gold fish sleeping upside down?

Question

we have a fan tail goldfish ever since we got it about 2 weeks ago it sometime sits in one place upside down looking at you if you put some food in the tank off it gos and feeds and act completely normal then a few hour or more later it does the same thing the fish looks healthy and shiney with no fin rot any ideas

Answer 1

Hope this helps:

Swim bladder disease is a multifactorial illness which primarily affects ornamental goldfish which have globoid body shapes, like orandas, ryukins, and fantails. It most often presents as a fish which floats at the surface, or a fish which stays on the bottom and doesn't seem to be able to easily rise. A fish which has normal buoyancy but is listing to one side or the other often does not have swim bladder disease, but may have other diseases.

In order to understand swim bladder disease, a cursory discussion of fish anatomy and physiology is necessary. The swim bladder is a small epithelium-lined sac in the anterior abdomen which is responsible for maintaining buoyancy. It has a close association with blood vessels such that gases can diffuse across into and out of the sac according to the needs of the fish. The
sac inflates if the fish needs to be more buoyant, and it deflates if the fish needs to be less buoyant. Goldfish and some other fish have a special addition to this system called the pneumocystic duct, which is a connection between the swim bladder and the esophagus, allowing additional adjustment of buoyancy by letting air out through the digestive tract.

People have debated for years over the cause of swim bladder disease. It is pretty well established now that a number of things can cause swim bladder disease. Some of the things which have been suggested are:

1. A virus. The virus attacks the epithelium of the sac and inflammation occurs which makes the epithelium too thick for gases to diffuse across. Thus the fish is stuck at a certain buoyancy because gases have nowhere to go. This may be
more of a factor in non-goldfish species.

2. A Bacterium. There is little evidence to support this, but it's widely known that bacterial infections can cause the same kind of thickening of the swim bladder epithelium as viruses.

3. Anatomy. Globoid-shaped fish like ornamental goldfish are predisposed to problems with the swim bladder because their guts are all squashed up in their abdomen. This arrangement predisposes to food impactions, which in turn clog up the pneumocystic duct.

4. Diet. Feeding dry foods which tend to take on water like a sponge and expand in the fish predispose to food impactions.
See #3 above.

SO WHAT CAN YOU DO TO PREVENT THIS FROM HAPPENING?

1.As always, the golden rule of fish disease is WATER QUALITY. If swim bladder disease does have an infectious cause, your fish will be better able to resist this infection (and others) if your water quality is good. Periodic water changes and
water testing are a must.

2.Pre-soak your flake or pelleted food. This will allow expansion to occur prior to the fish eating it, and will lessen the chance of impaction.

3.Even better, switch to a gel-based food or other food source, i.e. frozen or live food.

Answer 2

Do Goldfish Sleep Upside Down

Answer 3

Since the problem comes and goes and you have noticed it for 2 weeks, I would discount the idea of a swim bladder infection. Without treatment a swim bladder infection would have killed the fish by now or at the very best have it completely unable to control it's swimming attitude. I would suggest that it's a problem that comes and goes and has less of an impact in swimming at least in milder cases. Your fish is probably suffering from chronic constipation. It would come and go and not cause severe swimming problems most of the time. Try adding more fiber to the fish's diet. Shelled peas are the most common and popular way of doing this and 1-2 peas every few days would most likely take care of the problem. Any fresh fibrous vegetable would also be a good addition to the fish's diet. Lettuce, spinach, peas, zucchini, squashes of all types,even soften carrot, the list goes on and on. Try adjusting it's diet and see if that helps the situation.

MM

Answer 4

Change the food. I suspect the food was purchased with the fish but if the container was not sealed all the way the food could be old. In my experience it not really how much food was fed but the quality and age of the food in question. Flake food goes bad very quickly and is generally poor quality. I would wait to feed the fish again until he rights himself. Then feed him peas popped out of the shell and alternate with frozen brine shrimp. A good food does not contain corn, corn meal, corn gluten meal, or gluten meal. These are cheap fillers and indicate cheap food. GF cannot digest corn so it just fouls the water and has no nutritional value to the fish. What you want to look for on the label (and don't rule out tropical fish food either) is whole fish meal, kelp, spirolina, krill, shrimp, salmon as the first main ingredients. Replace the dry food monthly, who wants to eat 6 month old seafood? You also want to get a food that is around 30% protien and 10% fat. You can go higher on the protien. Treat your goldies with a skinned orange slice or fresh washed green veggies (blanched broccoli, spinach, romaine lettuce), I even give them banana sometimes. Let the green algae grow so they can graze on that and they will get HUGE. Don't get a pleco as goldfish need to be housed only with goldfish, and besides they benefit from the algae.
High nitrates could also cause this. So have those checked and if they are over 40 ppm then its time to do some water changing until you can maintain them under 20 ppm, under 10 ppm is pristine.
The last thing I would consider is swim bladder disorder. A good way to diagnose swim bladder disfunction is if the fish cannot ever right itself, especially after 2 or 3 days of fasting the fish and if your nitrates are low. In that case you may need to get some good anti-biotic food, like Medi-gold from Goldfish Connection. Hope all this helps.

Answer 5

Sounds like swim bladder problems. It puts them off balance and they end up upside down. There is some stuff you can get to put in the water to cure it. From a pet shop or online.

Answer 6

He has swim bladder disease. That usually occurs when he is over fed. Don't feed him as much, or don't feed him for a day. Don't worry about him getting hungry, they can last a few days without food. Swim bladder disease makes the goldfish constipated, so not feeding him for a day will let him poop out the food without extra food.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

This could be a kidney infection which is very painful for fish. I know because my fish did exactly the same, i thought it was cute until i realised something was wrong..

Answer 9

um yes, i have a goldfish. he's been laying upside down ever since i got home. when i lightly tap the tank, he spazzes out and then settles back into his corner, where he continues to lay there.....

Answer 10

It's got swim bladder disease.
Mine had a similar problem and was dead after a few weeks