Why is My Goldfish Floating Upside Down?

Goldfish are supposed to be very easy to care for. You win them at a fair and have them for ten years. This is not the way it goes anymore. You need a bubbler and a filter to keep your goldfish alive. The bubbler supplies the fish with oxygen and the filter helps to keep the nitrate and ammonia levels down by removing fish waste and uneaten food from the water. Goldfish are one of the messiest fish that you can ever purchase. You are actually supposed to purchase a filter which is capable of cleaning an aquarium which is twice the size of your aquarium.

Goldfish will often times be floating upside down in the fish tank. This is because their swim bladders will fill with air. They fill with air because the fish are eating food off of the top of the water and taking in air at the same time. This air fills up the swim bladder on the bottom side of their belly and they will flip over and be stuck that way until the air bladder doesn't contain any more air. It's really get your fish to flip back over once the fish is upside down but I will tell you how I have successfully treated many of my fish with a swim bladder problem.

The first thing you have to do is start feeding the fish pellet food or food that sinks. I would highly suggest purchasing frozen food which is labeled Goldfish and Koi. It comes with brine shrimp and a variety of different vegetables. Never feed your goldfish anything that will float. Also, make sure to place the food into the filter air flow so that the food shoots down to the bottom of the tank before the fish can try to eat it from the top of the water. Brine shrimp needs to be fed to goldfish at least a couple times per week to clean our their digestive system. You will also need to fast, or not feed, your goldfish for at least one entire day out of the week to make sure that they don't get constipated which is another reason they will float upside down.