Swimbladder

[pixiesandfairies]

One of my daughters goldfish is swimming upside down. I guess this is swimbladder? I have heard that feeding live food can help/ pervent this I will test the water tomorrow. What treatment is best?

 

[Davo86]

unfortuantely swimbladder is often cause by feeding a poor diet, i.e. too much dry foods (flake is the main culprit) or by poor water quality

see if you can get the fish to eat some deshelled peas (take 1-2 frozen peas put them in a cup of boiling water, once they sink remove them and take off the shell)
if the fish will take the peas feed 1 per day until you see an improvement.

Daphnia is also a great in preveting and can be fed once or twice per week to prevent the occurance of swimbladder problems

I wouldn't think of adding treatments until you know the parameters of the water

 

[pixiesandfairies]

Cool thanks for that i feed dephnia once a week starting last week and have been feeding hikari pellets and tetra flakes. I think i may have over feed them. Also i read that you should not disturbe the gravel as it holds toxic gases, well i stirred up the gravel when cleaning them out on friday.

 

[dave1987]

its actually better if you clean the gravel as the gravel doesnt hold toxic gases and all the uneaten foods and fish waste gets trapped in it... its sand thats suppose to have anaerobic gasses but it was recently proved wrong i think

edit: excuse spelling

 

[Davo86]

its actually better if you clean the gravel as the gravel doesnt hold toxic gases and all the uneaten foods and fish waste gets trapped in it... its sand thats suppose to have anaerobic gasses but it was recently proved wrong i think

edit: excuse spelling

Agreed,

see if you can get yourself a gravel cleaning sysphon and use this weekly when you do your normal water change, goldfish can be very messy fish

 

[pixiesandfairies]

I usually stirr up the gravel and then use a piece of pipe, would a proper gravel cleaner be better? Ok water test is in and it ain`t good!
Ammonia 0.6
Nitrit 0.8
Nitrat somewhere between 50and 110.

I guess this is a good time to tell you all how i got into this mess...........
I not long ago started work in my lfs and some guy can in saying he tried to move his tank and it cracked and he couldn`t afford a new tank so could we tank the fish? Boss he say no. I think my daughter wants goldfish, i will have them. They are left in a mop bucket ! I get them home but have no tank set up, so i set up a tank i have but it is way to small and go and buy a bigger tank as doon as i get a chance, it comes with a interpet 3 filter, so the poor fish have to go through a cycle, i do use donar midia from another tank and this is where we are now. Today i got the fluval 205 and was advised to do 50% water changes daily and add the new filter with the old one still in and when the water test looks ok, stop the water changes and keep an eye on it for a couple of days if still ok then remove interpet filter. I gave them de-shelled peas.
What do you think?

 

[Davo86]

Are you UK or US based? in the UK you can buy a product called bactinettes (called bio spirula in the US i think) which speeds up the cycle process due to the product being a chilled souce of bacteria

I think the most important thing at this stage is to get the parameters down as low as possible through daily water changes as suggested.
throughout this time i wouldn't feed the fish, until they are looking better.
I think as soon as the external has been running a few days with mature media you should see improvements with the parameters. and once these get to a more normal level i would then start treating with a swim bladder treatment

this link may give you more info

 

[pixiesandfairies]

Ok filter installed and running. Water change done today. The fish was up the right way when i checked it yesterday and still is. So looks like i caught it quickly! It was also suggested i don`t feed floating food???

 

[Davo86]

It was also suggested i don`t feed floating food???

yep thats correct, if you want to feed dry foods then feed something like granules or sinking pellets or even better feed a gel based or frozen prepared goldfish food

 

[pixiesandfairies]

Ok, So where will i get a gel based food or frozzen. i work in a fish store and we don`t have any.

Ok, SO we sell gel based holiday food and basic frozzen foods, but nothing for everyday feeding that says goldfish food on it.

 

[Davo86]

are you UK based??

TMC do a specific blister pack and a click pack for goldfish which contains a range of things like bloodworm, daphnia, carrots and watercress
as for gel based foods there are the Tetra Fresh Delica Daphnia or Bloodworm sachets

 

[pixiesandfairies]

Sorry yes Uk based.
Got the Tetra Fresh Delica bloodworm.
will try and get the boss to get it the tmc stuff but i doubt it.

 

[Davo86]

Sorry yes Uk based.
Got the Tetra Fresh Delica bloodworm.
will try and get the boss to get it the tmc stuff but i doubt it.

if you stock tetra then you may stock the white tub of goldfish sinking granules which is very good (can't remember the name sorry)

edit: found it - Tetrafin Gold Japan