Fish affected with swimming bladder trouble rest on the bottom of pool or aquarium, or hang upside-down, or at an angle near the surface, and move only with apparent effort. When the bladder is affected, they lose all sense of balance. Scaleless fish and fish with shortened bodies are the most susceptible.

These symptoms may also be caused by stomach gases formed by indigestion. Treat any fish with such symptoms for constipation. If that treatment does not cure, it is best to destroy the fish.

The most common cause of this ailment is the shock experienced by fish when taken from the dealer's aquarium to a new home. The base of the tail becomes densely bloodshot, and the congestion moves forward to other areas of the body. It is fatal unless checked.

A cure can be effected quickly by the salt-water treatment.

This manifests itself in a splitting and ragged disintegration beginning at the end of tail and fins and moving toward the body. If it reaches the body it will be fatal.

Tail rot is quickly cured by the salt-water treatment. If the fins and tail of the recovered fish are unsightly, hold the fish down on a wet board and trim them with a sharp knife. Swab the trimmed edges with a potassium permanganate solution,1/2 teaspoon of the chemical to an 8-ounce glass of water.

This is serious and difficult to cure. Unless you are especially fond of the affected fish, it is best to destroy them. When so affected, a fish stops moving around, stops eating, and wastes away until the body has shrunken far out of proportion to the head. Consumptive fish, however, have been saved in various ways-by transferring them to green water with ½ ounce of salt per gallon, by moving them to a mud-bottom aquarium, or by putting them on a diet of scraped oyster, chopped earthworms, and scraped shrimp.

Injuries

Goldfish with telescopic eyes are more prone than others to injuries about the eye, and these injuries sometimes cause the whole eye to become inflamed.

Swab the inflammation with boric-acid solution, mixed at the same strength as prescribed on the box for human beings. Or use 1 part iodine and 9 parts glycerine. Usually a single application of either solution is sufficient.

Cuts, abrasions, and infections on goldfish are best treated by swabbing with kerosene, with the iodine-glycerine mixture, or with household Mercurochrome. Apply daily, and give the fish the salt-water treatment until it begins to recover.

The salt-water treatment alone usually helps a goldfish recover quickly from bruises.

A goldfish which loses scales in a fight or an accident will grow new ones in time, unless other injuries are too severe. The salt-water treatment for a day or so will give it a good start toward recovery.