My red ryukin is sick?

Question

He sinks to the bottom of tank and stays there, he seems to have trouble swimming. One of my goldfish tends to ram into him. After a while we moved him into a smaller tank so the goldfish wouldn't nip him anymore. Instead of sinking he now floats on his side and doesn't swim at all. Is it swim bladder disease? Anyway to help him?

Answer 1

That sounds like constipation, which proceeded into a swimbladder problem
check out the following site on how to cure it
http://www.kokosgoldfish.com/disease.html

Also your goldfish needs a filter that he can get oxygen



Hope that helps
good luck


EB

Answer 2

Yes, that's most likely swim bladder disorder. It can have several different causes though. First I would check the nitrate levels in the tank. I've been reading a lot lately how they believe that may be a factor in the condition. Nitrates should be under 20 ppm ideally. Next, I would suspect constipation, especially if you don't vary their diet at all. Try feeding the fish a pea split open for a few days. You could also add some epsom salt to the tank, that may help, especially if it's constipation. Another possibility, swim bladder problems are common/genetic sometimes in the fancier varieties of goldfish. Start soaking their food-flakes, pellets, freeze dried, frozen, whichever you feed, in a small bowl with some tank water before feeding. It doesn't sound very good for the one fish, usually(in my experience) once they get to the point of floating and not eating, they don't make it. But yours might, just keep an eye on him, try all the stuff mentioned, and keep the water quality good.

Answer 3

that is a swimbladder disorder. and by the sounds of it was caused by the other goldfish. fancy goldfish have incredibly delicate bodies, and also known for being bullys, a bad man-made mix really.

unfortunately it may be too late to completely fix your poor ryukin, but you can help him by maintaining a good clean tank with perfect parameters, with lots of oxygen. do not feed him too much and keep his digestive tract clean by feeding cooked deshelled pea once a week.

Answer 4

the best thing i can tell you is how to keep it from happening again -- make sure your goldfish get lots of fresh greens -- from zucchini to spinach to peas -- just cook them until they are soft and chop them up so they can eat them easily. try to make fresh greens one of their meals at least once or twice a week.

you might try peas with the fish now -- cook them and cut them up food sized -- make sure you remove the outside shell. please note this is not a cure -- it just seems to help sometimes.

also learn to remove sick goldfish -- the others will try to remove sick members of the shoal by pushing them out -- this is natural behavior to keep the shoal healthy. unfortunately the sick ones have no other place to go when they are in an aquarium so they just get picked at continuously.