Fish In A Spin

[alex.wardle]

I came in this morning to find on of my gourmais spinning round almost like a dog chasing its tail.
Its is very funny to watch but there is clearly something up.

Any idea what it could be.

 

[Wills]

There is something up with its swim blader - its either bloated and needs to be fed peas or its been attacked and its an injury relating to that .

Hppe they pull through

 

[alex.wardle]

cheers wills. do you think i should just treat it like constipation then and feed it a few de shelled peas

 

[Athena]

Hi Alex

Sorry but I'm not entirely sure this is swimbladder - to me it looks more like one of those internal bacterial diseases that affects their brain and nervous system. I've had a fish do this before and it didn't survive. Whirling around the tank like that, being carried along with the filter current aimlessly means they can't feed. You can try it but I doubt that fish will be able to aim and reach any food.

There is also another thing called whirling disease which they say can be caused by feeding infected food esp. tubifex worms.

Were there any prior symptoms before the whirling began?

Athena

 

[pingu1997]

I've just had a platy which swam aimlessly around like that, looked confused, and refused to feed. Sadly it died after a few days. Hope you manage to sort your problem out? Are the rest of my fish likely to be affected now as I am paranoid about losing any more?

 

[Athena]

I've just had a platy which swam aimlessly around like that, looked confused, and refused to feed. Sadly it died after a few days. Hope you manage to sort your problem out? Are the rest of my fish likely to be affected now as I am paranoid about losing any more?

Not necessarily, Pingu, as it depends on the actual cause.

If that fish ate something that was infected (either by bacteria or parasite) then it would have been internal to that fish and not the others (unless the whole batch of food was contaminated, in which case others may also suffer the same fate). But let's say they haven't eaten any contaminated food, then providing you removed the dead fish immediately before the other fish had a chance to eat away it's stomach, then they should be fine.

It might be a good idea to test your water with a reliable liquid kit to rule out any ammonia/nitrite problems, then I'd do a gravel vac and partial water change and just keep an extra eye on the fish so you can be quick to spot any further changes in appearance or behaviour.

Athena

 

[pingu1997]

I test the water daily since the tank and fish are quite new, twice in the last 2 weeks the ammonia level has gone up to 0.25, at that point I change the water and it sorts it out. This morning both amm and nitrites are nil. I did a 25% water change yesterday following fish death, and yes the fish was removed asap

I have noticed another of my platys looking really subdued today, I just can't seem to hold onto them? I have 6 mollies in the tank and they are all fine.... but my platys one by one are just fading away?

They came from the same tank in the LFS, wondering if it was a problem in the fish shop? So far I have lost one to a mystery illness the night she came home, another to an illness which caused its tail to fade away, and now one to whirly swimming confused sort of problem. And now another is just hiding in the corner....

grrrrrr

 

[Athena]

I test the water daily since the tank and fish are quite new, twice in the last 2 weeks the ammonia level has gone up to 0.25, at that point I change the water and it sorts it out. This morning both amm and nitrites are nil. I did a 25% water change yesterday following fish death, and yes the fish was removed asap

I have noticed another of my platys looking really subdued today, I just can't seem to hold onto them? I have 6 mollies in the tank and they are all fine.... but my platys one by one are just fading away?

They came from the same tank in the LFS, wondering if it was a problem in the fish shop? So far I have lost one to a mystery illness the night she came home, another to an illness which caused its tail to fade away, and now one to whirly swimming confused sort of problem. And now another is just hiding in the corner....

grrrrrr

Oh, I see, you're doing a fish-in cycle then... ok well that explains why the fish have been getting ill and dying, as this is a common problem. Even small amounts of ammonia will weaken their immune system and cause illness, which is why a lot of fish that are put through fish-in cycles don't always survive for long.

All you can do now is stringent water changes and testing and don't add any more new fish until the tank is cycled.

Most staff at LFS's don't bother explaining the whole thing about properly cycling a tank before adding any fish to it because if you buy 10 fish to start with and lose 4 or 5 of them in the first month or so, they know you'll be back to buy more fish, so more sales for them. Not saying ALL are the same, mind you. Some do have a conscientious approach and try to advise correctly LOL, but not many!

Athena - and sorry Alex for kind of taking over your thread - but it's all related to the same issue of fish whirling LOL

 

[alex.wardle]

Hi Athena, hope all is well.
well unlike pingu this tank is fully cycled so thats not a prob.
All stats are spot on and have not had a death in quite a while now.
i dont feed them live food that often its normally selection of dryed frozen or flake food. once every few weeks they get a treat (like those mozzi larvie)
All fish looked spot on last nigh b4 lights out last night so i cant think what it is. Hope no other fish can get it if its not swim bladder prob.

 

[lilfishie]

i had a platy do this once after speeding into the side of the tank and banging her head something sppoked her then she just started swimming, had to isolate as the other fish went for her, didnt last too long after though

 

[pingu1997]

sorry I didn't say that very well. When I said the tank and fish were quite new, against the advice of the LFS, I didn't just leave the tank a week then put fish in, the tank was second hand and was used up to the point of sale, and we kept the filter media in tank water in transit, and then did the cycling process with ammonia and testing kits for about a month I think before adding just 4 fish.
I am testing water daily because we have been adding a few fish at a time and I am just paranoid about the water stats. So, yes, the tank was cycled, it was returning double zeros after an ammonia and nitrite spike (OK my qualifying week may have been a little short... excited kids) but I didn't put fish into a brand new tank, I just meant that the tank wasn't months or years old.

Sorry!

 

[WILDER]

Poor thing. The fish looks to far gone to save.

Causes of spinning are bad water quality, the fish is dying, internal parasites, brain damage, swim bladder, bacterial, ph shock.

Look out for these signs.

Long stringy white poo, clear mucas poo, red poo.
Worms sticking out of the anus.
Enlarged anus, red inflamed anus.
Fish looking bloated or skinny.
Sunken in belly.
Bent spine.
Fish swimming on it's side.

 

[WILDER]

Sorry. It was another member who has the platys.

 

[alex.wardle]

Poor thing. The fish looks to far gone to save.

Causes of spinning are bad water quality, the fish is dying, internal parasites, brain damage, swim bladder, bacterial, ph shock.

Look out for these signs.

Long stringy white poo, clear mucas poo, red poo.
Worms sticking out of the anus.
Enlarged anus, red inflamed anus.
Fish looking bloated or skinny.
Sunken in belly.
Bent spine.
Fish swimming on it's side.

all stats are spot on just re checked them all. only thing that is rong with him is the spinning. feel so bad for him.

 

[Athena]

Morning, Alex - so how's the gourami today? Still whirling uncontrollably around the tank?

Athena