strange black fish swimming on its side

[knows-bugger-all]

Dear fishy people,
My daughters mother recently bought 2 tropical fishes for her, I do not know anything about the things or to be honest how they are kept (I don't live with these fish, sorry).

One of them is a fat silvery thing with orangey spots (called silvie) and the other one is a weird looking black one with nice fins and a big tail, with big bulbous eyes (finny).

When I dropped my daughter off earlier, finny was acting very strangely, swimming on his/her side a lot near the top of the tank.

I've had a look through the site, and can't find anything obvious, maybe the thing needs more oxygen or something, or the water needs cycling.

My daughter goes on holiday tomorrow, i'd hate for her to come back to a complete floater. Anyone got any obvious diagnosis, I may be able to influence some remedial action while they are away.
(and then maybe teach them how to look after the things when they get back)

In any answers, please assume total ignorance of all fishy matters, and also, as specified, I do not have any details on how these have been kept.

thanks in anticipation
Knows-bugger-all

 

[clutterydrawer]

they're definitely tropical fish? the description kinda sounded like goldfish to me.

how long has she had them, and has it always done this, or is it a recent development?

 

[knows-bugger-all]

Sorry, 'tropical' fish could be a complete misonomer, I have no idea and was making a somewhat ignorant assumption that all fish in tanks that aren't won from a fair are tropical fish. I've just found a picture of a 'bubble eye goldfish' that looks quite similar. But it's black.

Can you get black goldfish?!

anyway, tropical or not. this is a recent, i.e., last day or so, development.

and she's had them for 6- weeks/2 months

p.s. thanks for getting back so quickly!

 

[The-Wolf]

it sounds like you have one goldfish and one black moore
they are both cold water fish and need at least 30gallons to house them
due to the ammount of waste they produce.

As for the strange behaviour it could be something as simple as the wrong food
these types of fish need a sinking (pellet) food and not flakes. When fed flakes, or any other floating food, they will gulp in large amounts of air when they feed this leads to an unbalance in the swimbladder.
However it could, also, be a parasitic problem called swimmbladder disease and can easily be treated with medication from you local fish shop (LFS).

I HTH

 

[clutterydrawer]

they do sound more like some kind of goldfish to me. "goldfish" is a bit of a misleading term as they can be white and black too, or a variety of colours. Is there a heater in the tank? if not, they're probably coldwater fish.

I believe feeding a shelled pea can sometimes rectify swim bladder type problems Might be worth a try. get a pea, frozen or fresh not canned, cook it, shell it and give it to the fish. chop it up a bit if it's too big for him.

 

[knows-bugger-all]

thank you for your help. I have passed the info on, whether or not this will save finny is another matter I shall keep you all informed.

Lesson learned, I will never try and keep fish myself, it seems somewhat like being a star trek fan, you need to be able to learn klingon and be very commited (metaphorically if not medically)

OK- one more question, my son has this rabbit, it's not very friendly....