Elderly Barb. What To Do. Solved

One of the barbs we inherited with a tank is starting to look very sorry for itself. Its a male and I think the woman we got it from said its 5 years old.

It seems to be slowly wasting away, it's abdomen is now concave and it looks like a fishy boomerang. I've seen it happen to CPDs before they disappear in the tank. He's also clamping his fins a lot. He's eating but doesnt seem to be gaining any benefit from it and his breathing is a bit laboured. I think it's just old age. A similar thing happens to really old people, they get very scrawny.

My son wants to put it in the QT and I've said no because in the first place it's not cycled and secondly I think it would seriously stress the poor old thing unnecessarily.

I suggested euthanising it, my son wants me to heal it but you can't cure old age.

So what to do? 

I would euthanase it as well. The last thing you want is for other fish to start picking on it as it gets slower and slower.

Golden barbs seem to like being in a shoal, we inherited 2 and they were both very shy until we added more barbs. I think he'd be very distressed by being on his own.  Time to give the son a stern talking to tonight I think.