Goldfish Food

[xxxcellarator]

hello, i have 6 goldfish and one of them seems to have Swim Bladder disease because every time i feed him flakes he rises to the surface. I fed him Boiled Pease and it worked fine, he was swimming without any sort of problems. But I got quite tired of having to keep the pease in the freezer and then unfreezing them and its also messy. So i was wondering what other types of Goldfish foods should i feed him? and is there any way of curing him for good? THANKS

 

[nomadofthehills]

What kind of goldfish? You should wet the flakes before feeding so they sink fast. You could also try sinking pellets or crumbles.

 

[xxxcellarator]

thanks for the reply. the goldfish that keeps rising to the surface is the very round and redish kind of goldfish. And yes ive tryed to wet the flakes (the aquarium store suggested that) and infact i just sink them into the water and they fall to the bottom. But even though it seems like the Flakes are affecting its Bladder in some way. Even if i feed it Flakes and dont feed it at all for a day or two it gets back to normal. It seems that having those flakes in its system makes it float.

 

[Essayons89]

Does the Goldfish have trouble maintaining its position in the water when it's not eating? Does this occur only after the fish has fed and when he feeds at the surface? Does this still occur when he doesn't eat foods from the surface?

Bryan

 

[lyquidphyre]

On a side note, with 6 goldfish I hope you have a large tank or REALLY good filtration.

I would get sinking goldfish pellets and maybe feed him peas every three days or every weekend or something and see if that helps

 

[xxxcellarator]

ok it seems like im not being clear enough. let me try to give all the details.
so the goldfish seems to be pulled up. he doesnt seem to have any sevier swimming problems however he does seem to get pulled up. When he tryes to swim down, he ends up getting flipped over cause of that upward pull. But he quicly gets himself right side up. And when hes not swimming hes just resting at the top and when hes doing that, he tends to tilt a bit to the side, however he never turns over completely.

now, this happens only when i feed him flakes. he has been like this ever since i bought him, so about two weeks ago i went to the fish store and asked them what my problem was and how could i fix it. what they suggested was to dip the flakes into the water and feed the fish much less. So thats what ive been doing, but it didnt seem to help. so i read up on the internet that not feeding the fish for a while will get them healthy again, so i didnt feed him at all for 2 days, and to my surprise, he was capable of swimming for the first time. but then i started to feed him again, by dipping the flakes so they would fall to the bottom of the aquarium, and only about 2 small pinches, however right after that (about 30 mins later) he would start floating up to the top again. So then i looked up on the internet on Swim Bladder desease and read that feeding them Pease is another good solution, so thats what i did for about 5 days in a row, during which he was completely healthy and could swim better than ever before (even better than the others actually). But pease got really messy, my aquarium got really foggy in those 5 days, so i changed the water and started feeding them Flakes again. And obviously he started to experience the same problem, however this time he only had the problem for about half a day and then he could swim again.

So it seems that after the flakes are fully digested out of his system, then he can swim once again.

So any advice i would greatly appreciate it, and thanks for ur time!

 

[Essayons89]

I'm not completely sure what to make of this. One thing that I would advise doing is to vary the diet. A quality goldfish pellet would be another food that you can use as a staple along with the flakes. Goldfish do require veggie matter in their diets. This can be accomplished by feeding them peas, pieces of soft leaved aquatic plants (like Hygrophila and Anacharis) and by offering them blanched veggies such as Romaine lettuce.

If the fish was constantly eating at the surface and the problem was only occuring after he fed then it could very well be air-gulping. This occurs when a fish feeds greedily at the surface and takes in air when it swallows. When this happens the fish will float at the surface.

However....

Swimbladder problems are fairly common in goldfish, even more so in some of the fancy varieties (such as the Lionhead and other "egg-shaped goldies) because their swimbladders differ from other fish-even with the common goldfish.

Goldfish have a two chamber swimbladder, most other fish have a single organ that serves this purpose. The swimbladder in common goldfish is divided into two equal chambers. The "fancy" egg-shaped varieties also have a two chamber swimbladder but the front chamber is much smaller than the back. The gas in these chambers rises and falls as the fish rises and falls in the water. When a disease or some other condition interferes with the ability of the swimbladder to function properly the fish won't be able to maintain its position in the water.

These disorders can be genetic or they can be caused by environmental conditions, bacterial infection or by viral infections. Treatment wise there isn't much that can be done other than providing the fish with good food and plenty of fresh, clean water. Sometimes raising the temp of a cool water tank by about 10F can help to bring about an improvement in the fish as can dosing the tank with aquarium salt or an antibacterial remedy but none of these are guaranteed to work.

It sounds like there is an over-inflation of the swimbladder occuring but there really isn't a permament cure if this is indeed the case here.

Just out of curiosity, how large is the tank the fish are in? How often do you perform water changes and how much water is removed with each change?

Bryan

 

[xxxcellarator]

i know i have quite a small tank, and thats why i intend on getting a 20gallon or bigger tank quite soon. Currently i have a 10 gallon with 6 goldfish. and i never perform partial changes, however i do change the water completely every 2-3 weeks. recently since the Pease have made the water so dirty, i changed it after a week. And about the Flakes. As ive said 2x so far (lol), i dip them into the water (as suggested by the pet store) so they fall straight to the bottom, therefore the fish doesnt feed from the top. However one thing i forgot to mention was that even when it doesnt have problems swimming, it is still quite often at the top of the tank and it seems to be gassping for air or something like that. It is the only fish that does it so often. So i thought maybe there wasnt enough Oxygen in the tank so he was gasping for air and that was maybe the reason why he still had problems even after Dipping the flakes, therfore i bought a Pump. But even with the pump he still does it, and sometimes i even notice him swollowing the air bubles produced by the pump. Sometimes i can even see him spit out air.

Maybe that will give u a few more clues.

I appreciate the quick responces!

 

[Essayons89]

I was aware that the fish wasn't feeding the surface, just wanted to point out the air-gulping anyway since it can be a common problem with Goldies.

Instead of 100% water changes every 2-3 weeks, smaller 25% changes two to three times a week would be better. The reason I advise doing more frequent water changes is because Goldfish are very high waste producing fish.

Bryan

 

[xxxcellarator]

ok thanks alot. ive been told about the partial water change its just that the idea of changing the water without removing the fish poo from the bottom of the tank just makes me thing its not worth it, and i have a vacum its just that the tank is full of decorations so its hard for me to vacum the bottom, so do u think performing a 25% change every week or so would still be worth it?

 

[rubysoho]

some of the fancy goldfish have a tendancy to get this problem. sometimes it is due to too much protein in their diet, but it sounds like this fish may be genetically predisposed to it. I would suggest checking out goldfishparadise.com. There are more goldie owners over there and in general they have a much larger base of knowledge because they specialize in goldfish. The other factor could be the tank size. Youger goldfish have a need for more clean water than adults and typically adults need about 20 gallons per fish (minimum) to have a healthy life. Goldfish have a life span of over 20 years (I believe the oldest one right now is 43!) so you'll know the quality of care you are giving based on their lifespan. The typical person who follows the 20 gallons per fish rule usually have a life span average of 8-12 years. And thats with proper filtration, diet, pristine water. Good luck! And welcome to AA

and just to add, serious goldfish owners put as much effort into their tanks as people breeding discus. They do many large water changes per week, during breeding some owners will change 100% of the water each day 8O Then again, goldies tend to be messy breeders.

 

[TygGer]

Partial water changes are better. It would be less susceptible to adversly effecting the fish. If you are doing 100% water changes, you would have to acclimate them each time as the water parameters, temp, etc change 100%.

Also, if you are doing 100% w/c, I hope you're not cleaning the gravel and filter with tap water. If so, you'll be killing off all of your beneficial bacteria and constantly be going through a new nitrification cycle.

I recommend doing paritial changes. You don't need to get every last turd, just vac thoroughly and re-decorate afterwards. With 6 goldies in a 10g tank, I recommend do atleast a 30% w/c every week.


General rule of thumb for gold fish is 10g per goldie.

 

[xxxcellarator]

thanks ruby for the advise, and ill try over at goldfishparadise and see what they say.

and about what u said Tyger, LOL, i actually did clean the decorations everytime; wasnt aware of the whole parasite thing. thanks for that, now i know not to clean them.

 

[frenchpea2002]

if you have a 10g with 6 goldies, and there are too many decorations to vaccume, it's probably more like a 5g to them...I'd start by taking some of the decorations out, give them some room to swim. And when you upgrade, get the absolutely BIGGEST aquarium you have room for and can afford. You didn't specify what type of goldfish they are, but I wouldn't reccomend anything LESS than 10 gals apiece, and if they are the "common" or comets you'll need even more than that. I don't blame you or think your are horrible or anything, there is just such a huge misconception out there that goldfish are good for bowls and only grow to the size of their tank without any problems. I started the same, with 5 goldies in a 10g, but they got upgraded a year ago and are getting ready to go out into a 150g pond!

 

[TygGer]

Also check out http://www.kokosgoldfish.invisionzone.com/forum/index.php

 

[xxxcellarator]

hello again. ive solved my feeding problems by giving the fish Spinach(its much more clean than peas) lol. And i also bought a 40 gallon tank with an 80 gallon Filter (LOL again). But i was just wondering how long do u have to leave the tank with the water in it so the Chlorine evaporates? i live in Toronto

 

[Essayons89]

Not sure how long it would take the chlorine to dissipate but a quality water conditioner would do the trick. One that neutralizes chlorine and chloramines would be fine.

Bryan

 

[TygGer]

hello again. ive solved my feeding problems by giving the fish Spinach(its much more clean than peas) lol. And i also bought a 40 gallon tank with an 80 gallon Filter (LOL again). But i was just wondering how long do u have to leave the tank with the water in it so the Chlorine evaporates? i live in Toronto

For water changes?

 

[mvigor]

EACH goldfish should have a 20 gallon tank. If you want to provide for 6 living together, I'd get a 75.

 

[Zagz]

I have a goldfish tank I rescued from a co worker and it is overstocked as well.To combat this problem I use 2 HOB filters and do 30% pwc's twice weekly with gravel vacs. I also use an airstone constantly. The gravel vacs are a necessity as goldfish are huge waste producers and the nitrate will quickly rise to unsafe levels in the tank. Not to mention that infrequent water changes will cause an ammonia and nitrite spike. You will need to run the old filter on the new tank to aid in the cycling of the new tank. Don't put a lot of decorations in it and do those water changes and the fish will be happier. Use a declorinator every time you do water changes.