Goodness you certainly have been through the mill haven't you didn't realise when we where chatting about snails I am so behind with everyone at the minute so apologies for that Iv just read this thread and took a look at your videos, have to say that they are all beautiful fish, past and present sadly with fancy goldfish as much as we try and do our best for them they are prone to problems and one of the reasons I only keep single tails at the moment although saying that even these can have problems too one of my old timers developed what we suspected was an internal tumour and looked like he has swallowed a tennis ball so sadly had to be put to sleep at least Chu's is external so Fx the vet can remove it and he makes a full recovery, and then you can get to enjoy watching them both woggle about in their tank anyway best of luck

So the operation will be this saturday at 10.30 or thereabouts.

He talked me through all the pros and cons, more cons than pros unfortunately, I think he's doing it more as a favour than an actual 'fix' for the lump, he warned me it may reoccur, it may come back worse, it may not be a success, that there may be internal issues, that the fish may not come through the anaesthetic, and that there may be underlying issues that may cause death through any of the above.

I'm hoping he's just disclaimering, but chu is very small, and there is hundreds of years of inbreeding there to contend with as well, so there may be untold risks involved.

Anyway, I still wanted to go ahead because quite frankly, its awful looking, he's getting bothered by it, and it's not going to get better. It's starting to break through the skin a lot now, and is looking quite raw. It's very large now as well, he's almost two ranchu :/

Its so weird, we got him and blindchu at the same time, he grew much larger while blindchu stayed small and misshapen and missing an eye, yet blindchu seems to be made of some form of carbon fibre.

I'll be thinking of you with everything crossed

Ditto wot FL said Hope it goes well Some of them do seem to be made of something miraculous while others are somewhat more delicate, let's hope the little guy gets on ok.

Will have EVERYTHING crossed for you and chu!! Hope it all goes well xx

Turn for the gross this morning!

Here's a video of where we are pre-op http://youtu.be/c0-TfmG87Xc

So hopefully the op is just in time and not way too late.

He mentioned he might take the removed tissue for analysis. I certainly would like to know what it is, however I'll have to find out if I can afford to know!

However, having lost Ronnie to internal tumours, Little Fishy to similar symptoms, and now Chu has this, I want to know what it is, if it's something contagious, and if there's anything I can do.

Especially since I have Rescue Chu still sitting in quarantine and looking like a neglected puppy on one of those dog shelter ads.

Oh my! That has really grown hasn't it? It's best to have it removed even with the risks as it can't be any fun for him, poor fish Fingers and toes all crossed here. Good luck

Maybe the Vet will be sufficiently interested in the results of a lab test to do it free

Oh poor sweet chu!! He looks so uncomfortable fx for tomorrow

he still looks a little cutie pie, bless him. Fingers crossed he can be sorted out xxxxxxx

Good luck tomorrow, bless his heart - he's still a cutie