Fish That Can't Swim- Journalist

[gemmaboland]

Hi there,

I've seen a few new articles from the past few years about fishes that can't swim. In some cases in has been very serious and in others the owner has built a buoyancy aid for the fish and it has lived for a few more years.

Has anyone else made their fish any kind of aid to help so it can swim to the top of its tank?

I would be interested in covering this for a news story for the national press.

Thanks very much,

Gemma Boland
Caters News Agency
0121 616 11 00

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Sorry this probably won't be the nice story type response that you're after, but it's the truth!

Generally if a fish struggles to swim or can't hold it's bouyancy in the water then it's suffering from swim bladder disease or has some deformity which messes with it's aerodynamics (what's the water equivalent word for this anyone?!) enough to stop it getting around.

If it's swimbladder then it needs medical attention not a buoyancy aid! Sadly once fish get past the point of being able to get around the tank by themselves reasonably well they rarely ever recover from this.

For a deformity in a fish I can sort of see the reasoning behind assisting the fish however the vast majority of fish have no need to be able to reach the top of the tank, there are a few species which have a labyrinth (set of lungs similar to our own.... ish, they breathe at the surface of the water) but most of them absorb oxygen from the water so have no need to be able to reach the surface.

So making some contraption that holds them up at the top of the tank would not be a useful thing to do so I'd be very surprised to see anyone attempting it.

If a fish is unable to swim enough to get around the tank to find food then again it's not gonna last long at all, I'd struggle to see how you'd make some method of underwater propulsion suitable, added to which the fish is hardly going to be able to control it and direct it around to where the food is so that's again not really going to work. What you'd actually do with a fish like this (other than euthanasia) is to target feed it using a syringer to shoot out food right next to where the fish currently is.

So sorry, but I've never heard of this, I think it's probably an urban legend and I'd be very surprised to find anyone doing this.

 

[jimmyringo]

aerodynamics (what's the water equivalent word for this anyone?!)

Hydrodynamics ?? Just a guess.

 

[waterdrop]

Ahhh gee MW, I'm disappointed! I was thinking maybe you had a tank with some tiny neons floating in their tiny white rings that said "Queen Mary" on them and had little strings looping in and out as if it were rope.

Seriously though, its a funny thought that maybe there's some old LFS guy or hobbyist out there who's "seen it all" and remembers someone trying to save their expensive cichlid or saltwater prize fish this way...

...can only say I've never witnessed any floating aids for fish myself.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[rabbut]

Am I the only person suspecting a Troll here? Very good handle IMO...