Why does my goldfish only float at the water’s surface &/or swim upside-down?
This is a swimbladder problem and a goldfish that floats or swims upside-down is said to have “Flipover”. Goldfish are extremely sensitive to swimbladder problems, especially the fancy types because of the globoid shape of their stomach. The swimbladder is the organ that is responsible for a fish’s buoyancy in the water. If you feed pellets dry, they will expand in the fish’s stomach, blocking the pneumocystic duct, so that the swimbladder cannot inflate or deflate properly. This results in goldfish that become “sinkers”, that is, they cannot rise from the bottom of the tank or more commonly “floaters”, who bob like a cork at the surface and cannot swim downward in the water and remain submerged. Swimbladder problems are most often a result of feeding dry food without soaking it first and/or from overfeeding, causing constipation. Some fish are very sensitive to even soaked food so a gel-based food could be used in this situation. A type of pelleted food that is touted as causing less
