Goldfish

[itsallyellow]

I have a small fancy goldfish, its the quite fat two tail type. For the past month its been swimming upside down and floating to the surface and staying there before its gets another flurry swims to bottom and then rises to top again like a cork dropped in water. Its healthy in every other aspect as it still eats, its fins are up and its colour is as bright as ever and when you go near the tank he gets lively again. The tank is clean too. I assume there is a problem with his swim bladder but what can I do to rectify this? I don't want to 'flush him' so to speak but is he going to get worse?

[scubadiver]

I have a telescopic goldfish with a swimbladder problem- we have tried every piece of advice given and we are now convinced he has got into a the habit of gulping air (we often see him on the surface gulping air to the extent bubbles are coming out from his gils!!). However, he seems happy and when he isn't floating, swims about normally with the other two fish.

We were advised that one of the main problems with fancytail goldfish, is that because of the way they have been bred, their internal organs are often a bit squashed and they are very susceptible to swim bladder problems. Alternatively, your fish may just be constipated. If this is the case, don't feed him for a couple of days, then skin and chop up a pea and feed this to him- it kind of "clears out" his system. It is beneficial to feed a pea a couple of times a week, instead of constantly feefing flakes or pellets....

[itsallyellow]

Scube thanks for the advice. I assume the pea should be cooked and soft?

[scubadiver]

.... By feeding a varied diet, this seems to help with swimbladder problems.

Check nitrate and nitrite levels in the water- you want to try to keep these as low as possible, as this can also add to the problem. Make sure you are feeding with a sinking food and not a floating one, so there is no reason to be at the surface.

It may just be something you will have to live with- if he seems happy enough then I wouldn't worry too much. A couple of friends of mine who have both kept large fish tanks for years have both experienced this problem with fish before, the fish in question had normal life spans and seemed happy enough.

We are thinking about renaming our fish "Bob" !!

HTH

[scubadiver]

We keep a bag of frozen peas in the freezer and take out three ( one for each fish) then run them under the hot tap until defrosted. Then I remove the skin and chop it up into small pieces ( you could mush it up, but this makes the water go temporarily cloudy) then drop it into the tank. The fish all seem to love it.

[itsallyellow]

<PRE>Thank you, Scuba</PRE><PRE>Our fish is named 'Dickinson'</PRE><PRE>due to a complexion resemblance to a certain</PRE><PRE>celebrity antique dealer.</PRE>

[maggie01]

It sounds like an Oranda that you have. I have one at the moment which is suffering from the same thing. You can buy a swimbladder treatment from the pet store which seems to help, but the peas definately help. Also try soaking the flake food (if that's what you feed it) in some of the tank water as this stops the fish coming to the top to get food and this in turn stops it from taking in air. Mine has been like it for a few weeks on a off. What ever you do please do not flush him if he is still alive. A vet will put it out of it's misery.

[ruthann58]

try feeding some bloodworms you can buy them frozen from the pet shop in little packets like ice cubes try feeding these 2 or 3 times a week

[clair3934]

Ty not to feed flake foods that meen your oranda has to come to the surface try Gussy by Armatage its small nuggets that sink more quickly this seemed to help mine, when I had them as soon as I started useing this food I never had a problem again! good luck!

[morg_monster]

i would have given the same advice as others.

but one thing - if your fish doesn't recover and is clearly on his last legs (so to speak) there are humane ways to put him to sleep rather than flushing (which won't kill him) or having to pay the vet to do it. I had a sick goldfish with a big tumour who clearly was not going to recover, he was not moving anymore but occasionally his gills would move. To put him out of his misery I put him in a smallish tupperware container with water, and then put this in the freezer. apparently they just fall asleep. (though how we know that I don't know!). Then I buried the block of ice in the garden!