"Jeannie" wrote in message
oups.com...

brevity snip

"Benji" (we actually don't know the sex) is a 11-year-old feeder
goldfish, about 5 inches long, so a 5-gallon tank should be fine, no?

That's much too small for a 5" goldfish. A fish that size needs at least a
10 to 20g tank.

The tank is not filtered, never in direct sun, and has no plants in
it. We have done a complete water change and tank/gravel scrub
monthly for years (putting the fish in a bucket of the "old" tank
water plus some new water), plus partial changes every so often when
too much food is accidentally fed. The fresh water is always the same
temperature as the tank--learned that lesson the hard way in my callow
yout'.

Please Google goldfish+care. They need good filtration/aeration and
nitrogen+cycle. There is no need to clean the whole tank monthly.

I will stop and get some antibiotics and salt today, and we will do
partial water changes weekly from now on...hopefully that will do the
trick. I have no idea what to do if the lump is eggs...yikes. Can
one massage them out?

I heard it can be done but that's chancy as it's easy to rupture the sack
they're in. Your fish may be beyond help. Please don't replace it with
another GF. Your tank is too small. Get a few male guppies or a betta.
Even they would do better with filtration.

P.S. I will say here that I am disappointed to see that this group is
like most other Usenet newsgroups--certain folks are so intent on
insulting each other that they waste time and bandwidth on off-topic
mud-throwing posts. Guess you can't get away from that anywhere!

I agree. That's why people are migrating to Forums or moderated groups.
Too many of us get sucked up into the nastiness.
--
ZB....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
rec.ponder since late 1996.
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
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