my goldfish has no mouth

[kerryannkez]

i won a gold fich on a fair stall at a fire work display and it looks like it doesnt have a mouth at all it has a slit opening going down underneath but no mouth that opens im very confused can anyone help

[learntojive]

RoaldoM - she didn't buy it, she won it and is concerned about it.
My kids came home with a fish from a school fair a couple of years ago, it was the saddest scrattiest little thing I'd ever seen, didn't think it would last through the night - it's lovely now, big and healthy and still going strong.
I thought they'd banned it to be honest, we used to always be winning them as kids when the fair came to town - then it seemed to stop for a lot of years, now they've appeared again??
As long as it seems to be swimming and feeding ok I wouldn't think there's much you can do (not that I'm an expert!)

[tigwig]

Does it eat?

[Thunderbird+]

It could be suffering from a fungal problem, the good news is it's treatable if you catch it early enough. 'Interpet No. 8' might do the trick, but a visual check by an expert is your best bet. Do you have an aquarium centre near-by you can take it ?

[fairkatrina]

It can't affect it too much or it wouldn't have survived this long. A fungal infection sounds about right.

[wildwood]

There may very well be nothing wrong with your fish. Goldfish are a carp fish which are principally bottom feeders so the mouth points downwards somewhat to make it easy for them to 'chew' the mud on the bottom to sieve out anything eatable. When the mouth opens it sort of unfolds to quite a big gob.