What could be wrong with my goldfish?

Question

We have had this tank for about a year,with 5 large goldfish and 1 kind of goldfish with the pop out looking eyes.
One fish, (she is about 4 in. long) keeps almost floating to the top of the tank. She seems to be attempting to swim lower, but it seems as if she is full of air. She never did this until a few weeks ago. She reaches the top of the water and goes to one side. It looks as if she is struggling.But, then sometimes she acts fine and swims correctly.There are no signs of injury that I can see.
We did move, but this fish was acting this way beforehand.They are still eating the same food.
Their tank is one of those large octagonal sized ones,almost 3 feet tall, and about 2 feet across.
Is she dying? What can I do to help her?

Answer 1

Your tank is massively overstocked. Baby-juvenile fancy goldfish need 10 gallons PER fish (ryukins, black moors, fantails ect.) Baby-juvenile long bodied goldfish need 20 gallons PER fish (comets, commons, shubunkins)
Adults need atleasty 50 gallons PER fish. Being that it is a round tank im assuming its a 60 hex from your approx dimensions. Hex tanks are not appropriate for goldfish. There is less gas exchange then what a rectangular tank would have because of their shape. Goldfish need alot of dissolved oxygen in the water because they have primitive gills. Hence why they are coldwater fish. (colder water holds more dissolved oxygen then warm water). They also need massive amounts of filtration and regular partial waterchanges where the gravel is vacumed to remove the excess food and poop.

The fish is having swimbladder problems. Its caused by gulping too much air when eating, and sometimes water quality problems.

When feeding, soak the food for a couple minutes in a cup of tank water before feeding to lessen the gulping of air. Feed a shelled green pea cut up in bite size pieces to flush the fish out. Use frozen or fresh, not canned.
Remove some fish and do weekly partial waterchanges, never going past 50 percent.

To give you better advice your maitenance schedule and how you maitenance the tank is needed aswell as what your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph levels are.

Goldfish have lifspans of 30 plus yrs and grow to be 12 -14 inches and round hexigonal tanks suck because fish swim horizontally, not vertically. They do not grow to the size of their environment. The outside may stop growing but the insides continue to grow wich will kill the fish young.

Answer 2

Oh no, yet another illinformed individual. it relatively is not your fault(i'm assuming) so i'll bypass ordinary on you. bypass to WAL*MART, or yet another keep that sells fish ingredients, and purchase a fifteen gallon tank. time-honored length, not extreme. purchase a filter out rated for a minimum of 35 gallons(you ought to use it once you improve your tank length, which you will ought to do) and a few greater gravel. in all probability one or 2 small decorations which you like too. set up the tank, upload dechlorinated water, and turn on the filter out. upload some gravel from the fish bowl you have your goldfish in now, and likewise, some nutrition. you will ought to enable the tank cycle, so i could provide it a minimum of two days. Then do a 25% water exchange, and upload your fish. additionally, i could swap to goldfish pellets. they at the instant are not just about as messy, and that i be attentive to my goldfish desire pellets to flakes. playstation : For the two-3 days your goldfish is in the bowl, i does not feed him/her. only exchange 50% of the water in the morning, and 50% at night. usual. stable success, happy Goldfishing

Answer 3

It's a bladder problem.
Fast the fish for a couple of days, then feed it unskinned peas that is boiled or steamed then mushed. Do this for about 3 days, 2 times a day. Use a net to fast it and to feed it.
If you can, separate the fish, add a bit of salt and raise the temperature gradually to about 78 Degrees.
I just had that problem, and i fixed it by doing so.

Check out that siTe: http://www.kokosgoldfish.com/Swim%20Bladder%20Disorder.html

Answer 4

I think if goldfish get sick, usually one of two things is wrong, given that the water is reasonably fresh. Firstly, anti-chlorine must be used with the water. It's cheap and available at the pet store. But if it's really an illness, sometimes antibiotics such as aureomyacin (spelling probably wrong) is used. Something like that should also be findable at the pet store. Hope your goldfish feels better!
Mike N

Answer 5

Possibly swim bladder disease. Add 1 tbsp. of salt per 7 gallons of water in the tank, do a stress coat, and put in some medicine.

Answer 6

your fish has swim bladder disease, sometimes they survive it and sometimes they dont
one problem I see is that your tank is too deep, especially if you have any fancy goldfish
can you move this sick fish to another tank and keep it in water about 6 inches deep? treat it with a little aquarium salt feed as
always and see if she can recover

Answer 7

She could be dying. It does sound like it could be something wrong with her air bladder (it's what helps a fish move up and down) You could contact a vet to see if they can treat marine life. Some vets can. Hope you find out what's wrong and good luck!!

Answer 8

I bet it's the fish with the bug eyes. They often play dead for some reason nobody can really prove.

Make sure you changing a part of the water regularly.

Answer 9

I`m not sure what could be wrong. But there is not anything you can do about it anyways. You don`t see vets going around treating goldfish. But sounds like it might be dying. There is nothing you can do to help it. I hope he`s alright.

Answer 10

if it appear to be getting sluggish or having problems breathing get a bowl of warm water not too warm and put salt in it. it might help. don't ask how it works but it has saves several of our fish from dying