I have 3 Comet Goldfish. Over the weekend the one fish(Ulysses) has started weird behavior. He has a tendency to sitting at the bottom of the tank now. If the other fish get near him then he becomes active and plays a little bit. During this time he every so often goes up to the top and bobs once or twice and then goes back down to swim with the other fish. When he starts his descension back down, he releases a few air bibbles that he got when he raced to the top to bob that one or two times. After a little bit of swimming around with the other fish he lays on the gravel to rest a bit. After aboot 30 seconds or so he repeats this routine.

I've looked up everything and phoned around and I'm not getting any true help for this dilemma. The water is absolutely fine. I change it frequently and the levels are all good so its not that. I believe it has to do with the flakes I fed him. He was the worst for hanging around the top and eating the flakes. I'm 99.9% sure that he grabs too much air while he's up there. Now, I haven't fed him any flakes for four days and have tried feeding him some peas but he won't eat the darn stuff. I'm not even sure if this will help him at all.

What I don't get is if he's grabbed too much air while eating those flakes why is he now doing this bobbing thing? That just seems wrong. The other fish are totally fine BTW. He's not gasping for air, he just goes straight up and takes a snort of air and then comes back down and then tires a bit and rests for 30 seconds. I DON'T GET IT!! He's frustrating the heck outta me.

Hi and welcome!!! It is frustrating when our fish are sick, so I can relate. Let's see if we can't help to ease your pain (along with his).

First I will ask that you answer all the questions to the red box above. This will give us the information we need to help diagnos what could be going on. And while you have stated the water is fine, it too is info that we need in order to help you. Thanks in advance for posting that for us.

Now gulping air is not a good thing as it can lead to SBD (swim bladder disease) however most SBD cases "float" and not sink, unless they have a severe case. And usually comets don't suffer from SBD as bad as fancy gf do, so that will leave us to go thru all the info you post with a fine tooth comb and see what we come up with.

Post back soon.

i have the same problem my goldfish is sitting on the bottom all the time and is even bent over sometimes. Im getting worried, is it a serious problem?

Hi Dico,you may want to start your own thread in the disease section and also answer as many questions in the red area as you can so we have a general idea of what's going on in your tank. That definately sounds like something to be concerned about.