Sickening youtube video will keep me up at night
I stumbled across a youtube video the other day that gives me nightmares. This guy was showing how to cure a floating issue. He’s using a hypodermic needle to extract air from the swim bladder organ. I couldn’t believe my eyes
The fish he treats will now be laying helplessly on the bottom of the tank, still constipated of course
The swim bladder organ is connected to the intestinal tract by a tiny tube where Co2 (gas created from waste) is exchanged. If the tract slows, the fish becomes overly buoyant. If the tract becomes impacted, the fish may float to the surface depending on how much gas is trapped in the bladder
This is the best reason I know to feed less food more often. Goldfish in the wild evolved as constant grazers, and have no stomach to speak of. Food is hard to come by, so they spend the day searching for any morsel they can find. Their diet consist mostly of vegetation which is high in roughage
Goldfish digest their food within a matter of hours, and once the food is out of their tract, there’s no gas for the bladder to utilize. Some goldfish keepers withhold food in an effort to reduce floating issues, but this isn’t the cure. Feeding tiny meals throughout the day keeps the tract moving with a constant supply of gas to the bladder, but it also keeps our fish happy. Their entire day evolves around food, and feeding only once or twice a day makes for a boring day and a hungry one
Read more about Floating and Sinking Issues