Can anyone please give me some advice as to what happened to my lovely Panda Oranda. Steve died yesterday after a few days of hiding and acting shy. He went off his food and after a while his breathing was became rather laboured. I took him out of the tank which he shares with two others and a loach, who all seem to be very healthy. I placed in a new smaller tank with some water from the tank and some new treated water with some general tonic in it to see if that would give some relief to him but there was no improvement. What happened?

Thanks for replying Mervin. When my fish died I did check him (or her...can't tell) for any visible indicators of illness or disease but there seemed to be nothing evident. He just began to behave very differently from his norm, hiding and acting shy and then his breathing became very laboured. Hope to be replacing him soon with another panda oranda and don't want to repeat anything I may have been doing wrong. I tested the water (twice in one week) and all seemed well there and his commrades all seem to be doing fine!!
But thanks again for replying!

hi becbec,

Your goldfish probably has dropsy, which can be caused by  bacterial or viral infection. Water quality can sometimes play a role in the development of this condition.  You can try to help the goldfish recover by treating the water with aquarium salt and feeding the goldfish antibacterial medicated food.  These items can be purchased at the pet store.