Possible swim bladder?
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Possible swim bladder?
Hey, today I noticed my blue oranda was lying on its side at the top of the tank. He is eating normally at the moment. I recognised this as possibly swim bladder, but any other suggestions would be great? How would I go about treating this?Especially as I have 2 weather loaches and I know some medicines cannot be used with them. I also do not have an isolation tank so need to go about treating the main tank. Any help is much appreciated. Thanks
Re: Possible swim bladder?
The fat bodied goldfish have issues like this.
One of the reasons is a little complex, but follow the train of events, and help the fish:
Internal organs are distorted by the bent spine.
Food is not digested as efficiently, occasionally leading to constipation, especially these fish have problems with:
~ Low fiber foods.
~ Dry foods (Flakes, pellets, freeze dried things)
~ Fatty foods (blood worms are often touted as being high fat
Constipation, a backing up of the food in the lower GI tract starts affecting the swim bladder. It cannot fill and empty properly, so these fish end up floating in whatever orientation the swim bladder is 'stuck' in. Could be head up or head down, or any variation of sideways or up-side-down.
The prevention is easier than the cure: Feed Goldfish many smaller meals, leave food in there for them to nibble on. Feed them lots of fresh and lightly cooked vegetables, some fruit, and some protein, but not dried foods. Frozen worms, shrimp, daphnia and other things are fine. Even bloodworms are OK in small amounts, infrequently. Foods with roughage such as daphnia, crustaceans (shrimp) are especially good. Rotate the foods so the fish get their vitamins and minerals.
Vegetables can be left in the tank to feed the fish over a longer time, several hours or longer.
I blanch the softer vegetables just until the color brightens. I cook harder vegetables like butternut squash, yams, pumpkin and carrots until they are tender, but not mushy. Dry cooking is better. If these are boiled they fall apart in the tank sooner.
The cure, if this is the actual problem is to add Epsom salt to the water (a q-tank is better) until the constipation is cleared.
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If this is an actual infection of some sort, bacterial, viral or other, and the swim bladder is infected or affected as a side issue the problem is quite different. I would put the fish in a q-tank, and treat with the Epsom salt, but also add an antibiotic that is absorbed through the gills, and does not depend on the fish eating to get the medicine inside.
If the disease is bacterial in origin, this can help.
If the disease is viral in origin, there is not any medicine that can help.
If an infection has been going on for too long then the medication might kill the bacteria, but the damage has already gone too far, and the fish may not make it.
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Another cause of swim bladder problems is fish fighting. One fish can ram into another so hard as to cause internal injuries. There is no cure for this. If the swim bladder is ruptured it rarely fixes itself.
For more info about fancy (and not so fancy) Goldfish, have a look here:
http://www.koivet.com/
One of the reasons is a little complex, but follow the train of events, and help the fish:
Internal organs are distorted by the bent spine.
Food is not digested as efficiently, occasionally leading to constipation, especially these fish have problems with:
~ Low fiber foods.
~ Dry foods (Flakes, pellets, freeze dried things)
~ Fatty foods (blood worms are often touted as being high fat
Constipation, a backing up of the food in the lower GI tract starts affecting the swim bladder. It cannot fill and empty properly, so these fish end up floating in whatever orientation the swim bladder is 'stuck' in. Could be head up or head down, or any variation of sideways or up-side-down.
The prevention is easier than the cure: Feed Goldfish many smaller meals, leave food in there for them to nibble on. Feed them lots of fresh and lightly cooked vegetables, some fruit, and some protein, but not dried foods. Frozen worms, shrimp, daphnia and other things are fine. Even bloodworms are OK in small amounts, infrequently. Foods with roughage such as daphnia, crustaceans (shrimp) are especially good. Rotate the foods so the fish get their vitamins and minerals.
Vegetables can be left in the tank to feed the fish over a longer time, several hours or longer.
I blanch the softer vegetables just until the color brightens. I cook harder vegetables like butternut squash, yams, pumpkin and carrots until they are tender, but not mushy. Dry cooking is better. If these are boiled they fall apart in the tank sooner.
The cure, if this is the actual problem is to add Epsom salt to the water (a q-tank is better) until the constipation is cleared.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If this is an actual infection of some sort, bacterial, viral or other, and the swim bladder is infected or affected as a side issue the problem is quite different. I would put the fish in a q-tank, and treat with the Epsom salt, but also add an antibiotic that is absorbed through the gills, and does not depend on the fish eating to get the medicine inside.
If the disease is bacterial in origin, this can help.
If the disease is viral in origin, there is not any medicine that can help.
If an infection has been going on for too long then the medication might kill the bacteria, but the damage has already gone too far, and the fish may not make it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another cause of swim bladder problems is fish fighting. One fish can ram into another so hard as to cause internal injuries. There is no cure for this. If the swim bladder is ruptured it rarely fixes itself.
For more info about fancy (and not so fancy) Goldfish, have a look here:
http://www.koivet.com/
38 tanks, 2 ponds over 4000 liters of water to keep clean and fresh.
Happy fish keeping!
Happy fish keeping!
Re: Possible swim bladder?
question- will epsom salt kill the filter media, causing a cycle or mini-cycle ? I am using epsom salt in my q-tank at the moment . Thanks , Georgie
cider
Re: Possible swim bladder?
Normally not at the levels for treatment of freshwater fish.cider wrote:question- will epsom salt kill the filter media, causing a cycle or mini-cycle ? I am using epsom salt in my q-tank at the moment . Thanks , Georgie
Epsom salt is Magnesium Sulfate. Seawater is around 1290ppm Magnesium and 2700ppm Sulfate, just for reference.
The shift in bioloading will cause mini cycles for the bacteria population densities to even out.
Re: Possible swim bladder?
ok,I was paranoid about my water,using the fix twins and epsom salts,but tested after the 7 day treatment and readings good.
A-0, NI -0 ,NA -10 ,little high, but wc will bring it down. This is my 20g q-tank , with 2 resident platy living in it ,to keep it always cycled , pending new fish.
Thanks agian,
G
A-0, NI -0 ,NA -10 ,little high, but wc will bring it down. This is my 20g q-tank , with 2 resident platy living in it ,to keep it always cycled , pending new fish.
Thanks agian,
G
cider
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