# Immediate pop-eye cure! A true miracle



## gretchup (Jul 9, 2010)

Hello all!
I haven't been on here in a while, but I have something very important to announce, some info that I think everyone would benefit from.
I have five goldfish, though two are black moors that I believe I have pictures of on my profile here. They have been with me the longest of them all.
About a year and a half ago, one of them got an infection that led to a case of pop eye. I followed with immediate treatment, using the broad spectrum antibiotics that everyone online suggests. Did not work. She was healthy otherwise, so after exhausting all options, I just kept an eye on her.
Then a few moths ago it got worse. I again quarantines and medicated her, this time with two different antibiotics, kept under surveillance, and no sign of improvement. But, she was acting fine, so I put her back in my main tank after almost a month of seclusion.
Lately my other moor decided to have some swim bladder issues that were pretty resilient, so I fasted the tank for a few days, then fed peas for two days, then gave them zucchini tonight because I cooked something with zucchini. About five hours later, just now, I look into the tank and the pop-eye on my first moor is 90% gone. This hasn't happened in over a year. I can't help but see the connection with whole foods and her healing. I then looked at the flakes I have been feeding them for the past year. Soooo many unnecessary ingredients. I, myself, am vegan and almost raw, so I find it hard to feed the fish I love things that I wouldn't even want to touch.
I have decided to feed my fish whole foods from now on. That means: fruit, veggies, greens, and frozen shrimp only. I will post updates, because it will be an adventure, though I am shocking myself realizing that in my whole ten years of fish keeping that I have thought of whole foods for fish as smerely supplements. To heck with that!
I hope this miracle will help others who have fish struggling with resistant pop eye. It was very stressful for me, and such a joy to see improved so suddenly.

Thanks all for listening


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## gretchup (Jul 9, 2010)

update Day two

well, my goldfish dont like carrots. i cooked them for a bit, but the fish kept spitting them out and trying to eat them again. does anyone have experience with feeding carrots to their fish? i may need to cook them longer, but they seemed soft enough to me.
i fed them some cucumber as well, which wasn't as happily recieved as the zucchini - but i learned that the cucumber needs to be chopped very finely, even though it is soft. they did eat it after a bit.
so far, their favourites are just the zucchini and peas though. tried and true favourites of many fish, so i hear.
i found a really great website: here

it has cool recipies to make your own fish food from fresh veggies, and lists all the food they like to eat. I am going down the list, and will update as my picky fishies judge them.
i have found that the chunks of veggies floating around is something fun for them to chase. since the food tends to float, as it gets pushed around by the filter, the fish have a ton of fun chasing it, and i feel more comfortable leaving the food in the tank without removing it, because i know it wont decompose as easily as the flakes would. so, i see it as a form of entertainment for my fish. they dont get much, so it must be fun for them.

yay for whole foods and happy fishies.

oh, and the pop-eye is now completely gone, with only a little mark on her eye from where the tissue stretched. i wish i had a before picture to show the huge difference it has made. 
my boyfriend also mentioned he thinks the algae isnt growing as quickly anymore either, so I will keep an eye on that and see if it is true.


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## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

It's interesting that you are using natural foods for unnatural fish. A lot of the problems fancy goldfish have with gas (that's what you're curing with fiber foods) are the result of human tastes in breeding them to forms that could never naturally survive. The fahionable deformities produced in the goldfish world mean the creatures often can't swim for long periods after they eat, or lose their balance as they age. 
In the wild, carp eat decomposing plant material off the bottom, and there are all kinds of tricks you can use to soften fibrous food so they can process it. If you freeze and thaw zuccini, for example, it becomes much easier for the fish to handle.
I doubt they'll do well with root vegetables - that isn't natural for a fish. Their food should be soft, like fallen leaves underwater. Before we started messing with their shapes, they spent ages evolving to be effective gunk eaters, and soft fibrous gunk is what they love best.
What goes in comes out though, and they don't digest efficiently. They are like cows. Lots of water changes go with natural feeding - a goldie will weigh several pounds and live 30+ years if properly housed and cared for.


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## snail (Aug 6, 2010)

Natural foods can be really good for your fish just remember it does make more mess. So be prepared to do more water changes and or increase filteration if you need to. Goldfish also love to pick at live plants and usually love duckweed.


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