Hopefully everyone has gotten the January/February special issue on goldfish judging guidelines. March/April is up next, kudos to the editors, publishers and assemblers for getting us back on a timely publication schedule. Take a look here for info from the editor on upcoming issues of the Goldfish Report and the publication schedule.
If you have let your membership lapse or have been thinking about joining the GFSA, now is a great time - here is a form you can print. To submit material for the Goldfish Report to editor Matt Lyon, please see the updated society contact info. Articles and photos in electronic form are particularly appreciated.
The current line-up of people filling the GFSA offices is on the society officers page.
Interested in joining the GFSA but still not sure? We have two sample Goldfish Reports available to download, to demonstrate that every issue is packed with thought provoking information and pictures available nowhere else. We are also promoting an electronic membership option that significantly lowers the cost of membership.
Seasonal Advice
Sinking fish: most hobbyists are very familiar with goldfish that have floating problems, requiring elaborate feeding approaches to manage their conditions. But eventually you will also encounter sinking fish, which cannot manage their buoyancy in the other direction and end up stuck on the bottom of the pond or aquarium. This is a troublesome problem. Usually changes in diet and feeding do not help. The fish may learn to eat and live quite a long time, but they will get sores where they touch the bottom continuously and in general are very depressing to watch. The natural recovery rate is very low. Fish under veterinary care have received various treatments from injecting air into the swim bladder to even attaching external floats to the fish. The source of the problem is improper swim bladder function, with the likely cause an internal infection causing the cavity to fill with liquid or simply lose the ability to regulate the inflation. If the cause is a bacterial infection, in theory a sample from the swim bladder might yield a culture and identification, allowing an antibiotic to be selected and administered by injection. Unfortunately, vets and laboratories able to do this are fairly rare, so there is not much data available on the long term prognosis from such a course of action.