I did it! I got my brother to upgrade! LOL

[Tank120]

I thought that this behaviour could be a symptom of nitrate poisoning. There are many articles about it. Here is a good one. http://goldfish-emergency.com/viewpage.php?page_id=66 but please research this further. Does this sound like any of the symptoms your brothers telescope is experiencing? I am sorry, now that I am typing, I cannot go back to page #1 to see if he has been testing his water, or what the parameters might be. A fish does not have to display all of the symptoms. The ideal nitrate level is 0. Long term exposure to even low levels can eventually cause some irreparable damage. I too am playing the nitrate game. My tap water contains 10 ppm and it can slowly climb during the week. I drug out my RO unit from my reef days. Unfortunately, the RO unit totally removes my nitrates but has a pH of only 6.6. My normal pH is 8.2. I only changed 25% with RO water the first time (I am not using the resin chamber) and it dropped my tank water to 7.4. By the next morning it had rebounded to 8.2. This means I have a high alkalinity problem. I tested water for a living for 10 years. PH always follows alkalinity as alkalinity is a pH buffer and needs to be in the neutral zone to buffer properly. Until the tank water has been completely overturned I am changing 10% everyday with RO water.But hey, negligible nitrates! After that I will try to find the perfect cocktail of RO water and tap water. Plants and water changes are the only efficient way to control nitrates unless you have a refugium or some other area where there is extremely low water flow. Even in a biofilter the rapid water movement makes it very unlikely that the anaerobic bacteria that breaks down nitrates will survive. And for everyone's benefit, I tried the nitrate removal media pads and they DO not work. I hope that maybe I helped you a little I am definitely not an expert by any means and others that have posted to this thread have excellent information.

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[Tank120]

I agree also that it is very likely that his fish could be experiencing swim bladder disorder as well. Any stressed fish can develop secondary complications as I recently experienced with my prized Oranda.

I recently read how the Japanese often deal with a swim bladder disorder. If you are interested, just ask

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[baron1282]

All perimeters are good! Before the poor fish busted his eye up leaving one side smaller than the other. He had plastic plants before the real ones. We fixed that, but he already busted the eye on one.

I think it might be what's causing the weird swim habit. So It might not be able to be fixed.