fish not eating

Question
My goldfish, who is at least 10 years old, has been on the bottom of the tank for sum time now (think swim bladder) altho upright. Peas fall to the bottom, but I have been hand-feeding dried worms. Now, he accepts the food (or the pea) but then it pops out of his mouth again shortly after. He has not eaten properly for about 4 days now. he seems to want it, but cant swallow for some reason. He is alone in his tank (his mate passed away at the beginning of the year, from SBD)and i change the water (clean out whole tank) about once a month. Should it be more often? Thanks :)

Answer
Hi Lisa;

It does sound like a swim bladder problem. Swim bladder failure can be caused by several different things; Constipation, temperature shock, dirty water causing high nitrates, overcrowding, and even genetic deformity of the swim bladder.

Try to avoid the dried worms for now. They may be irritating his digestion more. Don't feed him anything at all for the next 3 or 4 days more. It is perfectly okay for him to not eat for several days. "Fasting" him is actually the best way to start to get his digestion cleared out when there is a problem. After 3 days or so more of fasting, feed squished peas, no other foods. Hopefully his digestive system will do better after a rest.

Change water more often, but not so much at a time. Changing the whole tank every four weeks is very traumatic to the fish and it also causes the tank to go through a break-in period all over again. Break-in is VERY stressful to them too. Change 25% of the water once a week and vacuum the gravel at the same time. It keeps the biological balance more stable. Keep only a very thin layer of gravel, no more than about 1/2 inch in the bottom. Goldfish are very messy guys that create a lot of waste. When waste accumulates it causes toxins to rise and make fish sick too. Deeper gravel can create all kinds of ugly problems when waste accumulates.

Keep trying the peas (after fasting) and making partial water changes. You can even do a small water change every day for now to help his immune system and appetite. Make sure the new water is the same temperature as the old water so he doesn't experience temperature shock. Use a water conditioner too.

Goldfish need at least ten gallons per fish and good filtration too. Hopefully you have a filter on there, get one if you don't. Don't add any more fish if he makes it through this. Hopefully he will do better very soon...

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins