# having trouble with my goldfish



## fishtales (Mar 27, 2011)

i fed my fish and then shortly after, my one fantail started swimming real funny like buoyant. hes trying to swim down gets tired and floats up and is belly up. ive seen fish swim around and die, but this guy has kick and he will swim normal unlike the other fish ive seen die. heres a vid...








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## fishtales (Mar 27, 2011)

click image for video. it seems like hes getting more stressed out and comin up belly up. could he have over eaten? and like i said it doesnt look like he has swim bladder. he will lay belly up for like 30 sec. and then swim again


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## platies pwn (Nov 29, 2010)

he has swim bladder problems.you can't completely cure it,but you can make it better.feed him peas,and make sure the food is fully submerged when he eats.


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## fishtales (Mar 27, 2011)

i dont understand everyone saying peas. like human frozen peas? ppl say that all the time and ive cut them up before into tiny pieces and the previous fish didnt eat it


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## fishtales (Mar 27, 2011)

woke up this morning expecting him to be dead, but he's swimming fine. i can see in him though that he is pretty stressed out. i didnt feed him any peas or anything hoping he can man it out and so far so good. i will monitor him closely when i go to feed my fish tonight and make sure he doesnt over eat.

which leads me a question...i always try to have about 5 or so fish in my tank and almost all my fish i had lost was due to swim bladder. so that means im over feeding? but they eat all the food in a sufficant time. takes about 4-5mins for everything to be gone with 5 fish total. (and idk if u could see but i have 2 rather larger goldfish in there) what to do?


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

I would feed him pees anyway. Just take frozen peas and shell them and make sure the goldfish eats at least one of them.


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## fishtales (Mar 27, 2011)

should i cut the peas up into little pieces? will the fish even know to eat it?


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

fishtales said:


> should i cut the peas up into little pieces? will the fish even know to eat it?


Yeah, they'll know. Shell the pea and then cut it in half.


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## platies pwn (Nov 29, 2010)

fishtales said:


> woke up this morning expecting him to be dead, but he's swimming fine. i can see in him though that he is pretty stressed out. i didnt feed him any peas or anything hoping he can man it out and so far so good. i will monitor him closely when i go to feed my fish tonight and make sure he doesnt over eat.
> 
> which leads me a question...i always try to have about 5 or so fish in my tank and almost all my fish i had lost was due to swim bladder. so that means im over feeding? but they eat all the food in a sufficant time. takes about 4-5mins for everything to be gone with 5 fish total. (and idk if u could see but i have 2 rather larger goldfish in there) what to do?


They don't get the disease from eating too much.They get it from swallowing too much air for its body to handle.That's why I said to make sure the food is fully submerged in water.


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## Ladayen (Jun 20, 2011)

5 goldfish is way way too miuch for a 29g tank. Especially with ones like the comet. Even a "small" fantail will grow to the size of your fist and about 6" long. The comet can grow over a foot long.

Goldfish will live in excess of 20 years if properly cared for. If you care about thier well being I would strongly encourage you to find better homes for them.


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## wannalearn (Oct 2, 2011)

most defenatley to much fish for that size tank..research each fishes needs and you will see what we mean.. overcrowding may very well be some of your problem(stress)


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## fishtales (Mar 27, 2011)

my lfs said inch per gallon so if the fish is 5" long it needs 5 gal. goin off of what they said considering they been in business for 35 years. i dont have a ruler but my guess is a total of about 13-14 between the 5 i have now. so for that part i should be fine. i would eventually get a bigger tank if they were to grow. what i dont get is i see a lot of ppl's tank here that has a bunch of fish in their tanks and look overcrowded. 

i do know that the air can cause that which makes me nervous but idk how to get the goldfish flakes to sink. should i stick my hand in the water to sink the flakes? i have minature sinking pellets but they are still too big for the goldfish and they have a hard time eating them and spit them back up. so idk how else to feed them then. ive been doin the same thing for 10 months.


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## platies pwn (Nov 29, 2010)

No,no,no!Where do you get your fish at,Petsmart?The inch a gallon rule is false!It only works for some slender tetras!The goldfish you have can exceed a foot,including your fantail!Wow,I need to use my eyes.I didn't even notice you said a 29.The rule for goldfish:30 gallons for the first,an additional 10 for one more.


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## P.senegalus (Aug 18, 2011)

You can always put the flakes in a small container with water first and then give it to the fish after they're soaked.


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## Ladayen (Jun 20, 2011)

The 1" per gallon rule is garbage as Platies said, so is the one he mentioned though, about 30g for the first one. A 30g is much too small for a fish that should grow 1' or more. You have to look at each fish on a species by species case. It is important to do your research before you buy your fish, as you've learned even commonly kept fish have specific needs that aren't necessarily well known.


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## fishtales (Mar 27, 2011)

no i dont go to that useless petsmart. i go to a store that only deals with fish. but i see everyone on here with like loads of fish with like a 36gal. it just sounds preposterous for a 30 gal to have 1 freakin fish in it (a goldfish at that). whats the enjoyment of that? i can see oscars and such to have 1-2 fish in like a 55gal b.c how they are territorial and there growth. but its goldfish! and its hard to tell what most goldfish are anyway on how they are say inbred between ryukins and fantails etc. hell i barely know what they really are b.c are inbred and they just said fantails. obviously comets and shubunkins are easier to spot out. im just confused. i always had tropical fish when i was little and didnt have to do anything to maintain them and they would live forever.


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## platies pwn (Nov 29, 2010)

The people with loads of fish?Those are the more experienced ones,who know when it's the best time to change the water and stuff like that.I would suggest that you get at least a 75 gallon for your fish.And goldfish,you say,would make more sense to keep in a 30 gallon?If you actually research,you would know that goldfish can reach well over the average length of an oscar.Did you think they stopped growing at 3 in.,and that they died after 2 years?The average age of a WELL KEPT goldfish is 10-20 years.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

just try to imaging a 10" oscar in a 10 gallon tank......it just ain't right....

go to your LFS and buy 2 things......"SINKING" goldfish pellets.....and vegetable bites or sticks...


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## Ladayen (Jun 20, 2011)

People with loads of fish are as Platies said either experienced and have researched very throughly what they can put in the tank and not stress the fish out.. or completly ignorant and selected one of every fish at the store.

If you dont like the idea of just one fish in a large tank... then get smaller fish  Again as platie said they can grow to the same size as an oscar, and should live 20 years.. if not longer.

It's no different then putting a great dane or a mastiff into a kennel, leaving it there permently and saying.. it's just a dog.


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## fishtales (Mar 27, 2011)

platies pwn said:


> .Did you think they stopped growing at 3 in.,and that they died after 2 years?The average age of a WELL KEPT goldfish is 10-20 years.





lohachata said:


> go to your LFS and buy 2 things......"SINKING" goldfish pellets.....and vegetable bites or sticks...


no, but i dont think they grow 6" in a year either. 

i got sinking goldfish mini sticks but they are too big of a food for the fish to swallow. they didnt have any sinking flakes or anything else.

im not sayin in a bad way that its just goldfish but my fish arent stressed out in anyway, just one got some extra air or he had to really poop. i wouldnt get anymore fish in my tank. but they have plenty of space and they all the their "beds" where they sleep in their own spots. 

for the amount of space i have i cant go any bigger. when i have my own house i would like to have a huge main tank and then have a tank in at least 1 or 2 other rooms. i would like to have like a 200gal for oscars or cichlids and/or 120 to hopefully have my goldfish in that i have now. and have this 29 gal for tropical fish. etc the list of imagination can go on and when i will go bigger i would do a lot more research. i do have smaller tanks that i dont have setup


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## fishtales (Mar 27, 2011)

*UPDATE*

i have been monitoring him closely and also all my other fish. i have changed the way i feed them. i fill a small plastic cup of water from the tank and put the fish flakes in it and let it sit for about a min. when i pour it in, the majority of it does sink and i feel like my goldfish are more happy eating that way, EXCEPT the one that is having this problem. he still sits at the top and it seems like he eat the bubbles coming from the oxygen or from the filter. 

and these last 2 days he hasnt moved much. he has been staying in his "bedding area" (where he normally sleeps is about mid-up way up and on the right side of the tank under my temp. bar.) last night when i went to feed them he was slow to get there and didnt eat much. and ive been off today and i think he only swam away from that spot twice. 

i feel like the other fish are concerned about him too. they all kinda come up to him, probably ask him "hey man u alright" then they swim away. should i take him out of the tank and put him into a hospital tank with just oxygen and should i even feed him? i normally do feed them once a day (i know alot of ppl say feed goldfish one to two times a day) but i work a lot and when im off i do normally feed them smaller but multiple times, but today i didnt b.c im scared of this guy. let me know what i should do, not say i need a bigger tank. should i feed all them more peas?


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