Is my goldfish dying? He’s lying on his side at the bottom of the tank.?
by Aquaboy on Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 | 10 Comments
I have two goldfish, one smaller than the other. Today the smaller one has sunk to the bottom & is lying on his side. he tries to swim up but just ends up nose down in the gravel & then on his side again. I have taken the other fish out. I looked up fish diseases, does he have a bladder problem? Maybe the other fish has taken a bite out of him, this is why I took the bigger fish out. Is there anything I can do?
PLEASE HELP! 
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I don’t think your fish is going to live too long.
I’m sorry for your loss. It does sound like a swim bladder issue. In my experience, there’s not much that can be done.
Yeh he sounds pretty sick. Take him to an aquarium – get some professional advice. You can get some good advice and affordable remedies…I had a couple of fish I had tried ‘googled’ remedies on (and failed) before I realised professional advice is best.
it sounds like a blatter issue or its fin is injured. sorry about your gold fish
swim bladder disease is a multifactorial illness which primarily affects ornamental goldfish which have globoid body shapes, like orandas, ryukins, and fantails. It most often presents as a fish which floats at the surface, or a fish which stays on the bottom and doesn’t seem to be able to easily rise. A fish which has normal buoyancy but is listing to one side or the other often does not have swim bladder disease, but may have other diseases.
In order to understand swim bladder disease, a cursory discussion of fish anatomy and physiology is necessary. The swim bladder is a small epithelium-lined sac in the anterior abdomen which is responsible for maintaining buoyancy. It has a close association with blood vessels such that gases can diffuse across into and out of the sac according to the needs of the fish. The sac inflates if the fish needs to be more buoyant, and it deflates if the fish needs to be less buoyant. Goldfish and some other fish have a special addition to this system called the pneumocystic duct, which is a connection between the swim bladder and the esophagus, allowing additional adjustment of buoyancy by letting air out through the digestive tract.
People have debated for years over the cause of swim bladder disease. It is pretty well established now that a number of things can cause swim bladder disease. Some of the things which have been suggested are:
1. A virus. The virus attacks the epithelium of the sac and inflammation occurs which makes the epithelium too thick for gases to diffuse across. Thus the fish is stuck at a certain buoyancy because gases have nowhere to go. This may be
more of a factor in non-goldfish species.
2. A Bacterium. There is little evidence to support this, but it’s widely known that bacterial infections can cause the same kind of thickening of the swim bladder epithelium as viruses.
3. Anatomy. Globoid-shaped fish like ornamental goldfish are predisposed to problems with the swim bladder because their guts are all squashed up in their abdomen. This arrangement predisposes to food impactions, which in turn clog up the pneumocystic duct.
4. Diet. Feeding dry foods which tend to take on water like a sponge and expand in the fish predispose to food impactions.
What can you do it prevent it is:
1.As always, the golden rule of fish disease is WATER QUALITY. If swim bladder disease does have an infectious cause, your fish will be better able to resist this infection (and others) if your water quality is good. Periodic water changes and
water testing are a must.
2.Pre-soak your flake or pelleted food. This will allow expansion to occur prior to the fish eating it, and will lessen the chance of impaction.
3.Even better, switch to a gel-based food or other food source, i.e. frozen or live food. You can E-mail me for a recipe for gel food.
What can you do to treat it:
1. Feed your fish a couple of peas. That’s right, peas. Just get some frozen peas, thaw them, and feed them to your fish. A professor of fish medicine at N.C. State College of Veterinary Medicine has done this in several cases with very good
results. He thinks that the peas somehow encourage destruction of the impaction. No hard scientific data yet, but it’s worth a try.
2. Periodic aspiration of the swim bladder works very well. Basically, you stick a needle in the swim bladder and suck out some of the air. Not something to be entered into lightly, but does work well. This is not a cure, but a successful treatment.
3. Fast your fish for a couple of days. Withhold all food for three or four days, and sometimes this alone will break up the impaction and return things to normal. Most fish can go a week to ten days without food and be just fine.
Hope all the above info helps you to help your fish.
sounds like he might die. but to save it: get a bowl
put some of the tank water in there with a little salt,it might save him.
He might have swim bladder disease
my fish has the same problem, where he floats at the bottem of the tank and doesnt move for a while. then he suddenly spasms and falls quiet again. and he doesnt eat or move now.
i dont know what to do. i tried peas and he wont eat that either, and he wont move unless you invoke him. I dont know what he has
my gold fish is doing the same thing only i think hes dead becuse if you move his tank he wont move at one point he moved and his eye wos poked by a rock i cried for my fish but it wos all in vane can some one plese tell me what hapened to my favorit fish
goldfish are prone to ammonia if there are high levels of ammonia in your tank your goldfish will act very strangely i lost 5 today try putting baking soda into your tank just a spoonful it will take away the ammonia and also get stress zyme treatment as the will be stressed from the whole ordeal