Gold fantail

23 11:10:09

Question

The Brain and Dory Hi,

My fish is about 4 years old and is a Gold fantail (I think that's the right name for the breed). She is the fish on the left of the attached photo. She is in a 30ltr biOrb with one other fish that is smaller. I change 20% of the water once a week (using tap water that has been conditioned with API Stress Coat and Stress Zyme) and change the filter catridges ever 4-6 weeks. I also put in 1 tbsp aquarium salt. I feed the fish hikari staple baby pellets and they really love them. Both fish seemed absolutely fine until a couple of days ago. The fish mentioned here suddenly started spending a lot of time down at the bottom of the tank. She would swim every so often and come up for food but that's about it. Since last night, she has spent 99% of the time at the bottom of the tank and on her side. She very rarely takes a breath, I can't see her gills moving and the only reason I know she is still alive is because her eyes move every so often and she might swim a tiny bit to another part of the tank. She doesn't have any whitespots on her and her tail doesn't seem to have any redness in its blood vessels so I don't think it's whitespot or fin rot. This morning, I did a water change, replaced the old rocks with new ones and put in a first aid filter cartridge. She doesn't look any better though.

Any suggestions would be fantastic.

Answer
Okay Claire,

She's got Swim Bladder Disease.

With goldfish, this is common.

A common cause is constipation so I suggest taking some frozen peas and squishing them up to small pieces. Feed those small pieces to her and see if you can get her to eat them. Within a few days, she could show some signs of improvement.

It can also be age. 4 isn't old for a goldfish, but many don't live that long in captivity.

The tank is a way too small for these fish. They don't look "huge", but they are over 1" in length. I recommend putting them in a 20 to 30 gallon tank, as goldfish have requirements for larger spaces than normal fish.

If the peas do not help, please put in one pinch of epsom salt. One pinch. That means about a quarter teaspoon to enhance natural pottying.

Do a water change of 20% tomorrow. Keep feeding peas til she goes potty and if the swim bladder disorder does not change, then we have to take a look at filtration and the quality of water.

There can be many causes of the disorder, but most common is the food being stuck.

I hope this helps and please, feel free to write me back. I will cross fingers for little Dory.

Renee

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