Why Is My Fish Floating Belly Up?

[ray1970]

I will try to keep this short. I had two goldfish that I got two years ago. Recently, one of them began floating kind of upside down from time to time. About a week after this behavior began, he died. I promptly removed the remaining fish from the aquarium and placed him in a different aquarium by himself. About two days later he began floating upside down. Is he sick or is he just dieing of old age? Any help would be appreciated as I was just setting up a new aquarium for him but am hesitant to transplant him into his new habitat if he is sick/infected. Thanks.

 

[OldMan47]

A goldfish that is swimming upside down is actually a case of a swim bladder problem. It is not an age thing nor a disease that can be treated. Treatment involves deflating the swim bladder that has become too large for the fish's needs. The bubble in the swim bladder makes it float upside down and there is little it can do to right itself. I have watched the surgery performed to correct an oversized swim bladder in a large fancy goldfish and it had limited benefits for the fish involved. What ended up happening was that the surgically reduced swim bladder was no longer large enough to give the fish neutral bouyancy so the fish became a "belly bumper". It swam well but whenever it stopped actively swimming it quickly sank to the bottom of the tank. That particular fish lasted about another year before dying for other reasons. The surgery to correct an oversized swim bladder can be quite expensive but we happen to have a veterinarian surgeon among our club members who did it at a regular club meeting as one of our presentations at no charge to the fish owner.
Speculation about the original cause of the oversized swim bladder was around overfeeding when the fish was younger. The swim bladder is a part of the digestive tract and overfeeding can cause the structure to expand beyond what it should.