Gas Bubble Danio!

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fisherino

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Hello,

I have a Longfin Leopard Danio with what looks like a bubble around the swim bladder area.
It appears after he's been feeding. I've tried isolating him at dinner times to feed him seperately from the other fish otherwise he overindulges.

I thought it was swimbladder and have medicated accordingly, but there is no change.
He swims around at varying depths, just this bubble gets to tight looking its like you can see right through him.
He seems well otherwise. Do you think it's dropsy?
 
Hi and welcome to the forum :)

Any chance of a picture and short 30 second video of the fish?
If the pictures are too big for the website, set the camera's resolution to its lowest setting and take some more. The lower resolution will make the images smaller and they should fit on this website. Check the pictures on your pc and find a couple that are clear and show the problem, and post them here. Make sure you turn the camera's resolution back up after you have taken the pics otherwise all your pictures will be small.

If the video is too big for this website, post it on YouTube and copy & paste the link here. We can view it at YouTube. If you are using a mobile phone to take the video, have the phone horizontal so the video takes up the entire screen. If you have the phone vertical, you get video in the middle and black on either side.

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What symptoms are the fish showing?

How long has the tank been set up for?
How long have you had the fish for?

How often do you do water changes and how much do you change?
Do you gravel clean the tank when you do a water change?
Do you dechlorinate the new water before adding it to the tank?

What is the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and GH of the tank water?
What sort of filter do you have?
How often and how do you clean the filter?

Have you added anything new (fish, plants, wood, etc) to the tank in the 2 weeks before this started?
Do you add plant fertilisers, supplements or anything else to the tank?
Are there any other fishes in the tank?

What medication did you use to try and treat the fish?
 
*Any chance of a picture and short 30 second video of the fish?
- I'll try!
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*What symptoms are the fish showing?
- Fish currently looks happy, not distressed. Able to move freely around the tank, not struggling for buoyancy. It has what looks like a hole at it's rear end, it turns out to be a bubble pocket inside the fish.

*How long has the tank been set up for?
*How long have you had the fish for?

The tank belonged to a friend, he had it for a year before giving it to me in February because he was moving away. The Danio was the only fish it came with. It had a fine gravel substrate and all plastic decoration. There was too much decoration to my eye, so after I removed a good portion it gave the Danio (George ) room to swim and he seemed happy.
He didn't give me anything else with the tank except tropical fish flakes. It included a bag of carbon filter, my friend didn't have any more of that.


*How often do you do water changes and how much do you change?
- I change the water approximately every 2 wks. Purchased carbon which I change every 8wks.
The tank is 39L and I change approximately 5L at a time.
As I am medicating the fish at the moment I'm changing the 5L every 4 days to add a dose of swimbladder medicine to the tank (16 day treatment).

*Do you gravel clean the tank when you do a water change?
- Normally, yes. But not at the moment with the medication. I bought a gravel cleaner gadget but I'm not confident with it's efficacy and woukd be grateful for advice.

*Do you dechlorinate the new water before adding it to the tank?
- Yes, I only started doing this last month.
I didn't know I had to do this. My friend told me to sit a bucket of water out for ages to allow the chlorine to dissipate before adding to the tank. I was buying new fish so made sure I had the dechlorinater for this transition.

*What is the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and GH of the tank water?
- I've only tested the water once, didn't realise you could buy a kit. Once fish were settled I took a reading:
pH - 7.6
High Range - 7.4
Ammonia (NH3/NH4) - 0.50
Nitrate - No2 - 0
Nitrate - No3 - 10 or 20

I'll test it again after the last course kf swimbladder medication is complete


* What sort of filter do you have?
- Carbon

* How often and how do you clean the filter?
- Oh! You mean the actual filter? I'm not sure how to describe it but I clean that every 2wks, I rarely have any build up of algae in it.

* Have you added anything new (fish, plants, wood, etc) to the tank in the 2 weeks before this started?

- No, George kept floating to the top of the tank in July, he was trying to swim down but kept rushing back up. I didn't know what was wrong, changed the water etc. I kept an eye on him and lessened thr amount of food I gave him. Over a period of a few days he went back to normal. The whole of him looked inflated during this episode. Since then, he has had a bulge on his left side, I thought at times he was going to burst!
I did the same, changed water and cleaned substrate, he went back to normal for a few weeks. That's when I thought it would be okay to introduce new fish in August.
Unfortunately hours before they arrived, he started developing this bulge again. I was panicked thinking it would spread to the new fish.
The next day was when the bubble started to look like a proper hole. I thought the new fish had attacked him but thankfully it was just a bubble. I'm assuming it was the swimbladder region because when he needed to go to the toilet, you could see a line appear in the bubble which I realised was his poo. I was worried it might have been his guts moving around but knce he passed a poo, the area was clear again.
I started swimbladder medication but I'm not sure if it's working.


* Do you add plant fertilisers, supplements or anything else to the tank?
- Yes but these were added after he became unwell.

*Are there any other fishes in the tank?
- Yes, I've since added 4x Leopard Danios (not longfin variety), 5x pygmy corydoras, 1x bronze corydora
I've had them for over 2 wks and none are affected by this thing that George has.

* What medication did you use to try and treat the fish?
- I only use swimbladder treatment which doesn't seem to be doing anything.

Thanks for your help so far a d your kind welcome!
I have a suspicion that because his swimbladder issue in July went untreated that maybe he has damaged tissue that will always flare up if he's eaten lots.
Fingers crossed something can help him!! I'll try to upload a pic in a separate post in case I lose this text x
 
Here is George, you can perhaps see a pale patch by his lower fin. This is where it became transparent.
It healed up before, regaining colour but reappeared some time later. The transparency I'm putting it down to the expanding bubble stretching his skin.

He seems to alternate between that or having a bulge on that side in particular
 

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The following link is from YouTube and shows how to start and use a gravel cleaner.

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You should change 50-75% of the tank water every week. I recommend 75% because it dilutes nutrients and disease organisms better.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

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Don't use carbon in a filter because it is not necessary. Carbon will remove any medication or plant fertiliser that you put in the tank. Just chuck the carbon out and replace it with a sponge.

The only time you use carbon in an aquarium is if you have heavy metals or poisons in the water. The carbon will remove these.

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There is no medication or cure for swim bladder problems. If the swim bladder develops a problem the fish has to live with it or it dies. Usually they die.

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The picture shows a red area but I can't tell anything due to the image being blurry. If you can take a few more pictures and check them on your computer, then post a couple of images that are in focus and show the problem.
 
Fantastic , thank you so much for the cleaning advice. I've only heard and read that water changes should be 25% at a time.

I don't have the carbon in at present because I'm medicating George. Interesting to know it absorbs fertiliser too.

Im3sure you can appreciate it's tricky photographing fish! They're so quick. I'd forgotten to say his gills looked a bit pink too. I put the reddish tint at the back end due to the bubble transparency making a sore area.

Now, I've just realised I think the bubble is being expelled through the skin. Does this make sense?
I checked on him this morning just after I'd posted the above messages and there was a clear bubble on his side. Thinking on it, I have seen this before on him but assumed it was an air bubble that floated up and caught on him.
The bulge is no longer prominent.

Does it make sense that gas can escape through fish skin?
I went to scoop him up with the net to see if the bubble was super-stretched skin but it floated away sp tells me he's either farted it out or it has effectively leaked through his skin.
 
I came home to find his side had popped open ☹
He's swimming around, not as confidently. It looks like an ulcer, no scales in the area.

I can't do anything else except wait and I medicated the tank with anti fungal treatment (covers fungus, mouthrot and finrot) it's the closest I have available to keep bacteria from the wound.
 
He needs something to treat bacterial and antibiotic. Water needs to be extremely clean.
 
If You live in the States you can order Seachem Kanaplex and API Furan-2 through Amazon.They work best together. Kanaplex is an antibiotic and Furan-2 is an anti-bacterial. Use according to directions. If you have a Prime account you can get it tomorrow or Saturday. Petsmart carries both sometimes.
 
if the fish has a hole in its side from something rupturing, then euthanise the fish because they rarely live much longer with a hole in them.
 
Thanks all for your advice I wouldn't be able to have API Furan-2 dispatched until Monday. The Seachem Kanaplex sounds similar to the medication I gave him last night.

Poor wee soul, I just don't know what would have caused this. ☹

I'll keep him over the weekend to see how he gets on. If he's in obvious distress or worsens I'll euthanise him but I want to give him a chance before I go down that route.

It's frustrating not knowing what's wrong with him, I'd be worried of the young fish getting affected in future.
 
Hello!
Just a wee update on George, after this hole appeared, it did look like an ulcer. The wound was covered in something like a white fuzz, not a fungys but likely dead skin, I'm sure even humans with a constantly submerged wound would have a similar problem.
Anyway, I kept an eye on him and after a day or two the area plumped out again.
Since then, the wound appears to have healed over and scale pattern returned.
The day before yesterday he appeared almost to have a pin prick sized hole but I can't be certain on a creature so small.
He's been feeding well, digesting well and so far so good!!

I'll add another update if he does take a dip in health again in case anybody is experiencing a similar issue. I've not given a second dose of medication, but fully cleaned the tank yesterday so hopefully he'll be as good as gold.

Before changing the water I did a test and it appears that the medication lowered ine if the figures in the right direction. I can't think which off the top of my head. All other fishes are happy too
 

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