emilai333

Last year I bought my friends (twin sisters) each a goldfish for their birthday. One is a black moor, double butterfly tail... he's gorgeous, healthy, and growing like mad (they're getting a larger tank this year, before the fish outgrow the 10gal they're in now). The second fish, Wat, unfortunately has... issues... my friend (the second sister) began to notice after a while that he was floating upside down at the top of the tank. We searched the internet, and found that this is a swimbladder problem. The recommended treatment was to soak his food before putting it in the tank, so that he would eat less (sorry I can't site the source of this information, it was a few months ago). She has done this and also kept the tank fanatically clean over the past few months, but Wat's problems have gotten worse. He floats larger and larger percentages of his time. He seems to have trouble swimming for very long at any given time. We think it looks like that particular issue may be caused by his very small caudal fin. Is there anything we can do for him to improve his quality of life? I am certain that he is still able to eat, and Jayne doesn't seem to be picking on him, but this has to be very stressful for him. We know he won't have a very long life, but my friend is still terrified that he is going to die any moment now.

Butterfly

See if you can get him to eat something in the veggie line about once ot twice a week. Peeled peas are good, mine likes to nibble at veggie wafers.
Carol

emilai333

Thanks, I sent my friend off to raid her freezer for peas.

Becky

Hiya, sorry to hear about your fish. I had the same problem with one of my fish when I kept them a few years ago. Mine started swimming more and more upside down until he was like it 24/7. He still seemed to feed ok and everyone told me that there was nothing I could do. However he did live for a few more years like it (I couldn't bring myself to kill him) and he still seemed happy enough. I think he died of natural causes in the end. It's difficult to watch but hopefully the comment about veg may have some effect?

Good luck.