wrote in message
om...
He swims like this all the time, and not always at the surface . I
have 3 other fish in there that all seem very healthy. He has been
like this almost since I got him about a month ago. He was the third
fish added. He eats and doesnt look hurt, no spots or anything, but
isnt growing as quickly as the others. All of my pond levels seem to
be well witihin specs. Anything I can do for the poor guy?
You can see the video clip here http://miltonsoffice.com/fish.wmv

If he has no obvious external injuries or parasites, he could have either
internal parasites, or an internal infection, possibly affecting his swim
bladder. The first thing you should do is to quarantine the fish in an
aquarium, if you have one, or a rubbermaid tub, with an airstone to provide
oxygen to the water. This is to make it easier to treat the fish, and to
prevent potential spread of any disease to other fish. The next thing you
should do is to buy two medications, Maracyn, and Maracyn II. Treat according
to directions, and feed him sparingly until he shows signs of improvement. I
recommend using both of these medications, because often times, after a fish is
seriously ill, and is treated with one medication, he recovers from that problem
but then gets a secondary infection afterwards. This is especially common with
internal infections and internal parasites. Since his darting and abnormal
swimming is the only overt symptom, treating with both medications will likely
minimize the chance of a misdiagnosis (i.e., treating for gram postive bacterial
infection when it actually has a gram negative infection, and visa versa).

In addition to the above, you should treat the tank with coppersafe to make sure
there are no parasites. Oh, and monitor the water quality daily. Let us know
how things turn out.