Hi:

I have two goldfish in my 29gallon tank. Each are about 5 inches
long, and I have had them since March.
I confess that I got lazy recently and did not do water changes.
As a result, both fish lived in a _very high_ nitrate environment,
even though the ammonia and nitrite were zero or minimal. This lasted
for probably 1-2 weeks.
About a week ago, they both got sick, although the fan-tailed
female is much, much worse than the regular male.
They both stopped eating. The female got red streaks in her
tail, and her top fin has been partiallly clamped. She hides in the
darkest corner of the tank, near the top.
Both eyes have bulged out on the female (not on the mle) and the
female also has developed several dark spots on her head.
Now her right eye is clouding over. At this rate, in another day it
will be impossible to see the black pupil.
The male is doing much better. He never got anywhere near as
sick as the female. He is starting to eat now, and never got the
bulging eyes or red streaks, etc.
I just tried feeding the female strained peas, but she won't
even eat that. (I normally feed fish flakes.) Last night I tried
freeze-dried shrimp, and also dried bloodworms.
Until today she acted very hungry, but would just spit all food
out as soon as she tried to eat it. Tonight she is just "sniffing"
the strained peas, and not even trying to eat.

I'm assuming that both fish got nitrate poisoning. It was
terribly high for over a week. The API test for nitrates was deep,
deep red.
I've been doing major water changes for the past several days,
and the water is almost back to normal. The nitrates are now about
10-20ppm.

Can anyone suggest what I might be able to do for the female, or
is it likely that she will die in the next day or so?
If you need any more info, I will try to provide it.

Please help if you have any experience with this. Thank you
very much!

Dave