The last couple of weeks I have been treating my golden orfe. He is about 11 years old and last week I was just coming round into my garden with my youngest son when we saw the orfe in the plants just turning round or so we thought as I commented to my son how it was rare to see the girth of the orfe and really how big he was. Then I realised that he was not turning round but was on a constant side instead of being upright. We got the net and pulled him out. He didn't make any move to try to get away which was very unusual. There were no marks on him and he looked really healthy. Nothing wrong in his gills either.
He weighs 4lbs and is quite a large fish but we decided eventually to salt bath him. We did this twice over a few days and he did seem to improve finally staying upright. But now we haven't seen him in 3 days.
We had thought that with no outside causes to see maybe he just was constipated after just starting back on dried food, but then he started going round in circles and stopping in the same place each rotation. When talking to our local pet shop guy who is quite knowledgable of pond fish he did wonder if he might have had a stroke. This seemed to make sense when seeing him swimming.
Anyway now I just don't know what to think. He always came up every day but no sighting is getting me worried. I can't see to the bottom of the pond so I don't know if he is dead or just keeping to the plants. I wondered if he had had another stroke making him unable to move but only time will tell now. maybe he will suddenly surface.
Well after five days of no show suddenly tonight he surfaced. He is still a bit kinked but is straighter than before and seems to be upright and swimming better. I can't say how relieved I am. 
