Swimbladder Problem

[George&Ade]

Hi.I took some advice given a while ago about feeding small defrosted peas to my goldfish.One is continualy upside down.
Been doing this for a couple of days now but its still the same.
Any ideas how long it could take or are there any other alternatives i could try?
Thanks.

 

[WILDER]

Not good i'm afraid had this with one of my goldfish on it back, ended it suffering, even try peas for ages did nothing.
Has the fish been going to the toilet.

 

[George&Ade]

Hi.I took some advice given a while ago about feeding small defrosted peas to my goldfish.One is continualy upside down.
Been doing this for a couple of days now but its still the same.
Any ideas how long it could take or are there any other alternatives i could try?
Thanks.

To be honest i havent really looked to see if it been going to the toilet.
It does very occasionaly come down to the bottom briefly but then floats back up again to the top.
do you think it may be suffering at all?

 

[WILDER]

Mine would do that then go back to the bottom upside down.
If there no improvement by tommorrow I would end its suffering, sorry.
If you haven't seen them go to the toilet organ failure.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

You can try "anti swimbladder" by Interpet- if its a bacterial infection causing the swimbladder damage, this med will treat it (other anti internal bacterial meds can also be used if you cannot get hold of this one). Swimbladder disorders are pretty hard to treat, but they are not imposible- if the goldfish is still able to eat or is at least of a good body weight still, then there's still hope .
The 2 main causes for swimbladder disorders are;
a. Constipation, food starts to rot in the goldfish or it simply cannot pass the food, with the guts putting pressure on the swimbladder due to the constipation. This is why veg like pea's helps a great deal as the fibre and stuff in the veg helps pass the old food out, while the vitamins and minerals in the veg helps the goldfish recover.
b. Internal bacterial infection- can be due to the constipation (particularly in longer term cases where the food in the goldy starts to rot, causing lots of gas etc) or directly affecting the swimbladder itself.

If you havn't tried meds yet, i would advise those .

 

[George&Ade]

Mine would do that then go back to the bottom upside down.
If there no improvement by tommorrow I would end its suffering, sorry.
If you haven't seen them go to the toilet organ failure.

Thanks for the replies.
Although i still havent seen him go to the toilet yet,hes still got a very healthy appetite and certainly hasnt lost any weight.
I donthtink he is suffering or in too much distress,so im going to try that medication you suggested.
Would there be any more veggie foods i could try as well.Not only for this problem,but in the future as well as part of their diet?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Would there be any more veggie foods i could try as well.Not only for this problem,but in the future as well as part of their diet?

Yep, blanched and chopped up spinache and lettuce can also be fed to goldfish (the spinache is the more nutritious of the two though), they might also take the flesh of cucumber heart/fresh cucumber seeds as well . You can also buy special frozen cubes of veg specially made for fish as well.

 

[dingweding]

If a goldfish have bladder problem, some are genetic, they will swim upside down. But mostly, a fish got cold, esp in winter, will have bladder problem. Keep the fish in a very shallow green water tank or pond for a few weeks, with sun light. Because the water is so shallow, so the fish will be forced to swim porperly, and with the help of nutritious green water, ware sun shine, many of them will recover, for the serious problem ones, you have to say sorry.

I even saw ppl tie a float object on the fish fin and force the fish to swim porperly, i once cured a red cap by this way after a few months

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

If a goldfish have bladder problem, some are genetic, they will swim upside down. But mostly, a fish got cold, esp in winter, will have bladder problem. Keep the fish in a very shallow green water tank or pond for a few weeks, with sun light. Because the water is so shallow, so the fish will be forced to swim porperly, and with the help of nutritious green water, ware sun shine, many of them will recover, for the serious problem ones, you have to say sorry.

I even saw ppl tie a float object on the fish fin and force the fish to swim porperly, i once cured a red cap by this way after a few months

The reason why goldfish can get swimbladder problems in very cold weather is because they can't digest food very well/quickly in temps below 10 degrees C (which is why you should stop feeding them if temps fall this low, or at least seriously cut back on food), so the food just sits in their stomachs and starts to rot, causing constipation which can then lead to swimbladder problems.

With the genetic thing, many types of fancy goldfish are more prone to swimbladder disorders and constipation due to the way they have been bred to have their guts forced into a more compact area, giving many fancy goldfish their typical fat looking short belly appearance (non-fancy goldfish like comets and commons are often referred to as slim type goldfish because of this, they have a more natural body shape and look a great deal slimmer than many fancy goldfish types). The compacted gut shape of fancy goldfish makes them more prone to constipation and swimbladder disorders, so you should feed them very carefully and make sure their diet is varied and appropriate and contains some sort of veg.

On top of this, swimbladder disorders can also be caused by internal bacterial infections, so when a fish falls ill to such a disorder, you should examine its diet carefully, tank and tank cleaning regime (since stress is a common cause of desease, and can come about in many ways due to many reasons in fish) etc and also treat it with an anti internal bacterial med etc.