black moore

Question
my black moore, the past 2 days have been sitting at the bottom of the tank
and dont move very much. it tries to feed at feeding time but seems to have
trouble moving around, and waits for the food to pass by. the fish do seem to
want to eat. it sometimes swims to the top to get food, but not all the time.
the past few days he hasnt got any better or worse. no visible markings on
the fish. do you have any idea if there is anything wrong ??

Answer
Hi Erika,
Either the little fish is stressed by water quality/illness factors or his "bottom-sitting" is due to swim bladder disorder, which can exhibit itself in two ways generally, either the fish will loose his equilibrium and float miserably at the top, or he may sink to the bottom and have trouble swimming up to the top. This condition is common to fancy goldfish which are very prone due to their body shape (crowded/sometimes deformed swim bladder). The most common triggers are food related, either feeding too much as one time, not enough variety, constipation, and eating too much dry food.

But first I'd check your water quality (test your ammonia, nitrites, nitrates)---they should be- Ammonia-0 Nitrite-0 Nitrate- under 20. And as a precaution, I'd do daily 50% water changes on him for a while. Goldfish can really pollute their tank quickly in a matter of days and they need large frequent water changes to stay healthy.

Try this for now and also try to determine whether or not he has swim bladder disorder...If he has trouble with immediately sinking back down after swimming up it might be that...this article might also help a bit-

http://flippersandfins.net/SwimbladderDisease.htm

Best of luck! Hope this helps,
Karen~