Hi Guys,

Our Tank is a 15 gallon that we have had about 3 months. The water is cycled and normally tests very low for nitirites and ammonia (usually reads 0).

We have a ryukin in the tank that has swim bladder. We treated with medicated food to no avail. Normally she floats for a few hours after eating and it does not seem to bother her much.

Today she started floating upside down!!! and really struggling to swim.

We usually feed her a small amount of VERY well cooked rice proir to feeding (today we fed rice and she started going upside down so we fed some peas as well)

My big question is will it hurt her to be upside down? she seems very agitated when I poker her so she rights herself.

she also seems swollen around the abdomen area.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

-Sparky

do you soak her pellets or flakes? also do you pinch the pellets if you feed her pellets(that's what help one of my fish to not float that much anymore

Yes we soak the pellets for a couple minutes. We use sinking pellets now so there is less chance of her swallowing air (she eats like a pig!).

I'm afraid because of their shape ryukins are very prone to this and its really hard to get them the right way. sounds like your fish is full of air so maybe the best thing is to starve your fish for three days to see if he can poo the excess air out. another thing you can try is lowering the water to around six inches if you can to take the strain off the bladder.

I have a ryukin that is a terrible floater. It is caused by diet in her case. I have altered her diet so that it is mainly natural foods such as blanched zucchini, lightly cooked spinach, broccoli or romaine. I feed her soaked shrimp pellets a three or four times a week. I soak these until they are mushy. On this diet she doesn't float. Anything else and she is upside down at the top for several hours. This fish can't even eat peas ... peas make her float! For a while she was able to eat homemade gel food, but she seemed to become intolerant of that, too, so I stopped feeding her that.

I have just experimented with different foods and stopped feeding anything that caused her to float.

Sandy's idea is a good one. A 2-3 day fast to get her swimming properly again. Then try her with maybe blanched zucchini one day, then spinach the next, then a very well soaked pellet (mushy and squished to remove any air). Make a note of what she can tolerate and what she can't. BTW, when I cook the zucchini, I cut a piece of about two inches, then cut that into wedges and lightly cook the wedges in the microwave for a few minutes in a bit of water. They will sink when they are cooked enough (otherwise they float). Cool and drop in the tank. The goldfish won't eat the rind (if you have snail or a bottom feeder, they love the skin). If you don't have any bottom feeders, then remove the rind when the goldfish has eaten all of the soft parts.

I hope this helps

Thanks for the tips, gonna try them after I fast her a bit

Please let us know how it goes

She got a little better and is swimming normally now, we will fast her and just finished our first batch of GF Jello. Hopefully that will be easier on her.

We will post back in a few days, and this thread may be taken out of emergency.

Still curious though...is it harmful for the fish to be upside down?

Off topic question...can GF eat Soy beans? I looked through the food section and couldn't get to the big page with all acceptable veggies.

Thanks,
Sparky

Yes, they can eat soybeans. How were you planning on feeding?

As for floating upside down, I have had one do it a lot without any harmful effects, although sometimes they will get sores if an area of skin is above the water for any length of time.

Phew, feel much better that it is not harmful.

We mixed the soybeans into the gel food that we made last night.

Is the gel food normally layered? When it cooled the "nutrient" part of the gel seemed to settle to the bottom and there is a clearish 1/4" layer on top. The "nutrient part is sorta gelled but not completely (sort of just dissloved into the tank if broken up). We are afraid that we didn't mix it right.

You can always heat it up a bit to dissolve it and try again

How much gelatin did you use?

We used about 5 cups of ingredients and water and about 1 oz. of gelatin.

Our Ryukin (peaches) is doing great and another of our fish with lesser swim bladder problems is also doing well. (Lionhead Ranchu--Gregory)

congratz on winning Touch of Sky!

Thanks for all the help, my fishies love you guys

-Sparky