Lucy was one of two Oranda’s we started with about five years ago. I should say my wife started with, the Pond and the aquariums have all been her projects.

Lucy was one of a hand full of fish that Sandy started out with in her first pond, an 80-90 gallon pre-molded pond. She was a very healthy fish long after she outgrew the first pond, or I should say, long after Sandy got bit by the Fish bug which developed into the Pond Bug. (see photos, Lucy held her own when it was feeding time) (we learned early on to hand fish all the fish, just in case we needed to take care of them if they got ill or some other catastrophe came along, that we usually created)

When Sandy finished the second pond, Lucy, with the others were transported to the new pond and were happy. Suddenly one day a good year later Lucy got sick and Sandy got a 30 gallon tank for the house since by this time, nearly two years later we were told that Koi and Oranda’s do not mix, the Koi and other fish like Oranda Brains. We didn’t know that and neither did the other fish from what we gather, since they all got along up to this point.

Sandy nursed Lucy back to health and decided just to keep her in the house along with one or two of her other buddies until one day, she started to list and literally stand on her head and then finally started to just keel over on her side mostly with her head pointed into the gravel. We learned that this was probably swim bladder something or other. We did everything we could that the local pet store told us. (We have since learned you don’t ask people questions that have something to sell) A salt bath, and skinned peas got her back on her feet for a couple of more weeks then one day she was down at the bottom again, nose down, looked like her head was to heavy for the rest of the body and just weighed her down. We now know that the breeders have just mutilated this breed until, this problem seems to be inevitable. Swim bladder disease? Or what ever they call it when the brain acts like ballast or a lead sinker.

We found that we could massage her body at times and got a little burp out of her and she would be okay for a day or two. In time we had to resort to what you see in the following photos. We changed her sling daily, hand fed her for about a year and then one day she just gave up. We know she enjoyed the last couple of years because she could look us in the eye and smile... she always showed excitement when we walked by her tank and would follow us trying to get our attention which she always did.

The sling was a soft piece of gauze, and one of those little packaging pieces of popcorn foam. The twisty at first was a wire one until we found how to use thread. This was a daily project and in time she took it like a trouper and did not wiggle or stress herself out. We attributed the showing of the red veins in her tail fins to stress, and learned we had to keep her other fins free too, she did not like her jacket unless she could flap her wings and move around the tank.

No more Oregano’s as I called them. We could never replace Lucy

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