Hi, I hope someone can help me out. I have a fancy goldfish, I'm not sure about why type or anything. We have had Nemo about 4 years I think. Last week I noticed it seemed to be sitting on the bottom all the time but it would come up and eat. A day or so later it started kind of swimming on its side, for the last 5 days or so it has been on the bottom on its side. It doesn't come up and eat and has been unable to do so for about 2 or three days now. It does manage to push itself around some but not much last day. It is breathing fine, has no scale loss, spots, or red streaks in fins. I can't find anything wrong with it except it can't swim. This is my child's pet, and I can't not try to help it, I also don't want it to lay there and suffer, if it is. I have a 60 gallon hex tank, we have 4 goldfish, 1 male betta, 2 female bettas and 1 algae eater. I'm not using a heater, I have 2 of the whisper hang on filters. I've read several of your pages and I have some peas thawing to try that. If you or anyone have any ideas I would appreciate them.
It sounds like a swim bladder problem which is common and hard to treat. I have a section on trouble swimming at
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/gfish4.htm#healthI suggest trying the peas, doing weekly 50% water changes, adding aquarium salt (a tablespoon per 5 gallons), and removing the bettas and algae eater to another tank in case they start to pester the goldfish. Some goldfish may improve once they have trouble with their equilibrium but many will stay that way, sometimes for weeks, months, or even years. The goldfish probably is not in pain from that but probably feels a little dizzy and needs good care (clean tank, good food, no other species of fish to pester him, etc.) in order to be as okay as he/she will be. Such fish often develop septicemia (red streaks in the fins) or internal bacterial infections so keep an eye out for those which are sometimes helped with antibiotics. Good luck!
Hello : )
It sounds like Nemo has the dreaded swim bladder disease which is a fairly common GoldFish thing...
Sometimes they get better but often they slowly starve to death over a few days or up to around 2 weeks...
You can try the mushy peas, it sometimes works but doesn't have a very high success rate but it's better than doing nothing... If it doesn't work after say 3 or 4 days the kindest thing to do is to put Nemo in a container or bag of water & put him in the freezer rather than to let him die a slow & painful death of starvation...
The best way to prevent this from happening to other GoldFish is to feed them sinking pellets or soak their food until it sinks before feeding them as the disease is caused by the GoldFish gulping mouthfuls of air while eating food from the surface & getting air trapped ( a bit like gas or wind as we call it here in Australia ) & because of their poor swim bladders being unable to pass it hence ending in most cases death...
Since I have been feeding sinking pellets at work we havn't had a single GoldFish die from it, before that we would lose quite a few...
Cheers
Thanks for the replies, I'm happy to report that Nemo is doing great. I tried to feed peas but didn't have much luck, after another 12-24 hours it started trying to swim some so I tried the peas again. I know for sure it ate one. I have always used the goldfish flakes though, I guess I should switch to pellets. Is there any certain brand or type that is better? Again, thank you for your help.