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Because of how fancies are deformed swimming can be a real struggle. Things like swimming upside down happen less when they have resting spots as in a heavily planted tank or you can buy betta logs or leaves.
Fish would also prefer a busier environment above a bare one.
Hey! Thanks for this. It is true, that they do like a busier tank. This is a safehouse tank that i keep these 3 in for now, while i make sure that they are ok. Frank (the one in issue) has always liked snugging into holes to sleep. This is a small video of him napping under some rocks in the bigger tank
In my experience though the tank can get too busy. They do like some sand to shift through, and some round rocks to investigate (or rather shift through sand around them) but besides that, I feel they risk getting hurt.
This is my big tank at its peak, but I have removed much of it now because my fish kept getting hurt or stuck
This is the tank right now. I have removed a lot of the decorations, and made sure that anything they can get stuck on was removed. Also I made the DIY filters easier to maintain and easier on the eye. Still one of my fish still managed to get hurt in that!
The BREAKING NEWS with this fish is, that just today, I managed to get hold of the breeder, and ask if she had seen this behaviour before. She said that of the 20 babies she kept from that batch, she only has 2 left and one of them has the same swimming issues. The rest died either with the same behaviour or internal infections. The parents of the fish have also had massive issues, so I will put this down to bad genetics, and know not to put it through too much medication if/when it gets more serious.
What were they getting stuck on in the tank as it was? It still looks really bare. Maybe it's all in the breeding.
They would get wounds by trying to get to food in the driftwood cracks and i had one that got stuck between a fitter sponge and the glass. It fought so hard to get away, that it lost the scales and some of the skin on the side towards the sponge.
My last injured fish i still dont even know how and where she got injured. It must have been while trying to get to some food but i dont see where it could have gotten stuck. Maybe the annubias?
Its not uncommon for fancy goldfish though. They are really clumsy
Is this Wendy? How is her eye?
No this is Frank! I sadly had to put Wendy to sleep because the injury bellow the eye was getting worse even after treating with salt, methylene blue and antibiotics. It was down to the bone and getting too close to the eye so it seemed it could only get worse.
Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I hope that someone who knows about these things can help you with Frank.
Thanks! I've come to learn that even the best fish keepers lose fish some times and many times its not even their fault. Its just sad nonetheless