Intermittant swim bladder!

Question
Dear Mr Kline,

I have a 30L cold water tank at home. I check the PH, Hardness, NO2, NO3 and ammonia weekly. Except for the general hardness (I live in London which is prone to hard water) it all seems to be about right!

Inside i have 5 regular fan tails (gold and calico) and 2 black moores (1x 3 inch, 1x 4 inch) and a loach. All the fish except for the bigger black moore are in good health. The larger black moore seems to get swim baldder (he struggles to swim to the bottom of the tank at night and just seems to swirl around and round in the current from the filter) by the next morning he is back to normal again.?

I feed my fish twice a day and once a week they don't get fed at all.

Please can you help?

Kind Regards
Brad

Answer
Hi Brad:  I found your question in the general question pool and thought I would try to answer it for you.  Goldfish and Koi are prone to swim bladder disorders.  I usually try to address this issue with a change in diet.  All fish need a varied diet that included flake food/pellet and then a rotation of brine shrimp and tubi-flex worms/blood worms.  I feed my goldfish twice per day once in the morning and once in the evening.  Feed them no more then what they will eat in about three minutes of time. Goldfish never stop looking for food so do not be fooled by their constant scavenging.  The change in diet will help them a great deal.  The brine shrimp have tiny little shells that help to clean out their intestines and the worms are a great source of protein.  Dry food such as pellets are very bulky and very dry which makes them hard to digest for some fish...even though the fish is in water.  If the fish continues to have issues even after you have introduced brine shrimp, etc... then please let me know and I will give you some additional suggestions on treatment.   I hope this helps.... and please keep me posted... dave