Own a butterfly tail fish it floats around belly up until feeding time then it looks fine, go back later still

Question

belly up i have changed from flakes to pellets as i was told it gets a belly full of air and floats to top, but after using pellets for a couple of weeks, looks sick again, it keeps surviving but doesn't look to good most of time, but will have the occaisional swim, all other types of fish in tank are fine, water kept good and ph good, any ideas thanks

Answer 1

i would say its just resting or its the swim bladder i think

Answer 2

Do you mean a 'Butterfly Fish':

http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/speciesS...

If so, this is what they do. Probably a survival mechanism. A local fish store has 'No, We're not Dead' posted on the tank containing one.

Answer 3

We have a fish the same and it has something to do with it's swim bladder. This fish was attacked by a bird and that has affected it. It has survived for about a year and it is still living.

Hope that helps.

Answer 4

Without knowing what type of fish I am going to assume it is a goldfish.  Tanked fish should never be fed floating pellets (or really pellets at all) and now you know why, it causes bloat in the fish.  Ditch the pellets and keep your fish on flakes and fresh green veggies.  This will keep your fish from becoming sick from bloat.