Hi everyone, I'm posting this in the tropical section as it's a tropical tank that the goldfish is living in.

The tank has been cycling for around 3 weeks and the goldfish has been in it for just about 2 weeks.

Its a 28 UK gallon tank, 25 degrees water temperature with a fluval 2 filter.

Basically the goldfish belongs to my daughter, Which has been living in a VERY small circular tank, It's around 1 year old (Since it was purchased from the LFS)

I know some people don't agree with goldfish in warm water, But i've been doing it for years and had no problems.

The fish seems to float to the surface very quickly when he stops swimming, He struggles to stay on the bottom (Whilst rummaging in the sand and what-not)
Sometimes he floats around on the surface on either his side or upside down for up to 5 minutes then swims around for a while. He is the only fish in the tank as I know goldfish are hardy and I thought he would be good for cycling.

PH is fine, Nitrite and Nitrate are fine. I cannot test anything else as I have run out of dips.


I've moved him back to his old tank with fresh water so hopefully its just a problem with my water and he can recover.

Anyone have any ideas as to what might be wrong, He looks totaly healthy and no different to normal appearance wise.

Watch the goldfish next time you feed the tank. Goldfish are prone to what is commonly known as 'gulping'. Gulping is commonly performed at feeding time when the fish gulp at the surface for food. In doing this, they swallow some air and then have trouble dispelling it(hence floating to the top etc). If it appears that this is the problem, you can solve it by feeding sinking food or soaking flakes etc before adding them to the tank so they wont float. This will discourage the fish from gulping at the surface. Hope this helps.

Gold fish can be prone to developing swim bladder problems as well. (I've even seen surgery done on big ones to correct it!)

Here is a link that talks about swim bladder disease in goldfish: http://www.netpets.com/fish/reference/freshref/swimbldr.html

Thanks for the info guys, He has been back into his small tank for a day now and he seems back to normal again, No problems with floating to the top when he stops swimming.. Do you think it's safe to put him back into the 28gal tank?

my pearlscale has the same problem - he just floats around from time to time but other than that, he seems OK. he does gulp at the surface a lot for food - as do my other 2 goldies! i'm going to stop feeding them flakes from now on - and just floating tablets (like for coreys), and peas. is this ok as a diet? and bloodworm once a week.