So i have a tank with some goldfish and a bubble fish. Since this morning the bubble fish (named Shark) started acting weird. By that i mean he is mostly swimming vertically and sometimes doing cartwheels as he is swimming. He eats normally and seems otherwise ok. Any idea what is going on? His tail seems to have shortened a bit since last week. Could that be the case?

PS The tank and the water is clean and we had the fishes for 6 months with no problems.

Hi Gata!

Poor Shark! Unfortunately i dont know much about fishes but maybe you could check out those pages, accordiing to what Ive read, it might be a swim bladder disorder (the second link especially gives a lot of info about it):

http://www.petfish.net/kb/entry/704/

http://thegab.org/Illness-and-Treatment/buoyancy.html

I hope this could help you and that your fish will get better very soon!

Best regards

Mary

He is horny I know the symptoms Better I use to know

Thanks guys I just fed them and he is behaving normally while eating. But i guess when you are in a fish tank with nobody paying attention to you, you have to entertain yourself somehow!

Have you been drinking?

Nice! Have a nice evening!

Tail seems shorter?
I would say his tank compadres have been having a nibble at sharkey.
He has lost the sense of balance, much like a cat after having its whiskars cut.

Nah.. Im just really bored


Yeap thats what i think also

I'd say a swim-bladder problem is most likely. Medicine for this is really cheap if it continues.

Also, loss of the tail fin can be the first sign of fin-rot. This can happen even if the water is clean, but if there is a build-up of nitrates or the pH is too low - occasionally it happens if you wash the gravel too much and kill the bacteria which break it down!

Your local pet shop should be able to sell you a water testing kit really cheaply so that you can make sure

I have that and everything is fine. I will wait a couple of days and if it doesnt stop then i will pass by the pet shop

OK the end of the story for whoever is interested. Shark died last night. i know he wasnt sick because the water was fine and he was swimming normally for the last couple of weeks. His tail on the other hand disappeared completely and i saw the cleaner fish we have attacking him on a couple of occasions. Normal goldfish only from now on for us

Sorry to hear that 'Shark' deid. But, I wonder if the cleaner fish were really attacking 'Shark' or rather just doing their job of removing dead cells, if Shark had fin rot caused by an infection.

I dont think so. His fins were fine with no red as the page says. Plus i saw them chasing him around the tank. Same with the other fish but they could move faster. But thanks for the link. If i see weird coloring on the others i will know why

As far as I knew you should not keep any of the exotic variants of goldfishes with the more common types as they find it too difficult to compete for food. They swim much poorer and they have very poor eyesight.

Although they can in theory eat the same food, there is no way they can catch live food or food that floats to the bottom of the tank, as their eyes face upwards, so they should be fed a different type of food to the others.

Gal

Really? Didnt know that and at the shop they told us there is no problem... Anw stick to normal goldfish from now on!