my glod fish

Question
will my fish die? what can i do to help him?
my fiish lives on his own in a large tank. yesterday10th feb i noticed he had a bent back and was lyeing on the gravel at the bottom. when he did swim (very little) he would swim fine with only a little bent back.he loves his food and cannot swim to the top to get it. i surched the internet and thought it could be swimbladder.
please help i dont want him suffering.

Answer
Hi Hayley,

It sounds as if your goldfish is currently suffering from Swimbladder. I'm guessing that he is a fancy variety, unfortunately fancies are particularly prone to swimbladder disorders.

Due to line breeding the swimbladder in Fancy Goldfish has broken down so that it no longer consists of two roughly equal sections. Your fish won't necessarily die but there is no known cure for a swimbladder misfunction.

The effects of swimbladder are accelerated by coldwater so try raising the temperature of the tank by a couple of degrees. Don't raise it any more than this though or your fish will slip into shock and lose his colouring.
After the temperature of the tank has been raised, drop the water level so that he has about five inches to swim around in. Therefore it won't be such an effort to reach his food and submerge again.

There are a couple of other things that you can try to make him a bit more comfortable. A 3% salt-bath can relieve the symptoms of swimbladder. Foods such as Daphnia (Waterfleas) and chopped Earthworm can also have a positive affect as they improve the digestive tract.

However, Constipation can give the same signals as Swimbladder disorder. Try feeding your fish Daphnia, this should act as a natural laxative and get his bowels moving again. Most fish have a stomach that is hidden behind the ovaries in female fish. However, the Goldfish lacks a stomach as such and is therefore susceptible to constipation problems.

Good luck!

Tom

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