Lionhead goldfish swimming funny...is he okay?

Hello,

I have a beautiful chocolate lionhead adult (I have no idea the sex, but his name is Hugo...if anyone knows how to sex them, please let me know).

Anyway, for the past couple of days he has been spending a lot of time in a vertical position, looking down. At first I thought he was just really hungry and going through every little bit of gravel he could pick up to find any hidden goodies. So I would feed him. As soon as he notices the food, he swims normally to the surface and eats, no problems. And he'll swim around doing his usually stuff, but then when I look at him again, he's back in a vertical position, looking down...except he's not sifting through gravel. He doesn't flip over, he's never on his belly, never crosses the angle that will look as if he's falling (I know, but it's the only way I can describe it). It's kinda like an 85 degree angle...not quite 90. And if he's not at that angle, he'll be at about a 50-60 degree angle sometimes as well. He does still spend time fully horizontal, swimming around, yanking on my plants (that was a battle I let him win a long time ago). But he had never done this kinda of swimming before and I'm afraid it might not be a good sign. If anyone knows anything about this, please please let me know. This is by far one of my favorite fish, the most beautiful of his kind that I have ever seen. If you saw his face you'd understand...so I must help him before this gets any worse, if it is in fact a problem. I have already looked into swim bladder and have ruled it out because it doesn't fit any the descriptions I have already found on the web, besides funny swimming (but he doesn't float, and he spends most of his time in the middle of the tank, just looking down...it's very sad). But at least now I know never to feed him dry food again.

Anyway...PLEASE HELP!!!

Thanks!
Fernando

bump

Roan...thanks for the help. I had ruled out swim bladder because all acounts I read online stated that they would stay up at the surface and not go down. My goldfish still covers almost areas of the tank, he was just hanging out almost vertically. I did assume perhaps this was a different type of swim bladder problem. I haven't fed him today. And actually, he has not done this weird swimming pattern as much all day long. I did see him doing it once, but then that's it. Very strange...perhaps it was a temporary thing? Or perhaps his swim bladder is fixing itself? For the past four days everytime I looked into the tank he was vertical. I didn't feed him today and only once did I see him do this, and that was early in the morning. Never again.

Hopefully he'll continue this way. Thanks for the info though, Roan. I do in fact do a 50% WC every week. He does make quite a mess. Sometimes I feel I should do more. I never knew about the turbulance during the water change. I'll make sure to keep my python away from him at all times. He's always in the turbulance thinking perhaps some food is gonna come out of it.

Well, thanks again. And if for some reason he continues this swimming pattern I'll post again. But hopefully that won't be necessary.

Fernando

Roan...thanks for the link. I'm so glad I asked. I have been keeping my eye out on him and didn't feed him yesterday at all. It was kinda difficult not to...I felt bad for him. But today I let his food sit in water before I dumped it in, and only gave him half of the usual amount. He's a big guy, and I really don't know how much he should be getting...any ideas? Sometimes when I feed him I think, "Surely he must still be hungry...that doesn't look like a lot of food for a big guy like him." I don't really think he's over weight, I'm pretty sure that's how big he's supposed to be judging from other lionhead pictures I have seen. They got a gut on them! That's partly why I bonded with him so well, especially after I witnessed a terrible chinese algae eater attack the hell out of him and practically rip his entire tail off. Who knew those suckers could be THAT vicious (I had read they can turn aggressive...but geez...he was like a torpedo striking and striking, and Hugo, who's not very fast just trying to wobble away...he's freaking adorable when he's scared and tries to swim fast and it's just this wobble thing from side to side...heh). But anyway, he bled pretty profusely. I dismantled the tank trying to get the CAE outta there because he's a hard one to catch. I held his little *** over the toilet but I couldn't bring myself to do it so I just threw him into an extra ten gallon tank I had and have left him there by himself ever since. I thought Hugo was a goner, but I treated him and he healed back. It was really bad. He was very scared, scales were floating in the water and you could see the blood coming outta him. It was a hard learning experience for me, but somehow someway he pulled out of it. He has a little scar there now, but I think it just gives him a little bit of character. I used to get me worked up when I tried to plant the tank, but eventually I just learned to buy fast growing plants for his tank (hygros and jungle vals) so he can't mow them down before they turn into nothing, like moneywort and anacharis, they would be just stems within a week or two, which he then would use to pick his teeth with or something cuz he would gnaw on them. I had to learn to make sure all the plants grew a great root system before planting to keep him from uprooting him.

And wow I'm going on...

Anyway...I haven't seen him vertical again. Hopefully it passed. I'm glad I caught this now so I know how to prevent other cases, especially worse cases in the future.

Again, thanks for the help! Hugo sends his thanks too!
Fernando

Roan:

I have a veggie clip and I had tried zucchini before, he never touched it...then I tried spinach and it just looked like another plant in the tank. I saw him yank on it maybe once right after I put it in there (he always yanks on anything new in the tank, including my hand), and then he went for the jungle vals (I guess he already knows he likes those, heh...)

But I'll keep trying...I've actually never tried lettuce. I'll give it a shot, and I had never tried the peas or any fruit. Is there a link to a list of veggies goldfish can have somewhere? I'll try a google search and see, or just search the forums.

I never knew "fancy" goldfish were just another name for "mutated". That's kinda sad when you think about it. Anyway, again, thanks for the help. I saw him doing the vertical thing again today, so it'll be a two maybe three day fast, and then veggies.

Fernando