Goldfish?! why not?

[_Sushi_]

not to be catty, but I find it hard to believe that floating foods cause swimbladder problems...I agree, flakes are probably the cause in themselves, not so much that they come to the surface to get it.

I've seen them breathe from the surface of the water, (even with really clean water) and even the one who supposedly had swimbladder issues eats from the surface, and she's fine. They burp out the extra air through their gills.

Anything sinking has a bad tendancy to majorly cloud their water. I'm having a hard enough time keeping up with that as it stands, and it will be tougher with 300+ gallons of water. So, we're trying a floating pellet now. Everyone seems happy with them, even the littler fish can find them to eat, which was a big problem with flakes and sinking foods.

 

[reptileguy2727]

Poor diet and eating from the surface can both contribute to swim bladder problems. One other major issue not mentioned is water quality. Poor water quality can easily cause big problems with swim bladder infections.

At my work we were feeding floating foods to all the goldfish. We were getting about one loss a week to swim bladder infections. I switched them over to a sinking pellet and we have not lost another to swim bladder problem yet.

The best food hands down is New Life Spectrum. I feed my goldfish the Large Fish Formula. It is so nutritionally complete that they don't even touch the live plants that are in there.

Low fiber diets too high in protein will be much more likely to cause digestion system problems than swim bladder infections. Sometimes the symptoms are very similar though.

 

[Vicious_Fish]

I have a pond that has had the same goldfish and koi in it for the last 17 years and all they've ever been fed were floating pellets. I've never heard of swim bladder problems from surface foods but I've never really looked into it before so I guess it could be true. All I know is that they are healthy and happy. Some of you guys worry too much

 

[reptileguy2727]

Most pond fish are the long-bodied type. It is the short-bodied types that are susceptible to swim bladder infections due to feeding from the top. Because of their compressed body the duct from their mouth to their swim bladder is compressed, impeding proper flow of air through it. This is why they are more susceptible than the long-bodied types.

At work I have found that the larger individuals are not as susceptible. In addition, the fancier the variety the more susceptible they are. So an oranda is more susceptible than a fantail, but a ranchu is more susceptible than an oranda.

 

[Vicious_Fish]

Ok well that would make sense. I don't have any of the short-bodied types, just commons and comets besides the koi. But my neighbor has some really old short-bodied fantails the size of a softball in his outdoor pond and I believe he only feeds them pellets. I don't know what kind of losses he's had over the years though.

 

[reptileguy2727]

They are probably big enough to not have problems with it. And they may be the tougher types anyways.

 

[SemperFish]

I go with a variety of floating and sinking foods. I enjoy having them crowd up at the top when I feed them but I also give them shrimp and sinking foods for the guys that get crowded out at the top by the bigger guys. BTW those carnivore pellets really get them growing!

 

[Acer]

Nice looking comet!

I'd love to see a goldfish tank that size...

Regarding swim bladder disease... my pearlscale oranda got it, and thankfully succumbed quickly after she flipped one day. I feed a huge variety of foods and keep the water pristine, so I just attributed it to her weird shape and maybe a fluke infection?

It was terrible seeing SBD after reading so much about it. I thought the pearlscale was a beautiful fish, but I will never get one after that... seems like with a body-type like that it is asking for trouble.

Goldfish are awesome! When I watch cichlid tanks I am sometimes jealous of such activity in a tank, however having a tank of bumbling peaceful fish is a treat as well.

I feed lots of fresh/frozen foods: peas, lettuce, kale, mysis shrimp, brine shrimp, bloodworms, oranges, bananas, broccoli, cucumber, zucchini, etc.

I used to feed Hikari, but now feed Pro-Gold. I personally have never noticed a real difference between foods. I've been feeding Pro-Gold for about 3 weeks, and am curious about a difference over the next few months.

I've heard great things about NLS... is it really noticeable?

 

[reptileguy2727]

It is VERY noticeable. My peacocks are at least as colorful as the most colorful peacocks I have ever seen. All of my fish do better on NLS exclusively that anything else I have ever used.

After about two years of NLS exclusively, my discus laid eggs today.

 

[Acer]

It is VERY noticeable. My peacocks are at least as colorful as the most colorful peacocks I have ever seen. All of my fish do better on NLS exclusively that anything else I have ever used.

After about two years of NLS exclusively, my discus laid eggs today.

Is feeding NLS exclusively the key point? Because I'd like to feed my fish high-quality food (Pro-Gold is supposed to be awesome, but I like variety) and was thinking about NLS... but they would get it a few feedings a week probably.

I guess you can't expect results if you feed a huge mix... but a good food is a good food, so no harm.