For animal lovers

[Rumpshaker]

Aww, thanks so much, you guys, for your encouraging words. Thankfully, Sibbie seems to be getting back to her old self. I'm a real softie when it comes to animals being in pain. It makes me ill myself. Just like when my own kids are sick. I always mind-trip off the fact that our dogs must be thinking "What the hell did I do? Why'd you bring me there for them to hurt me? I thought we were going bye-bye in the car!"

I think the reason she was vomiting is that she must have snuck a little of the cats' food before surgery. We took her dog food away the night before, but didn't think about the cat food. I'll bet that's why she was

They gave her dissolving stitches inside with glue adhesive outside. So far she's leaving the wound site alone, but we're keeping an eye on her.

No more going into heat for her .... and no more doggie periods!

[Texicana]

Rumpie...I think how your dog reacts to spaying has a lot to do with how much of a drama queen she is. I know my beagle mutt didn't miss a beat, but my lhasa apso scared the hell out us when we got her back from her operation when she was 3. She was shaking and whimpering and looked on the verge of death for 3 hours (no vomiting though) and slowly came out of it enough to hop on the bed and eat. After that she was fine. I'm glad to hear Sibbie is feeling better.

[Marley]

I have five goldfish in a 55g tank. I have a goldfish who is upside down most of the time. I change the water every 2 weeks and test it frequently. I have read about goldfish swimming and floating upside down due to constipation so I sometimes feed them shelled peas. Unfortunately, this hasn't helped my fish. He is about five years old now! He's the oldest fish I've ever had. I feed my fish small pellets and wafers.
Any ideas? He's been doing this for almost two months.

[Marleybone]

Aww, thanks so much, you guys, for your encouraging words. Thankfully, Sibbie seems to be getting back to her old self. I'm a real softie when it comes to animals being in pain. It makes me ill myself. Just like when my own kids are sick. I always mind-trip off the fact that our dogs must be thinking "What the hell did I do? Why'd you bring me there for them to hurt me? I thought we were going bye-bye in the car!"

I think the reason she was vomiting is that she must have snuck a little of the cats' food before surgery. We took her dog food away the night before, but didn't think about the cat food. I'll bet that's why she was

They gave her dissolving stitches inside with glue adhesive outside. So far she's leaving the wound site alone, but we're keeping an eye on her.

No more going into heat for her .... and no more doggie periods!

I'm so glad she's better! You're right about the cat food, our dogs were always getting into it and she probably did sneak a bite. Usually it makes them vomit during the surgery though, but the main thing is that she's ok now.
I can't stress enough to keep a very close eye on that incision. Katie's came apart on I think the 4th or 5th day, and she never did lick it or mess with it. My clue that something was wrong was that she was not acting right. She was going in her crate to lay down (she didn't like the crate back then), and later I couldn't find her because she had gone upstairs and laid on our bed (another thing she never did). So if your Sibbie goes and hides somewhere or if she's not acting right check the incision, and if it opens up get her to the vet right away, and if it happens late at night don't wait until morning. I got my vet out of bed at midnight and I apologized to him for the late hour, but he told me that this was a real emergency and I did the right thing by calling right away because of the high risk of infection. Anyway, your Sibbie will probaby be fine so I'll stop ranting!

[Maveno]

I have five goldfish in a 55g tank. I have a goldfish who is upside down most of the time. I change the water every 2 weeks and test it frequently. I have read about goldfish swimming and floating upside down due to constipation so I sometimes feed them shelled peas. Unfortunately, this hasn't helped my fish. He is about five years old now! He's the oldest fish I've ever had. I feed my fish small pellets and wafers.
Any ideas? He's been doing this for almost two months.

Turn the tank upside down.

Kiddingggg... I dunno what to do for upside down goldfish..just saw an opportunity there!
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rumpy, super glad to hear your baby is better! I am the same way about animals/pets in pain.. I really, realllllly feel for them. I'll do anything in my power to help animals in 'need'..pets or not.

[Tirlittan]

I have five goldfish in a 55g tank. I have a goldfish who is upside down most of the time. I change the water every 2 weeks and test it frequently. I have read about goldfish swimming and floating upside down due to constipation so I sometimes feed them shelled peas. Unfortunately, this hasn't helped my fish. He is about five years old now! He's the oldest fish I've ever had. I feed my fish small pellets and wafers.
Any ideas? He's been doing this for almost two months.

I looked in my old aquarium book about the swimming upside down. What I found was that if fish swim in unnatural positions (I guess upside down qualifies) they might have an infection in their airbladder. If that is the case (might ask the petstore and search internet for more information on this) my book unfortunately says that the fish can not be cured and should be removed before infecting other fish . I am sorry I could not bring any real help for your fish.

But maybe it is not an airbladder infection afterall, there must be some other explanations. Maybe it is the food like you mentioned. Perhaps you could try feeding your fish flakes instead of pellets?

[ADKLove]

Marley - I believe Burntcrow is a fish-ianado ( just coined a new phrase ) . Maybe you could pm him?

[Burntcrow]

I have five goldfish in a 55g tank. I have a goldfish who is upside down most of the time. I change the water every 2 weeks and test it frequently. I have read about goldfish swimming and floating upside down due to constipation so I sometimes feed them shelled peas. Unfortunately, this hasn't helped my fish. He is about five years old now! He's the oldest fish I've ever had. I feed my fish small pellets and wafers.
Any ideas? He's been doing this for almost two months.

Thanks ADK, I haven't checked this thread in a while.

Marley, you seem to know exactly what you are doing, so the prolem cannot be water quality.

What kind of goldfish do you have? Goldfish are prone to swim-bladder diesease, and it could be out of your control. But, it could be just gas. Do you see anything else wrong with him? Plump stomach?

[Marley]

Tirlittan - I give them flakes once in a while, but goldfish prefer pellets. It's better for their digestive system.

Burnt - he seems fine other than swimming/lying there upside down.

He is a Ryukin goldfish. My four others in that tank are: two orandas, 1 black moor and a lion head.

[Maveno]

Marley, here is something I found online while reading about your fish's problem. Hopefully it'll help you some... click HERE for the site that I read this on.

Fancy Goldfish
With Buoyancy and Swim Bladder Problems

This Red and Black Oranda is about 3.5" long, and it's typical of the beautiful Fancy Goldfish available in our facility. Our Fancy Goldfish rarely develop erratic swimming problems.

Some of the Orandas, Black Moors, and Fantails that are sold to aquarists begin to swim erratically and seem to loose their equilibrium. This is sometimes called the Buoyancy or Swim Bladder problem, and the Goldfish often seem to bob up and down in the water.
Aquarists are often told this is caused by an infection in the Goldfish's swim bladder, which is an organ in most fish that controls the fish's buoyancy. Other times aquarists are told the erratic swimming is caused by Goldfish eating food off the surface of the water.

We have made many tests and concluded that these problems are not caused by floating food, although several fish forums on the internet mistakenly say that floating food causes erratic swimming problems.

Here is what happens. Many of these Goldfish are raised on fish farms that do not feed commercial fish food. The fish are fed vegetation. Sometimes the vegetation is composted on the ground before it is fed to the Goldfish. The fish also eat some insects, algae, worms, and other foods that naturally occur in the ponds.

When these Goldfish are shipped to wholesalers, retailers, and aquarists in the United States, they immediately begin to eat commercial fish foods such as floating flakes, floating pellets, and sinking foods.

These foods are often richer in protein, fat, and carbohydrates and are less digestible than the foods the Goldfish were eating in ponds. This change in diet causes problems, perhaps blocked intestines, and erratic swimming by the Orandas, often mistakenly identified as swim bladder infections.

All the Goldfish we sell have been raised on fish farms that feed commercial floating food, so there is very little change in their diet, when they come to our facility, and these fish have very few swimming problems.

It really makes no sense that fish would get swimming problems from eating food off the surface, when their ancestors have been eating insects and other natural foods off the surface of the water for a very long time.

We believe that the swimming problems are caused by the change in diet, not from eating food from the surface of the water. If you get Goldfish from us and feed them floating goldfish foods, you should have very few problems.

A positive consequence of raising Goldfish on commercial food is that they grow faster. The 2" long Goldfish that we sell are much younger than the 2" fish raised on the diet of composted plants and natural foods. Many of the 2" Orandas raised on a diet of composted vegetation are stunted fish.
The 2" Orandas we sell don't have the classical Oranda bump on their heads yet. That bump comes with age. The Orandas that we sell will eventually grow to be much larger and have an even bigger bump on their heads than the Orandas raised on composted vegetation.

The fish we sell are not old, small, and stunted. With some patience and tender care you can raise our fish to be magnificent specimens, and they have the potential to live much longer than the small stunted Orandas with large bumps on their heads.

Customer Comments


I do think there are many factors that can cause swim bladder problems: a quick change in temp, infections, poor quality fish, and the predisposition to problems because of body shape.

Reply: Hello. Yes. You're right. We should have included the comments that you made in your email. Thank you for reminding us.
Our Fancy Goldfish are raised in warm water. The idea is to match the conditions on the fish farm closely to the conditions here in our facility and to the conditions in our customers aquariums and ponds.

When the conditions are closely matched, stress is reduced, and the Goldfish are much less likely to have problems with their swim bladders and everything else.

Customer Comments


Hey guys, I wrote you several weeks ago because I had a fancy tailed goldfish that was perpetually upside-down. You weren't able to help me.

Well I found out from my daughter's biology teacher, who has a 17 year old fancy tail that has had the same experience, what my fish needed was fresh green beans because she was constipated.

I tried it and after several days, my fish is right side up again! Though I'd let you know so you can help the next person that contacts you with that problem.

Sincerely Jeannine

Reply: Hello Jeannine. Thank you for your comments. I started having the same problem with two of my beautiful fantails. In the meantime I'd heard about using frozen peas.
I take a few frozen green peas out of the freezer and put them in some water, so they'll thoroughly thaw out, before I feed them. I squeeze the peas between my fingers to kind of flatten them out and break the outer covering.

All four of my goldfish eat the peas, and the peas have helped alleviate the buoyancy problems with my fantails, like the green beans have helped your goldfish. I am not sure why it works, but it does.



At AquariumFish.net we focus on the fish. All we do is sell and ship fish, and we've been doing it for a long time. We try very hard to get the best fish.
We've found ways to avoid many fish problems such as the swim bladder problem in Goldfish, and we focus on avoiding and preventing problems.

If you get fish from us and you're not 100% satisfied, we want you to tell us why you're not satisfied, and give us an opportunity to make an adjustment.