help my fish keeps going upside down

Question
I have a black More cold water goldfish.  For the past couple of weeks he has been either going to the top of the tank floating on his back or the bottom floating on his back.  I am not sure if my pump is too powerful for him, as the tank came with a pump which is crap and slow and they was going to the top for air, but with this little one in the tank it pumps and filters air in.  I keep treating him and the other two goldfish with swim bladder liquid without any salt.  It all happened when I got a 4ft tank from 2ft about 2 month ago.  Also I feed them blood worm on most occassion I would hate to loose him as I lost another fish 3 months ago with the same symptons, and by seperating him in another tank killed him.  When I do a water change I hoover bottom of the tank, change so much water in the tank also I add slime coat in the water this is what I got from pets at home where it takes clorine and metals out of the water I have had the fish 4 years now and always done what I do now.  This morning he was at the bottom of the tank upside down like he was dead not moving as soon as I fed them this morning he was up swimming about???  I have treated them with 10ml of swimbladder treatment this morning yet again

Answer
Good morning Georgina, thank you for your question.

Thank you for providing as much information as you did about your setup, since the answer to your question really is a no brainer...

The two factors that cause swim bladder disease are diet and water quality. If you are using medication in the main tank, water quality will be an issue. Any effective medication kills off the beneficial bacteria colonies that turn ammonia into nitrite, and nitrite into nitrate. PLEASE STOP using the liquid drops. Throw them in the garbage, since they are utterly useless!

What you need to do first is test your water. Every fishkeeper should have a water test kit of your own, but if you do not have one yet (and you should!) you can get your water tested for free at the local fish store. Ask them for specific readings, not generalizations. A healthy, cycled tank never has detectable ammonia or nitrites. These are toxic to fish at any level! So, ammonia and nitrites must be at 0 ppm, and nitrates should not be higher than 20 ppm. Perform some water changes with dechlorinated tap water until these levels come down to these ranges. 30% water changes two or three times a day are perfectly safe for your fish. Goldfish breeders change 90% of the water a week, since they are so messy!

Next is diet. This is a big one, and probably what started your trouble in the first place. A diet consisting mostly of bloodworms is inappropriate for any species, but especially a mostly vegetarian species such as goldfish. Your goldfish should be eating, as a staple, goldfish pellets (preferably) or goldfish flakes, soaked 3-4 times a week in a liquid vitamin formula such as VitaChem. Garlic Xtreme or even a few drops of garlic oil could be used in conjuction, since garlic is both an appetite enhancer and immune system booster. Try it!

You should also feed your goldfish Spirulina flakes (Tetra makes a little jar of this) as well as fresh vegetables chopped up, such as spinach, cucumber, zucchini, some people even have success with oranges. Your goldfish will thank you for it! He will be much healthier and happier.

Now that you have been informed of the basics, you'll have to do some more reading on your own. Besides testing your water and performing water changes, when a fish is sick, it is important to research it! This has been made very simple with the advent of Google. You can even post your question and a description of your situation in a message board. Most of these are searchable, so that you can read about others who are experiencing similar difficulties.

First of all, get acquainted with these sites:
http://www.kokosgoldfish.com
http://www.goldfishparadise.com

Both sites are dedicated to goldfish! They will have lots of general information as well as disease management.

Then, check out general sites such as:

http://freshaquarium.about.com
http://www.wetwebmedia.com

Both are searchable and user friendly.

Read this article about swim bladder disorder:
http://www.netpets.org/fish/reference/freshref/swimbldr.html

Lastly, read this article about goldfish malnutriton:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/gldfshmalnut.htm

There! Now you are much better informed and will make much better choices in the future. Thank you for caring about your pet enough to seek out an answer - the next step is conducting independent research. Reading makes us better fishkeepers! If you like to read, you will succeed in this hobby. Take care, and feel free to write back anytime.

Nicole