Goldfish Help

[stormy8000]

I have a fancy goldfish who has buoyancy problems. When I bought her she had a messed up fin and it is still messed up. She's always had trouble swimming due to her fin, but as she got bigger she has floating issues. She is 3 years old and has had this issue for about 1 1/2 years now. The water quality is good and I have tried different foods/no food/ peas, meds ect.. my other goldfish have no problems. I have a 55 gallon tank and 3 fancies. I was wondering if there something else I can do, or if it is due to poor breeding?

 

[Delapool]

Tends to float?

 

[BBradbury]

Your Goldfish

I have a fancy goldfish who has buoyancy problems. When I bought her she had a messed up fin and it is still messed up. She's always had trouble swimming due to her fin, but as she got bigger she has floating issues. She is 3 years old and has had this issue for about 1 1/2 years now. The water quality is good and I have tried different foods/no food/ peas, meds ect.. my other goldfish have no problems. I have a 55 gallon tank and 3 fancies. I was wondering if there something else I can do, or if it is due to poor breeding?

Hello stormy...

Fancy Goldfish aren't bred to be good swimmers. They're too rounded and their fins aren't designed for efficiency. I keep Orandas, Veiltails, Fantails and Calicos and none of them are good swimmers and can't complete with better swimmers for food. Anyway, all you can do is keep the tank water extremely clean with large, weekly water changes of at least 50 percent. More, is always better. Feed a good diet of low phosphate flakes, freeze dried, pellets and even a little frozen food. I always add a teaspoon of standard aquarium salt to every 5 gallons of replacement water for my Goldfish. It helps keep them in good health.

B

 

[m.j.gomez]

Hello, due to body shape & the dried foods we feed fancies are prone to constipation(causes swimming issues).
In wild goldies are known grazers. So I keep a piece of fresh(not blanched) cucumber in tank for them to snack on. This seems to keep swimming issues at bay. Every once in a while I'll toss in a bunch of anacharis plant to change things up.
If goldies don't know cucumber is food put a few shrimp in it they should catch on. Hope this helps!