have you ever heard of a goldfish that floats upside down?

Question

I know...its still alive..completely healthy, besides the fact that it is the only one of my 6 fish that floats upside down..almost like a bobber. Ive heard that they can get this from eating pellet food..is there anything that can be done?

Answer 1

Most common cause for tyhis is a defective swim bladder,which controls the fish's balance, There is no cure for this and most of the time the fish dies shortly after this happens. There could be other factors causing the fish to swim or float upside-down and may be cured by putting it in a separate "hospital" tank. Usually this happens to the fancy,fantailed round belly gold fish.

Answer 2

I don't know whether anything can be done for the fish, but I do have to say that I had a fish that would swim at the surface of the water on it's side,..just kind of floating along on it's side while looking at the world beyond the water. He lived for a very long time.

He never really wanted to swim around under the water with his buddies (although occcasionally he did), and spent most of his time floating at the surface. The first time I saw this I thought he was dead, but he wasnt, and he lived to an old age (for fish)- in fact he outlived all the other fish.

Normal? I dunno. Maybe you just have a unique fish that swims to the beat of a different drummer.

DJC

Answer 3

My friend had a fish that did that. It was actually in a U shape and would float for about 23 hours a day. After much research she force fed the fish a pea (I am not sure how she did this and would have loved to been there). It was from being constipated. There was another option and it was to pierce the fish at a certain spot to relieve the pressure. She got help from our local aquarium, who told her what to do. After relieving the pressure she had to make sure she did not over feed the gold fish again or the same thing would happen. I suggest putting this fish in a separate bowl once you relieve the pressure so it does not over eat again.

Answer 4

Basically, what has happened is your fish has lost control over it's airbladder. You should notice that when it does swim down, it has to struggle and actively keep itself down.

This is because of several things: 1. A bad diet 2. Bad water or 3. An illness.

Try changing it's diet, and if that doesn't work, replace the water filter and do a water change in your bowl.

Answer 5

Yes I had a fish that did that.. it did it for the 6 out of 7 years of its life until it died of very old age :p I've never tried this before but I heard that you can give it a frozen pea and supposedly it works, so it's worth a try...and if it doesn't work then I have no clue on what to do.

Answer 6

It might be swim bladder disease. My Betta was doing this until I tried the frozen pea trick. Cook frozen pea, remove outer skin(after it cools) cut into small pieces and feed to fish. It works best if you fast the fish a couple days first. It worked for my Betta hope it helps. I give them a pea once a week now and they love it!

Answer 7

A fish that is doing this is not completely healthy. I would say it's on it's way out. You may want to take it out of the aquarium to prevent the problem from spreading to the other fish.

Answer 8

It has an infected float bladder. It will soon cease to be a goldfish and become cat food.

Answer 9

One of two reasons:
The fish may have gulped some air into its stomach. This situation may clear up on its own. Or, it has swim bladder disease, for which there is no cure.

Answer 10

he is doing the backstroke