He was born to swim, but he was quickly sinking.
Fate had it in for a 5-year-old goldfish after the scaly fellow developed a swim bladder disorder, causing him to float upside down. Months passed but his condition didn’t let up, so his owner came up with an ingenious solution.
“I tried many ways to treat it, and it never worked,” Massachusetts-based owner Jackson Cullinan tells ViralHog. So he created a custom floating device to keep his little fish friend swimming right-side up.
“I made this life jacket based on what I had seen online,” Cullinan says. “It helps him swim and eat.”
The tubular tunic wraps around the fish’s body, holding its body in the right direction while also allowing for movement and face function.
A fish’s swim bladder is an organ-containing oxygen that is vital to maintaining a fish’s buoyancy in water. Bad water quality, diet issues and stress can cause problems with a fish’s swim bladder, resulting in buoyancy changes, PetMD writes. In some cases, the problem arises when fluid has gotten into the swim bladder. Goldfish are particularly vulnerable to buoyancy disorders due to their round bodies and curved spines.
Other doting fish owners have previously found similar, jacket-like ways to fix their fishies’ health issues. In San Antonio, an aquarium employee was able to rescue a disabled goldfish by building it a wheelchair of sorts. Using three small tubes, the aquatic cruiser helps the goldfish with its buoyancy problems.
In Seoul, South Korea, a goldfish’s life was also once saved by an adorable swimming wheelchair.
More recently, in less heartwarming fish-related news, a man was busted in Spain for taking a goldfish on a walk, breaking lockdown restrictions. In South Africa, a goldfish was robbed of its life by a giant spider, which dragged the poor pet from its pond home.
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