swimming in circles, nose to the bottom

On Sat, 09 Sep 2006 19:12:00 GMT, "Jules59 via PetKB.com" u25279@uwe
wrote:

does anyone know what causes a fish to swim in circles with it's nose to the
bottom? obviously it's in distress, in fact I'm sure it's dying, but is
there any danger to my other fish? Is this contagious? Help--this is my
first tank.

Thanks.

I don't have an answer, just a suggestion, talk to your local fish
store.

In my experience, odd swimming behavior was probably related to a
failure of the float bladder. I have never seen it spread to other
fish. One White Cloud lived for a year. It learned to swim to the
bottom then float to the top. It seems possible for a float bladder
to remain empty, thus making it hard for the fish to get off the
bottom.

If you learn more, I hope you will share.

I hope you can avoid feeling guilt. I suffer guilt feelings with
every sick or dead fish. I almost have a mantra, "fish and all things
living die."

dick