fan tail goldfish floats upsidedown?

[Dana]

help please...my large fan tail has been floating on his/her back for months now. it is not able to right itself. i have talked to a few pet stores about it and no one seems to know what is wrong. i treated the tank with aquarium salt. that did not seem to do much. about two weeks ago he/she developed a sore on his/her tummy. i thought for sure he/she was a goner, however, the sore seemed to heal and then miraculously it was able to right itself and swim normally. this only lasted for about a week then it started to float again. does anyone know what could be wrong?
right now i have to feed it by putting food right next to his/her mouth. i wonder if he/she is in pain. help!

[tawauboy]

looks like swim bladder disease. don't seem to have a cure for it. try lowering the tank water level and feed with pre-soaked pellets.

[XnSdVd]

I just realised how similar those flags looked... ANYWAY, go to a pet store , tell them your fish has swim bladder diesease. I think there's medication for it. As for it feeling pain... I'd imagine a headache from swimming upside down. BTW, very admirable that you actually hand feel your fish... =)

[ranmasatome]

Do you feed pellets?

[lcm]

Try Interpet 13 medication ( Swimbladder Treatment) together with aquarium salt. From the cases that i have encountered, swimbladder infection will come and go and a matter of time that the infected fishes will succumb to death.

[robin]

Dana,

From my experience, nothing much can be done, just hope for the best.

And in future, a good way to prevent disease is regular correct care.

Change 25% of water weekly (not more!! will stress out the goldfish.)
Make sure use correct size filter and wash filter once a month.
DO NOT WASH with tap water, when changing water, use the water you have scooped from the tank and wash the filter.
Make sure you do not over crowd.

Have been following these for almost 2 years +
Zero gold fish casualty in gold fish tank

Just my 2 cents worth

Regards
Robin