Anyone Around? Urgent Resus. Advice Needed

[Catiette]

Hi all.

Very casual fishkeeper. Medium sized cold water goldfish in outside tub. UK. Just returned from recent holiday and tub had leaked, with tub dry, fish at base almost on side, but water droplets on him & very slight gill movement.

Acted quickly with Chat GPT help (I know), and only now thought of asking here.

So, already done: refilled tub with dechlorinated water; gills & mouth quickly responded, opening & closing, but strenuously; over maybe an hour, slight body movement too, but no change in position; stopped shining a torch on the poor guy to assess him - haven’t looked for an hour or so; but am, on internet advice, kind of deoxygenating the water by pouring in a small cup of filtered water from a slight height, about half a foot from where he is around the other end of the tub he’s in, at 5 minute intervals.

Questions: please go gently - am very distressed indeed by this; whether to continue with the water pouring (too traumatic with no time to settle?); any other suggestions?

Please help.

Current status:

Can't add anything to what you're doing, but I hope it's going well.

We once had a bunch on fish in a tub outside while repairs were being done on the pool they'd lived in. We several times came outside to find fish lying, dry, on the ground around the tub. We later found that the poor things were jumping out because a local feral cat was trying to catch them. One morning we came out to find several lying on the patio. Completely dry, no idea how long it had been. Each time we just scooped them up and dropped them back in the tub, and though it took a long time they all seemed to recover. We didn't have anything oxygenating the water.

We did lose a few but they vanished, didn't just turn up dead, so I suspect the cat managed to eat them.

I think all you can do is go to bed and hope it's still alive in the morning. If it was damp it sounds as if there was still water around it until very recently.

Oh my goodness thank you so much for replying. I’m going to bed now but am pretty distressed (complex context, and just that kind of person). Is it cheeky to ask you to check back in tomorrow? Seeing your reply at the difficult point when I decided to just wait and see has helped so much, and I guarantee you’ll know more than me - more of an incidental fish parent than anything, but very fond of him and don’t want him to suffer unnecessarily. Xxx

Update: we have one lively, happy-looking fish!!!

I’m still worried about him of course and especially about getting aftercare right - eg. he was asking for fish flakes, but I politely declined for now, telling him he’s recuperating. Please could anyone advise?

We want to do everything right by him and not upset his recovery in any way now.

Is there anything else we should do? Or look out for or assess? His dorsal (fin along his back, anyway) seemed a little bent, but may always has been. At a glance (didn’t want to scare him), the rest of him looked fine, but maybe a slightly closer inspection of details?! And when to give him the flakes he so richly deserves?! Basically, is there anything else we should be doing to help this warrior?

Thank you so much for any help you can offer.

xxx