Does anyone have upside down fish?

[94mattda]

Hello... I have two fish. One blackmoor and one gold fish. They are a few years old and the gold fish is fine. The blackmoor however has decided to swim upside down.... its been doing this on and off for three weeks but i thought i would ask if any one knows why. I have tried not feeding them for four days on advice that it could be constpated... yes i know due to floating food and excess air intake thus pressing on its swim bladder.....no change..... any ideas or is my fish just mad....

 

[jadefox]

This is a very common problem in fancy gold fish. Almost always it will be his swim bladder. Sometimes they get so defective though that they never recover.

Try doing a partial water change for the next 7 days - each day take a third of the water out of the tank and replace with fresh. It may be that the ammonia level in the water is such that the swim bladder cannot heal itself and this could be aggravating the problem.

If you do the water change each day - and NO food at all for an entire week - (no your fish will not die - they have such slow metabolisms that you could not feed him for 3 weeks and he'd still be fine) - then it might cure him of this problem.

Also, the advice on the fish food is usually to feed fish once or twice a day - this is rubbish and it causes so many problems!!! You should feed the fish once every other day to maintain good digestion and healthy fish. Someone once told me that they fed their fish about 3 times a day because they always looked hungry - well they do always look hungry because they have this natural disposition to feed when they can; in the wild they don;t get to eat all the time so their natural response is to feed whenever there is food - they do not regulate their own appetites so therefore if you fed them all day they would probably eat all day!

Good luck!!

 

[jaymanek]

dont mean to hijack this thread, well i do but hope you dont mind...
we have a large pond outside, came with the house... lots of orange coloured fish in there... we have been feeding them outdoor pond food ever since we moved in 8 years ago..
How long can they go without needing to be fed.. gardener tells us they can survive off the algae?

Its a fairly large pond and i was told well over 100 fish in it... never counted!

 

[Seamster15]

I never feed our fish outside - they seem fine!

 

[jadefox]

Well, technically you don't need to. And you should actually stop feeding the fish whenever the temperature of the water drops below 55 degrees. Their metabolisms are so slow at that point that they simply don't digest the food.
In the winter the most important thing to remember is if the water ices over, you need to float a ball on top of the water to allow an air hole to remain so they can still get oxygen.

So the person you spoke to was right, they do feed from the algae at the bottom of the pond - so really there is no need to feed them at all - but if your conscience states that you do give them a bit from time to time it really only should be about once a month! They can live perfectly well (and it's arguably better for them) if you don't feed pond fish (usually Koi) at all.

 

[jaymanek]

right... im printing this off as dad (currently in hospital) has been on at me to get some more fish food in as they should be fed once a week at least!!

 

[umedc]

right... im printing this off as dad (currently in hospital) has been on at me to get some more fish food in as they should be fed once a week at least!!

we feed our fish on in summer that if we get one

 

[A210AMG]

Hello

When we bought our house the fish / pond canme with?

Koi.. we knew nothing about them but owners said they needed feeding twice a day and its pricey..

 

[Gollom]

Well, technically you don't need to. And you should actually stop feeding the fish whenever the temperature of the water drops below 55 degrees. Their metabolisms are so slow at that point that they simply don't digest the food.
In the winter the most important thing to remember is if the water ices over, you need to float a ball on top of the water to allow an air hole to remain so they can still get oxygen.

So the person you spoke to was right, they do feed from the algae at the bottom of the pond - so really there is no need to feed them at all - but if your conscience states that you do give them a bit from time to time it really only should be about once a month! They can live perfectly well (and it's arguably better for them) if you don't feed pond fish (usually Koi) at all.

Reckon you should change your line to Fish Woman! :bannana:

 

[Matt32AMG]

My Koi Carp can eat for England (Or should that be for Japan? )

You feed them first thing in the morning, (Hikari Gold 47% protien) you should feed them enough to keep them busy chomping for no more than five minutes and leave it at that, otherwise you'll scew the water balance, (Keeping Koi carp is all about keeping water), Winter time they eat a special winter food. Again I use Hikari that their matabolism can cope with, (Wheat germ and small sceaming children ).

Anyway, everytime I go into the garden they think it's feeding time again! They even try this scam with any visitors who may pitch up.

If your fish is swimming upside down, it's definately a swim bladder issue. Not much you can do about it.

 

[davidjpowell]

Hi at our last house we had a pond. It was way OTT and cost a fortune to run the pump. We were told that the fish were gone, but discovered 4 months later that one was missed and was quite happy despite no food. We were also told that once it got cold you should not feed the fish.

As a side note please do take care if you have young children. A friend of my partners son (similar age to my daughter) slipped and fell into the pond. After several months in hospital he is out, but has suffered with brain damage and now has mulipte disabilities. This was a small pond and quite shallow!

It is far too easy to get complacent unfortunately.

David

 

[jadefox]

My Koi Carp can eat for England (Or should that be for Japan? )

You feed them first thing in the morning, (Hikari Gold 47% protien) you should feed them enough to keep them busy chomping for no more than five minutes and leave it at that, otherwise you'll scew the water balance, (Keeping Koi carp is all about keeping water), Winter time they eat a special winter food. Again I use Hikari that their matabolism can cope with, (Wheat germ and small sceaming children ).

Anyway, everytime I go into the garden they think it's feeding time again! They even try this scam with any visitors who may pitch up.

If your fish is swimming upside down, it's definately a swim bladder issue. Not much you can do about it.

With the best will in the world you're wasting your money! There is no need (apart from your own reasons - for example you like seeing the fish feed) to feed pond fish at all.
In fact, overfed pond fish die due to high ammonia levels in the water.

My dad bred prize winning Koi for years which is why I am knowledgeable, but I wouldn't say I'm an expert - these are just my opinions.

 

[jadefox]

Hello

When we bought our house the fish / pond canme with?

Koi.. we knew nothing about them but owners said they needed feeding twice a day and its pricey..

Absolute tosh - twice a day??!! You need to stop feeding them so much, they will be a lot happier and healthier if you reduce to once a week for a month an then go to once monthly!!
Nice ornamental pond by the way, fish are a fair size to be in there, just a tip; you wouldn't want any more than you already have or they would be overstocked.

 

[Ted]

Hello... I have two fish. One blackmoor and one gold fish. They are a few years old and the gold fish is fine. The blackmoor however has decided to swim upside down.... its been doing this on and off for three weeks but i thought i would ask if any one knows why. I have tried not feeding them for four days on advice that it could be constpated... yes i know due to floating food and excess air intake thus pressing on its swim bladder.....no change..... any ideas or is my fish just mad....

It's not dead is it?

 

[Howard]

Right , with regards to the OP, feed them each a single shelled chopped pea , this can help with constipation and also with swimbladder . It may be possible to help this fish , but after 3 weeks it may not , so be prepared .

Get yourself over to www.fishkeeping.co.uk and join the forum , i am an advisor there , and one of the coldwater experts will be able to advise you.

You will need to provide readings for nitrITE , nitrATE , Ph and Ammonia ( don't use the cheap dip strips as they are crap , get a liquid based test kit , they are about £15 ) also what is your tank size ?

Fancy goldfish due to their shape are prone to internal problems , they are effectively mutations from the common goldfish that have been bred over the years. Their internal organs are compacted inside them. You should never feed fancies floating food , try and feed them sinking pellets or soak the flake before you introduce it so it sinks immediately and doesn't swell in their stomachs .

Join the forum and they will help you out , say Howard sent you.

I have kept goldfish for over 25 years , feed them in the morning , just what they will eat in 3 or 4 minutes and the same in the evening . Syphon out what is left aftger this. Vary their diet , mine gets shelled peas , blanched spinach , flake , bloodworm , artemia, Improvit etc etc . Imagine if you ate sausages all day every day how bored you would get with them.

 

[Dieselman]

Imagine if you ate sausages all day every day how bored you would get with them.

Aha..now you tell me....

Thought it was the brown sauce getting tastless..

 

[jadefox]

Imagine if you ate sausages all day every day how bored you would get with them.

errrr.......nope, I can't imagine me ever getting bored of sausages

 

[clegsr]

Re the upside down fish: I can reiterate the de-frozen peas - they worked on our fish but it was unfortunately only a short term solution and eventually the fish didn't make it...

 

[A210AMG]

Thanks for the advice

The people we bought the house off had move to Austrilia and had moved without showing us anything to do with the pond.

We had to go to our local water / pond garden centre place with pictures to ask what we needed to do.

There are Two large Bin type filters with 3 foam filters in each and plastic cup things, ooh and UV lights, another pump with UV lamp on surface and a pump in the water.

We replaced all the filters, lights etc and I try and clean them every other month as they do get clogged up.

We take our water to this place and they test it using a proper kit for free as long as you end up buying something. We have tried all sorts of kits and still think its best they do it as they then tell us what we need to do

It is a job keeping the pond clear, nice but sitting outside in the garden especially in summer its lovely watching the fish. Very relaxing.

I will take the advice and feed them less. I did read somewhere or on a koi forum (yes there is such a thing..even magazines..) that you cannot kill fish by NOT feeding them but you CAN buy feeding too much??


I did get some ball type food at one point and they would come up and suck it out of your hand nice...

 

[jadefox]

I did read somewhere or on a koi forum (yes there is such a thing..even magazines..) that you cannot kill fish by NOT feeding them but you CAN buy feeding too much??

YES it's perfectly possible to over feed the fish and it either ferments in their guts because as previously stated they have slower metabolisms - or you make them create far too much waste matter which makes the ammonia levels soar and it eventually kills them - but it's a slow death Imagine swimming in almost pure wee wee unable to get enough oxygen......not at all nice!