My Goldfish don't really swim?

Question

I have had them for about a year, and they have always been like this so I am really not thinking they are sick or something. There are 3 fancy tails, and one small goldfish. They are in a 30 gallon octagonal tank. If I turn on the light they all huddle up on the bottom of the tank together, and randomly will swim a little on the bottom and stop, so I usually keep the light off to avoid this behavior. One of my white ones in paticular just floats all the time. She even sometimes looks like she is standing because her tail fins are on the ground and her mouth is pointing up to the top of the tank. Its weird, but they have always done it. They start swimming when i feed them, and the act normal. Is this normal behavior for Fancy tailed Goldfish?

Answer 1

i Have Fancy Tailed goldfish and they do the same thing i think its just their breed

Answer 2

make sure you keep the temperature of the water pretty cold. Around 68F. Those fancy goldfish should be somewhat active, at least not huddled up in the bottom. Maybe its just a genetic quirk that those particular ones have.

Answer 3

No, that is most definitely not normal behavior for any of them.

For one, your tank is way overcrowded, the 3 fancies alone need around a 55 gallon tank for all three of them.

The other small goldfish, which i'm guessing is a comet or something like that, is capable of growing to around 12" long, and would do much better in a pond or all by itself in a 55 gallon tank.

Finally, you aren't really even supposed to put fancies and commons together in the same tank because the commons are so much faster.

At the very least please upgrade to a 55 gallon regular square tank. the fish will thank you for it.  

Answer 4

its not normal but very common,and is due to the wrong P.H level in the water or your not dechlorinating the water.and this causes problems with their swim bladder causing them lose of balance,which then stresses the fish and will lead to all sorts of problems and eventually death. but this will take some time,and the lose of balance will affect round fish more because of their shape,plus not dechlorinating the water will strip their defensive coating and leave them open to disease.and the light issue  is just because fish ar extremely shy and should have things in the tank to hide behind.but all your problems can very easily be put right, go to your fish store and get some water sample bottles,fill them with water from your tank and ask them to do some water checks ,and what fish you have .and they'll tell you whats wrong with your water and how to put it right,and this is only a couple of £. for the type of fish you have the P.H should be 7.5 or as near as ,and this can be raised by a salt you buy from the fish shop with fool proof instructions on the back and should sort them in a couple of week's.and if it doesn't because its to far gone then you can can even buy medicines for them with simple instructions. and you need to get some dechlorinater too.you can just buy the P.H kit and do it yourself ,but i don't really like them colour chart things,i'd rather just buy a meter that look like a digital thermometer ,but they're quite expensive and i think you just want a quick simple and cheap way to solve your problems .and this will do just that . O and you need a biger tank to the fish will grow in to big fish (glad to help)