) that is common when fish are ill. Antibiotics like sulfa drugs may help. Just because Jack was sick does not necessarily mean the other ones will become ill. It depends on what was the underlying cause. Many fish can fight off mild levels of both bacteria and parasites. Hopefully, it wasn't contagious, and the other fish will be fine.

Rest assured I will be monitoring the rest of my goldies.